Poetry 1

POEM OF THE WEEK

Ring of roses

Ring a ring o' roses

A pocket full o' posies

Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down

Like rattle in hand, your hand I held

You wrung my right hand

Atishoo, atishoo, I fell

I still skipped along

Whilst you sweetly echoed your song

Now the tale you live and sing to tell

Your ring game of folly

Nursed my wounds to bleed

Damn you nursery rhyme!

Do dear damsel depart

Lest I wreathe thee with wreaths and do time

For I skipped like a baby

Like a playful child

Like a mad man!

Good grief!

You stripped me of my goodness

For the sake of brevity, the rest I tell in brief

Wring a ring o' roses

'Tis the tune I now softly sing

Squeezing till the nectar cries

'Tis the thorns to which I now cling.

- Alain N'Dalla

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Maybe

Maybe that's really his heart on his sleeves

Maybe to win her all over again, he leaves

Maybe they traded his affection for her etiquette

Maybe she's the burglar who broke into his chest

Maybe he sees fresh channels on her cheeks where river reigned

Maybe her tyrant lips cause losses to be her only gains

Maybe his hugs from behind

weren't enough to bandage their relationship's scars

Maybe her heart was across the

Atlantic and his was 62 miles away

Maybe she cries alone on a bed that lost its comfort

And maybe the other comforts he had couldn't add to her worth

Maybe in another life his Jesus

kisses will resurrect her smile's death

Or maybe they'll shoot poisoned

words at each other and win the devil his bet

Maybe their unity was hexed by a wizard's fate

Maybe with extravagant pockets he

spent his love on the wrong side of her gate

Maybe she saves hers, but to only spend on women and dogs

Maybe he'll never be her dog

Maybe their revenge killed even

their shadows so now they walk alone

Maybe they tried for love in a house that mimics a home

Maybe his finger scorns the digits of her telephone

'Cause maybe he found another house posing as a home

Maybe the mirrors say they're older, but lies

Maybe they're new, neophytes

Maybe she only loved his hardened part

Maybe he only loved the two mountains that guard her heart

Maybe her smiles too often swooned into glare

Maybe he won't trust to love

'cause his heart didn't come with a spare

Maybe they'll first meet for the second time

Maybe they're on a break that won't mend, on a goodbye.

- Gavin Troupe

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Tears

Hurt, deceived, heartbroken

That's what they are

Faster and faster

Hotter and hotter

Each one I shed

Has more meaning than the other

With them

All the pain that I feel inside

Comes pouring out

They tell secrets no one knows

Or understands

The little tattle tails!

First they crawl out like snails

Then they come rushing over the rails!

Every time you see them

You'll know I'm hurting

You'll know I've got secrets to tell.

- Kadian Allen

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Forever love

Suppose

You could live forever

Just suppose

You had only one wish

Would you wish for us?

Wish for me

To share in that lifetime

Would you make me?

Your forever love

Suppose

We were immortal beings

Would you make love?

To me

Just suppose

We were angels

Would you fly with me?

Around moon

And stars

Sleep in the galaxy

Roam the forest

Like birds and beast

Suppose

Just suppose

I was a nobody

Would you make me?

Your forever love.

- Christena Williams

Via Portmore

Quarter to six

The lone carrier

Zooms down the road

Packed

Sea air stings

On one leg

Shift to the other

Parfum-de-Jamaica

Sweet-smelling lunch

Schoolers

Sweet-smelling lunch

Nothing worries that bunch

Bumpity, bumpity, bump

As wheels dance over holes

The shadows fade

The morning was heaven to this

Barrel-shaped women

Oversized men

Tiny tots and in-betweens

Vie for non-existing space

Stale sweat, wretched faces

The slave ship

Our destiny?

- Atilda Duncan

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My heroes

They fought to bring us freedom

They gave their lives to set us free

Six men! One woman!

Marcus Garvey - St Ann

Samuel Sharpe - St James

Paul Bogle and George Gordon - St Thomas

Norman Manley - Manchester

Alexander Bustamante - Hanover

Nanny of the Maroons - Jamaica or Africa

I don't know, do you?

- Vivette Waugh

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Pray

When you pray it should be done in seclusion

Free from stares, inhibitions and intrusions

Free from doubts about your clarity and fluency

Free from thoughts of trying to put words together eloquently

Someone told me it should be from the heart

That God is not necessarily

impressed by words sounding smart

A lot of people are committing suicide

They are afraid of living so they take their own lives

I wonder if they called out asking to be free of their pain

I wonder what could be so

unbearable that their hearts would be maimed

I wonder, God, if they tried to pray,

Was it pride that prevented them or were they so ashamed?

And I know you were there waiting

Angels on hand ready, hoping that they would stop deliberating

But alas, a trigger pulled, a rope is taunt and another grave digging

Headlines of increased stress on a nation in crisis

Men acting tough but within they are dying

While the women talk and are surviving

So when things get unbearable as they sometimes do

I pray and believe then pass the burden onto you.

- Jomo Mckoy

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Unexpected visit

Knock! Knock! Who is it?

An unexpected visit

Please, do you have the time to

spare kindness for a poor old wandering soul?

See my days have been long and my nights windy and cold

My purpose here is not for silver or gold, but time

Oh, how I wish I had much more,

but such is time that only pays me

with old age and dust and dying is a must

But before I go, there is a story I

must share with you from my life

See, once a happy man was I, who

loved his son and wife but gave them up because of pride

Now stuck with the pain and

shame, and the shame of a mistake I wish to change

But what is lived cannot be unlived.

- Owen Mendez

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Frustrated poet

Pen in hand

New leaf turned

She stares out the window

Ready to write

Ready to express her feelings

Her thoughts

Her mind's desires

Trying to organise her thoughts

She is lost about where to start

Places the pen on the bed beside her

Frustrated

She falls to the floor

'Lord, please don't take this talent from me'

Unable to begin another work of art

She curls in to bed, tears in her eyes

'I'm just another frustrated poet.'

- Racquel Robertson

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Under water

Sometimes I feel like I'm under water

Because I have no laughter

With a permanent frown

I feel like I'm going to drown

My vision is blurry

I want to escape in a hurry

I'm suffocating,

This is so frustrating

Now I'm at the bottom of the ocean

All I have now is my devotion

It is my determination

This will cancel my elimination

I must make it

And no one can take it

It's my life to lead

I'm destined to achieve.

- Kerione Bryan

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Magnificent nature

The clouds gave birth to a plant

and the trees sustain us

We can't see it, but we can feel it

The birds cut the air

They are in paradise in the heavens

We can see it, we can't really touch it

But we can feel it, fire is dangerous but beautiful

It goes up, it comes down and it replenishes us

Water is life

We learn to love from a young age

Until it's a part of us

God is love

and he's the creator of all things.

- Kerione Bryan

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I look at her

I look at her

and I am in the garden of Eden

sounds of Beethoven

oasis of heaven

her visual diamond

a teller of stories

films of Nikon

gracious lines her delicate curves

orchid smiles

jazz my nerves

moment preserved

I look at her

only conceive

no intelligence received

but yet

in faith I truly believe.

- Kemel Henry