Poems

 

Caribbean woman of the Caribbean Sea

 

Mystery, beauty, strength, and versatility

Fluid like the sea

Her essence is ever pervasive

Filled of mystic auras

She is the light you see

Nearing the end of the funnel/tunnel

Trust her and you might live

Love her and your heart is forever hers

Hurt her and you are forever doomed to misery

Warm like the sea, she flows

Softening heart, mind, body and soul

Calming effects

Her magical healing

Remedy for all ailing

Swift and powerful

She is also soft and beautiful

But don't you ever cross her line

Caribbean woman

Mystery, beauty, strength, and versatility

- Tora S.

 

 

September 7

 

Yes, is wi National Heroine birthday

What a week

A celebration Honourable Louise Jacqueline Bennett Coverly

What a lyricist!

It was a real 'call me bredda fi mi' scenario

Is she understand the Jamaican context

Immediate compensation and worker's rights demanded

"Walk quiet with a big stick"

She well right is ME fi teach dem 'bout big school

Me deh deh from mi eye deh ah me knee

Dat was my playing ground

Anatomy, botany right down de whole registry

Not to mention "mi taxi fare if hinda me fram late"

Is so international competition go

But me is by far de most beautiful

Miss World

Is so come mi just love Papa Rex who write bout Louise

He was a man who understood that Jamaica parlance

But before me battle fi space me will go outta space

Truly life is a game of snakes and ladders

So walk wid yuh own ladder and a couple of snakes

- Helen-Ann Elizabeth Wilkinson

 

 

9/11

 

Blue skies of freedom over Manhattan

2 rumbling sky-birds pushing the void,

and liberty snapped -

splinters of friendship hope and unity twisting in smoke -

And memories are silent walls along the years -

Room freedom fading with room for reason -

New York New York,

measuring liberty on national scales between deep wails

Time that has loosened rigid rules and limits

erects frail fares with the passing of the years, and memories are silent Sentinels

that watered prejudice with tears.

- Homer Sylvester

 

Free Jamaica

 

Jamaica are you shouting that you're free?

Or you're crying to be freed?

I just 'wanna know'.

Out of many we are one, yet we're so divided,

how can we say that we've won?

Free Jamaica

We're able to walk about freely,

yet still we're struggling financially.

Gripped by the claws of unemployment,

we're suffocating silently.

Free Jamaica

We now have the right to vote,

but who are we voting for?

The promise breakers,

the ones who proclaimed a mysterious love for the poor?

What are we voting for?

Free Jamaica

Where rice eaters can come in,

set up their shops and start sell-in,

yet our own fuss about locking down turfs - they won't stop fighting.

We all can win this race,

working together sharing the same space.

Free Jamaica

The land of wood and 'wata',

were Jamaicans are not satisfied with just enough,

we're always up for braata.

We aim to be like God, but some do it the wrong way,

We still applaud the ones who do things right more than they say.

Free Jamaica

Why can't we do what Paul did?

Fight for the people and not ourselves - let's start a new bid.

Living selfishly,

why can't we do it like Marcus, Alex, Sam, George or Nanny?

Let's fight for our children, who are taken away secretly

to be molested and beaten.

Free Jamaica our glorious island,

it's a pity we are free to do, but we're not free from.

- Daron Chosen Smith

 

Kerlyn Brown

 

Kerlyn is another

Florence Nightingale

Not running with a lighted lamp

But walking with a microphone

Like mother to a lot of children

She helps them with their needs

She has a Heart Of Love

A heart of sympathy

A heart of care

We see it

We feel it

We witnessed it

She climbed hills to reach

destinations

She goes through lanes

She goes through slippery pathways

There is only rivers left

For her to go across

To help children in need

She is strong

She is brave

She is courageous

And love is the cause for all of this

I will not wait until she die

To say how good Kerlyn has been

Kerlyn you will be blessed

- V.O. Ricketts

 

Exercise

 

Exercise to lose weight

Exercise to keep fit

Exercise for good health

It's better than great wealth

Do some walking

Less of the driving

Take the stairs

Leave the elevator for later

Remember, running late

Doesn't count as exercise

I must emphasize

It's so important to exercise

- Sandies Thomas