Tribute to Dominic James
Heaven gates opened wide
When you made your way on the pitch one final time
Leading by example you were a true role model
Years of brilliant football skills to come
We have no doubt that you would have been one of the best to come from Jamdung
Not long after the whistle blew your life stopped too
You were so young but so talented through and through
A brilliant mind and a brilliant football style
We have no words for those who knew you best
But we do know you loved football even as you took your last breath
From Jamaica College to St Georges College we salute you
In life you captured the hearts of the football fraternity
In death you captured the hearts of the entire Jamaican fraternity
You weren't here long but your memories will forever live on
As your team moves forward your footprints and words of encouragement they will never forget
They knew you best!
The late hours and sacrifices you did what you had to do
Your final words were probably
FOOTBALL I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
Saccheen Laing
Another star has fallen
Young, brilliant, talented and a promising human being.
Proudly aspiring towards his dreams,
leading his team as a noble captain on to the field
with goals in mind, doing what he loves and does best.
Even to the last day he was seen on a football field.
I often wonder and ponder how death can be so mean.
Bringing a halt to splendid moments and disfiguring a wonderful scene, It is painful how what we do doesn't matter or count when death arrives on the scene, but happy moments will be visualised in our minds, and how skilfully he played on that field, those will live on as treasured moments blocking the horrid picture of death scarring the scene. Cherished memories are always soothing when death tugs at our hearts with the disheartening way it makes us feel.
He was doing what he loves best, which was apart of his dream proudly playing his game and being a captain of his team. to friends and family, happy memories of Dominic will always live on, a great captain, a star among stars of the Georges football team.
May his soul rest in perfect peace.
Crishna Clarke
GONE TOO SOON?
Hearts are weeping more than tears that cloud the eyes.
Treasured memories of a dear one
Float around the grieving sun
Now hidden in the skies.
One inspired mouth declares that he's
Gone too soon
Chiding God, perhaps, for taking one so young
From school.
The 'Good Book' says
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."
We kick
Catch balls
And score some goals
Then our game halts for the day.
While we console each other
And in tribute to his name
We must move upon the field of life
With the will
To boost our game!
May he who lived as Dominic, which means
"Of our Lord"
Rest in peace
At least
Until
His name is called.
Erica Brown Marriott
Truth
They say you know truth by a feeling.
They say you know truth without thinking.
Still others say you know truth without reasoning.
The truth can be misleading, an act of deception,
For whose truth do you trust?
Whose truth do you accept?
How do you know that truth is true?
Curtis Edwards
A child
I need no time to worry
Of what I may
My days need not to hurry
Though time is not to stay
I know my future is coming
And my past is going away
But this moment is given a gift
That I must use today
So I will run through this sweet youth valley
In an open yard I'll play
For as it is written in a story
A child shall lead the way
Kemel Henry
***
Sweet Jamaica!
Sweet Jamaica!
Oh wondrous isle!
Your silhouettes of hills
and ocean lullabies
From hedges of bougainvillea
To hibiscus delight
Stretches your splendour
over grandeurs might
Often have I held your golden days
Under your kaleidoscope,
an infinity of rays
And rejoice in your regal, rustic rocks
Over piers and harbours where countries dock
Silky winds may glide
upon an ocean's scent
Over sugar blades and sober hills
where hues of dawn relent
And how oft have I gasped
at a flurry of skies
at medleys of bananas and coconut pride
Sweet Jamaica
Oh Caribbean eye
We salute your cities
and countrysides
The highways and byways
every corner and turn
Your glistening white beaches
and galleries of fern
From yam hills of Trelawny
to melons of St. Bess
churches and gardens on spectral soils rest
From Rio Grande raft to Dunn's River Fall
Holland Bamboo breeze to Great Rose Hall
Away from the verdor of Portland's dew
Lay western cottages kissed with blue
Sweet Jamaica
such gallantry of lands
Of misty Blue Mountains
and pristine sands
Every rooster in morning's glee
Every river that rushes to sea
Every veranda, backyards, lawns
Every avenue, scheme and farm
From grass roots to fields and the smile on your face
breadfruit aroma and scotch bonnet taste
From bridges and valleys of kim pupa lick
Every turn of lime in a 'lemonades' mix
Exotic Jamaica!
How do we forget
Your frills of savour
That piques our breath
Ackee and salt fish, fritters, run dung,
Fried dumpling, jerk chicken, patty and bun
We salute you, Jamaica!
From zinc roofs and mango walks
hoisted houses and sorrel stalks
From every machete held in hand
And women by rivers with soaps and pans
We salute you Jamaica
Over your mountains of moistened green
All of your villages, offices and streams
Around Junction Road and down Spur Tree Hill
Crocheted corn rows, your trucks and mills
From a panoply of uniforms and an executive's tie,
splashes of youth where tapestries lie
As flowers and hearts bow homage and pride
Jamaica flaunts a flurry that beckons inside.....
- Orette C. Burke
***
Simply Because I Can
Stretched piano string taut
Wound up watch spring tight
yesterday, tomorrow, tonight
Self-mastery, the ideal sought
Caught in reveries ought not to be shared
Wings grow from these roots
of wind tested evergreens
Twing twang
Do, Re, Mi
For so long ...
...then longer, yet
Tick, tock locked into
grooves of
Jazz, Reggae, Calypso, Zouk
and more riding
upon waves' crests
moonbeam rhythms even tone deaf
while chiming bamboo winds
of mahogany glossed stillness
into weeping willow laughter
Left to own devices
vices trend
Virtues self-righteously
scoff at quests to grow,
ability to change, evolve
These controlled tear ducts seal
Medicine time
Laughing out loud from eyes
seeing beyond sight's impaired
intuition looks into the multidimensional
lines of blurred one dimension
of virtual make believe in
modernity's amnesia
Dissolved in Caribbean sweetness
washed upon salty shores
absolved by time's
ever patient trek to
ability's talented honing
these pens obey
I will this mind...
Go beyond writer's bloc
Simply because I can ...
-Osakwe