The System is a Joke, You’d Be Smart To Save Your Soul
I GET OUT- LAURYN HILL UNPLUGGED
I GET OUT- LAURYN HILL UNPLUGGED
RESPECTED underground dubpoet Steppa lashed out at deejay Vybz Kartel, disc jockeys and promoters for frustrating poets into leaving the profession.
Poets don’t get a fraction of radio play of hardcore dancehall nor do they get paid as artistes, he stated at Seh Sup’m, a monthly event geared at exposing talent, held on Sunday at Village Café in Kingston.

Jamaica Poet Mervyn Morris
Biography below
This I remember because I was studying for SAT’s in the canteen of Snaan-drew (St Andrew High School- the best girl school in Kingston if yuh didnt know ::cough cough-Kerri-cough::) and trying to remember the big words by using them myself. I’ve edited it because I still dont know what some mean
At the same time I was listening to Ronny Pyramid ‘Sea Full of Madness’ album as I did every day around dem times. If you dont know Bebble Team, CLICK HERE NOW to find out what happens when substance meets talent to create musicians that are true to their artistry.
The poem is speaking out against us, ourselves, for not going after more and laying our failures and fuck-ups on slavery.
I wrote this for Walter Rodney five years ago. Sundays usually lead me to my old writings and then I find all this poetry that dates my world at the time so much; pree the references to ‘A Raisin in The Sun’ (that was my CXC book!!) and the Reggae Boyz

Roaring River, Jamaica
My parent and all my grown family members I directed here must be cringing to see me speak so explicitly. Oh well….

Right ya now, to God wi a lif up di people of Haiti
Cause tings a get rough and di struggles a get weighty,
Pan di news wi si di pain an’ wi hear dem a cry
So join me as wi lift up Haiti to di most High.
Fada provide fi di people in di days and months to come
Remind them Fada dat there is peace and joy in di Son,
Fada have mercy because none of us deserve to live
But because yuh gracious out a yuh love yuh give.
So Fada, give to Haiti your peace and your blessings now
At a time like dis, to have a heart of stone, devil wi naaw go bow,
Provide fi wi Fada God so wi can pour out to di Haitians
Jesus remind di world that you died to save all nations,
Yuh love all people so nobody nuh get lef out
Wi stan up fi Haiti, wi love for dem, may they never doubt.
Amen.

And just as
Brother Suliman spoke of in
Her preference for a broken neck…
Over a broken heart
I too… am ready to exhale
I too am ready to breathe deeply, sleep soundly
I too am ready for that air…
Fresh and clean to arrive in between right on time and
Not a second too late
Ready to exhale…
To sit back even though I’m amongst the all
Who of which are too enthralled in LIFE to…
To relax although the rest that should accompany it is on hiatus
Making it useless to me and the every bodies who’re too enthralled…
So instead I lift my head and scream internally… fixate my eyes on the prize
Squinting because it’s so far out of reach
Beseech myself to beseech myself to…
Just keep going
And it flows… the urge to simply not
In earnest that voice in my head says to stop
My adversary… Myself…
But I block it out
I block it out
I stiff arm…
And go for the goal
Moments pass where I’m here
And not all at once
Just passing through and through
Imagining the things which were at one point
And that of what I desire to be
And that of what will never come to pass…
Snap out it
I… snap out of it and back to hell
I… snap out of it and back to the real
Back to life… back to reality… back to…
This and that and everything else
Relentless and restlessly tedious
Patience depleted and repeatedly tried
And over and over and over again I’m in this here and now
That I wish never was…
In many ways some over others and others more so than some
Both irrelevant and the converse
Yet still… stuck I am.
Stuck I am still…
Stuck in this here and now
With no promises for tomorrow or confirmations on yesterday
And forced into despair over the present
It’s presence… its lack of presents…
And its overabundance of presence
Pushed to be pigeon-holed into the mold
I AM NOT A CARBON COPY!
NOT A CARBON COPY!
NOT A COPY AT ALL!
I am me.
Simple and plain and wishing and
Hoping and dreaming and scheming and
Plotting and reaping…
Exactly what I sow
Woe is me…
Reaping… exactly… what… I… sow…
And still I over-enunciate myself in this present and
Pull that trigger…
One bullet, two bullets, three bullets…
FOUR… into my foot…
Shots to the heart like cycles of immunizations
Seemingly immune to the realization
That my heart is in my feet
That I’m walking on my feelings
Blinding myself…
Trudging forward
With each step new dirt becoming my mask
Hiding me away in my sole
The silent calls for someone to save my soul…
Going easily unheard…
And no one will come to save me
And no one will come to save me
And no one will come to save me…
From myself
For I am my own worst enemy
Living in lavish refusal to receive the cup
From the bottom end
Simply because I’d have to see it as half full
And shit’s just too real for that fantasy…
Fantastically…
© 2010 T_Thought Productions ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Thanks to fellow blogger EmpressDoms from over at The Wickedest Time for the encouragement in keeping up the ‘Poetic’ section. While it is my intention to keep this as n entertainment and social commentary blog, the ‘poetic’ and ‘politickin’ sections are there for my random personal views to be expressed.
This is a piece I wrote in 2007 when I found my way to a creative muse. It speaks for itself:

© 2010 T_Thought Productions ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I wrote this poem in 2004 during the time that then President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted and possibly kidnapped from. It is a short social commentary on some of the issues that were in the news in the Caribbean, America and the Middle East.

BUSHWHACKED
Bush Should Get Smacked
Cuz Bush is Whack
Terrorizing Iraq
Black Amercans Lack
Aristide* Kidnapped
The Truth Pushed Back
While American Ghetto’s Thrive on Crack
‘They’ Run it But We Cant See The Facts
High Security Prisons Filled To The Max
Majority Inmates Black
Then ‘They’ Wonder Why Black Attack
Bush Play the World Not Like G.I Joe But Like G.I Patterson**
Another one Slack, Son
Kill The Nation With Fat Guns
People Have Nowhere To Run
Nah Stop Sey Di Fire Eva Bun
Fire Blaze Di Bush Hotta Than The Sun
Forest Fire We Dealin Wid When We Done
Cuz Bush is Whack
Bush FI Get Smacked
Bush IS Slack
Bush Goin Get Bushwacked
*Jean Bertrand-Aristide was the former head of government in Haiti.
He was ousted in Feb. 2004.
He left the country with his family and it has been alleged that he was forced by
the American gov. who then put a ‘puppet minister’ to run the gov.
** Percival James Patterson was then Prime Minister of Jamaica
Max Ehrmann
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Mi do understand seh Maas Eddie woulda ha fi a put goat mout pon Bredda Bruce. After Maas Eddie have im in training fi so long, Bruce get tired a wait fi captain di team. Im can’t linger-linger fi Eddie mek im century. So im dis walk off di field. Im mash up di game an a force Maas Eddie fi get run out. Look how di whole JLP side a collapse. Dem naa score no runs.

An Maas Eddie all a call Bruce “tief”. Im seh im “tief” di JLP plan. Dem put i dong careless an Bruce walk off wid i. It sound bad ee? If me was Maas Eddie me wouldna did mek tings get so bad. Mi woulda did call Bruce one side long time an gi im a lickle prips. Hear wa mi woulda did seh:
“Brucie, bwoy, a no yu mi a talk bout when mi gi out seh nobody no deh ya fi tek over, yu know. A dem other one mi a talk bout. But mi no waan dem jealous yu. So mi can’t mek dem know. Just hold yu corner yaa, boss.”
But Seaga couldn’t bring himself to have that conversation of equals with Golding. So the New Democratic Movement was formed and then turned back into the Old Jamaica Labour Party. New wine in old bottles. Or maybe it’s really old wine in old bottles. And the whole nation is now suffering from Edward Seaga’s error of judgment. “Is high time fi tek goat mout offa Bruce.” After all, it’s Christmas.
Carolyn Cooper is professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona. Send feedback to: karokupa@gmail.com

© 2009 T_Thought Productions ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
© 2009 T_Thought Productions ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
performed by Danny Glover
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