POETRY - New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions

How often do we make them?

Yearly, I suppose.

How many have we kept?

Possibly,

Just the ones we superimpose.

How many times have we said: "Old habits I will lose?"

Yet, without thinking ahead

With each New Year

The same resolutions we recruit

New friends we promised ourselves to seek

Yet the old ones, with bad influence, are set on repeat

Passions fade; new self-respect we declare

New promises made, at least to those we hold dear

New goals we try hard to attain

Sometimes, even our best efforts wane

And we fail to obtain

Resolutions ...

A myth, fashion or facade

But we continue to make them every year

How many times have we promised to have our character refined?

Be nicer, gentler and kinder to mankind

Often we say these things but not with a sound mind

Mostly under the influence of the party vibes and fine wine

Usually, on New Year's Eve night.

But come January morn

'Tis the start of a new dawn

Just put your plans in action

Words can be declared upon reflection

Harden to the world around you

Keep it real and to thy self, be true

Take and give in equal dole

Resolutions, kept or not and even those untold

Remember you answer, to you alone

- Charmaine Wallace

Sacrifices

They leave their mark engraved deeply on the walls of time

Never to be forgotten, a lasting legacy, and a treasured memory.

With the seeds of courage, strength, long-suffering and unfailing

Ever-abiding hope. Watered by their blood, our lives are shaped by

Their sacrifices, our courage by their bravery.

They have paved a path that we might follow with strict obedience

To the principles they embodied - unwavering determination, the

Willingness to stand and fight against the odds, the greatness of a people, a legacy no other can attain.

They are the patron saints, the just redeemers, the heroes

That knew no ends. For this we salute their lives

And lay the roses of our thanks across their graves.

May they rest in peace

- Jahan Myrie

In

You should be locked into me.

With no thought

or

hope of detachability ...

... Much like Margaret's fish hook.

- Candace McGibbon

My Body Parts

I have many body parts you see;

Which are very important to me.

My eyes and mouth help me to see and talk;

My knees bend and my feet walk.

My nose helps me to smell very well,

With the help of a pair of round nostrils.

Without my ear it would be impossible to hear;

And without the fingers, I would not be able to tear.

The most important body part is my wonderful brain

Which controls my entire body.

Thank you, God, for such a wonderful design

Since all my body parts are working fine.

- Keturah Christmas (age 7)

Death

Death is a thing that kills

It is a thing that is ill-fated

It regards no life in you and me nor itself in itself

Progress report is me

Into it I am; studying I am studying

Death reminds me of wisdom in me

and it and that is it in me all the way in me and you is

Death

- Charlene Medwinter

Between these walls

Between these walls,

love divided by loyalty equals hurt - here spirit rises stretched, hassled and stressed, here promises flash and snap

These walls record years, pains printed by political games,

here memories are shot of youths vs the cops,

where the media scores with stress

choking the poor - for these walls erect words

where voices whisper danger

graffiti cries amid these walls - faces, names and numb alarms

Here pain tosses vain with no ears to hear tears,

squeezing splinters as grief erupts on silence.

Between these walls grief meets,

sidestepping sounds,

sidestepping harm,

here walls raise voices of blood, of mothers' love,

of children stolen and justice frozen

here on these walls spring names, where freedom's finding exit

in tangled tears in mirrors, revolving mirrors -

A brotherhood slashed by orange and green -

A bartering of the self,

between these walls.

- Homer Sylvester

My Love Cocoon

Love flows from my love cocoon.

It overflows from me to you.

Like a cup that is full and overflowing.

My love is overflowing.

Like water rushing down the mountains and into the oceans,

My love cocoon overflows.

My body is full,

Filled with the juices of love:

Strawberry, cherry, pineapple and grape.

My heart oozes out red liquid,

Sweet and succulent.

Love flows from my love cocoon,

Soon it turns into a lovely butterfly.

Radiant and bright,

Soaring like an eagle that has taken flight.

Visualise my love cocoon.

Unleashing a love that is rich and pure.

Like a body that is filled with liquid and ready to burst open.

It releases through my eyes, my ears, my nose, my mouth

And sends signals to my toes and fingertips.

My love cocoon is mature and ready.

Ready to open up.

Exposing its innermost parts,

Expressing the beauty that is within.

Experience the energy and dance to the rhythm of my love cocoon.

- Erika Heslop Martin