Poems

Jamaican Tapestry

Savouring Blue Mountain coffee while perusing my journal

brings back scenes and images woven in words like a tapestry.

Climbing to Saint Ann’s parish, rust-red bauxite and textured

rocks are nature’s painting gracing the highway.

A local road leads to Fern Gully, where ferns sway in a chorus

line lifted by sea breezes.

Now, I see myself walking along a rock-strewn path

trimmed by greenery.

This trail leads to Holywell Falls, a scuttering cascade

hidden below the path.

Behind the streaming water, a rainbow on a granite canvas

teased me with its fleeting presence.

My journal takes me to the sea of paradise.

Shades of turquoise delighted me, evoking the spirituality of Robert

Ryman’s shades of white.

Inhaling the sea’s essence, feeling it in my pores,

remembering my dance before it with wind whipping

my hair ─ transports me.

Bathed by the images in my Jamaican tapestry,

I am humbled by nature’s artistry and blessed

by the mystical isle of water.

– Carol Chapman

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Baby Talk

‘Sanchez’ and ‘Jermaine Jackson’

Sang a sweet, sweet lullabye

That simply made me go wild

When I was a little child

While they sang –

‘Lonely won’t leave me alone’

I messed it up

And added purple

Then freely started making words

Like “Mom I want to blurble”

It was during these inventions

I was actually in a zone

And when the music started

Sang “Olibo won’t leave me alone”

Mom said, “It’s lonely won’t leave

Me alone, sweet baby”

But I was just out of the cradle

And sang “Olibo” in ‘Baby Talk’

For all that I was able

“Olibo won’t leave me alone”

Is much more neat to say

And having outgrown

Childhood pyjamas

Sing it even till today.

– Lisa Gaye Taylor