Thu | Jun 4, 2026

Poetry 2

Published:Sunday | February 5, 2012 | 12:00 AM

Mixed feelings

Up yesterday, feeling love all around

Strong enough to forge ahead

Instead of laying down and playing dead

Here today, with cries inside yearning to be free

And wondering what tomorrow might bring

I am screaming out loud, yet there's no sound

I am retarded, yet wise

A saint, yet villain

I am a soulless illusion, a heartless creature

And letting people down seems to be my forte

Stuck in an abyss, misery and isolation

Still no one hears my cry

All they see is the façade I try

They don't see what's under this mask, since I wear it so well

No one would ever guess that I'm a total mess

Don't try to read or understand me

You can't know me if I don't know myself

I am in an internal prison

And now I'm yearning to be free from captivity

So I am fighting for me.

- Ann-Marie N. Garth

__________________________________

Completely sprung

Sometimes I think that if my thoughts were tangible

Like the blood flowing through my veins

The ones about you

Would be more than enough to overflow

Changing the biological pattern of my DNA

Allowing that most integral part of me

To become more than just a mixture of my forefathers

To the creation of a blood stream

that would eternally link me to you

Then I look down at my feminine hands

And trace the lines and veins

that never struck me as important

Before my thoughts

Drifted to how important they became as I reminisced

On how we walked side by side as the stars lit up the night sky

Your hand in mine

For all the world to see

Nothing but love flowing from you to me

How complete are we

That it's only been what?

Less than a week

But the synching of our heart beats

to the rhythm of words I speak

Leaves me wondering

Where have you been this whole time

When I felt so incomplete?

- Toni-Ann Lindo

_____________________________

The appearance of thanks

My wish is your wish, my heart is your heart, my soul was created for your soul

That's why we've ended up being soulmates

My eyes behold only you and you only

My smile couldn't be brighter when I see how happy you are

When you smile that remarkable smile it seems as if the whole world stops

Just to stare at that bright radiant smile!

I thank the almighty father for you every day because I know you like a dream come!

I am overwhelmed just to have

you representing in my life as my

girl and sometimes I just feel like

you're the one, the right one for me. Firefly, you're my faith and my destiny

My life has been brilliant ever since you completed my puzzle
You're amazing, you're beyond beautiful with an astonishing smile
What more could I want when you have already given me everything I need,
which is being with you!

- Chevaughn Carter

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Silent screams of pain

The words formulate in my head

My parched lips open to utter them

In hopes that you will understand the meanings behind them

But as usual nothing comes out that makes sense to you

No matter how perfect they sound in my head

How right they feel when I say them

You still find a way to twist them

To put me forever in the wrong

And you forever in the right

Or maybe it's because my feelings for you

Are so pure and true

If you only knew how much you meant to me

You'd know I hate saying things that will hurt you

But you sharpen my daggers' edges

And turn them from me to you

Sending them in my direction

With more force and concentration

Slashing my heart

Not fearing the consequences

The words formulated in my head

are ones that will never truly be heard

As in this unrequited love where all is unfair

My heart is something that you will never hold dear.

- Toni-Ann Lindo

_________________________________

Does love hate me?

No one should know disappointment so intimately

But this soul drifts into restlessness with it as its mate

The heart's deepest desires never manifested

The darkness looms unwavering at its gate

Forever thwarting efforts

spreading poison on fertile ground

The body becomes overwhelmed with despair

The heart aches underneath the firm grip of life

Life that gives no joy, teases with

hope, then at the final hour disappears like smoke

You reach out grasping at air as the

wind ruffles your garment with

that all too familiar laughter, mocking your efforts

You search for an escape that eludes you

For in his arms is deception, raw and stifling

No longer can you decipher

thoughts which have become so

intertwined, cobwebs in your brain

You struggle to remain sane, yet

disintegration seems almost inevitable

Almost.

- Jodi-Ann N. Dixon

_____________________________

The power of poetry

Poetry is simply the most beautiful

Impressive, creative and sophisticated

Way of expressing one's thoughts

Anyone who comes in contact with poetry

Their life will never be the same

Every single word strung together in a poem

Touches the heart

Nourishes the bones

Vitalises the blood and

Produces the best music for the soul

It is the best symphony conductor

That brings the perfect rhythm of reality

Poetry slows me down

Makes me think

Above all, it satisfies me entirely.

- Shernette Shaw

__________________________

Hidden truth

My soul bleeds

I need to be free

Anxious days

Sleepless nights

Waves of endless anger

gripped and kept hold of me

I walked a thousand miles

poisoned my mind

with futile fantasies

to run away

and hide

in another flesh

and become a part of life

My image isn't my heart

The black colour of my skin

is no predicament for what is within

Among the living

I am a walking dead

detached from the earth

I was once a rare beauty

Now

I am a disfigured creature instead

Mournful steps to my grave

A rugged heart

filled with agony and pain

My skin coated with scars

Battered

by the hands of my pale one

no longer a husband

but my red demon

with a face stained with bitterness

He pummelled me

with his bare fist

I married a tameless beast

I

a flightless bird

in the devil's nest

trapped in a bloody wilderness

13 years of fighting

Where is my freedom?

- Makeda Bawn

___________________________


The foreign trap

I don't need to leave Jamaica to have 'X amount of grand'

When I can stay in Jamaica and work out a plan

I know how to flex and how to programme

I must build a huge house on five acres of land

Why have a lot of people left

Jamaica and left their right hand?

Leaving good good Jamaica and go turn snowmen

God bless what they send back through Western Union

Fall for the silly myth that the streets are paved with gold

Good luck, hope you find riches before you grow old.

- Karam T-Narg

________________________________


Two-faced pleasure

The pelting rain has come

I will make foolish my stale kiss

You made your lips sorrow my

Flame of passion

I will make the valley of snakes and thorns

My lasting treasure

Why did you lie?

Why did you set ablaze my love?

It still breathes; my love stands

And kicks at the memory of your touch

You could have told me you stole his sheets

You could have told me you

brand me a toy and a bed of pleasure.

- David Knight