Poems

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