Honour to the Windrush Generation - Poem for Emancipation 2019
Published:Sunday | July 28, 2019 | 12:19 AM
First Responders to the call to rebuild
England, bomb blasted, needing restoration.
Ambitious, courageous bands of pilgrims
who acquired the seventy five pounds fare
and sailed in tailored outfits with brown grips
to be met with: “Why leave sunshine for here?”
Still they spun straw into mortar and brick,
washed corpses, midwifed, nursed the sick, drove two tier
buses, toiled underground and jobbed in dark mills.
They made Lovers Rock & Cool Britannia hot;
these remitters of sterling to blood kin,
gave of their best to God, country and Queen.
May Respect Due, gratitude, high praise songs,
be accorded this heroic Generation.
Lorna Goodison
Poet Laureate of Jamaica