Our Winners L to R :
Nicholas Sosa, Ariana Rodrigues, Sookdeo Manansingh, Dasia Edwards, Kasi Senghor.
POET OF DISTINCTION - NICHOLAS SOSA
DANCE DE COCOA
Hop-drop and skip into infinity
Pleasing spirits of yesteryear
Enchanting light-hearted souls
Beans drying under the sun
That forefathers slaved, while chanting the spirituals of deliverance.
“…Coming forth to carry me home.”
My saviour or bullet, if I’m lucky.
Praying that massa free me
Praying that I see the shores of freedom once more.
Oh God, Creator, Lord!
“Swing low sweet chariot…”
Given to me words I do not understand
With apparel bonding me-as chains do
Concealing my blackness-my beauty
Best they be to conceal the ferocious inscription upon my back
Breaking only my flesh but feeding my spirit.
Dance de cocoa
To the rhythm of your heart
Whilst massaging, your sole on the seeds of ripened fruit.
As eager eyes skip alongside
Anticipating their, own journey of reflective thinking.
Joined by spirits of ancestral nature
Reminding you of who you ought-to-be
Reminding you of your heritage
Festivity only serves as celebration
Promoting a slowly reviving culture
Slowly mending broken trails
“I’m going to lay my burden, down by the riverside…”
I shall kneel in silence and pray
As the ancient did in their day
For a sign, for a calling
For the deliverance I know only my God can grant me
With the strength to face tomorrow’s rising sun
Copyright 2008 by Nicholas Sosa
POET OF MERIT - ARIANA RODRIGUES
WANT
I ponder the secrets of the universe,
Hang up philosophy and logic,
Examine them closely
With eyes like razors
And find them wanting.
The heart has its reasons,
Sad though they may be.
Logic plays no part
In deciphering love’s riddles
And questions of the heart.
Alone with my pen
And a cup of tea,
I weave my way through the tapestry,
Infinitely complex,
A part of you hanging on my wall.
I do not know you.
I hang my gods from trees.
You worship a thousand different names
And faces,
More of the same.
I want so much to see you
From the inside,
The personality I love,
The soft voice that makes me tremble,
Your smile.
I want to know about each scar
And where it came from,
Who caused it,
And why it left such a mark on you,
My friend.
Yet I want to be more
Than just your friend.
I want to know your secrets
And the part of your soul
That never sees daylight.
And in my dreams,
When I am in your arms,
I can ponder the possibility
Of finishing the unfinished sentences,
Declarations of my passion.
Should I speak?
Or only be silent?
One cannot always have tact,
Cannot always
Give way to reason.
I press my lips to your life,
Inhale the colours of your world,
And take the step...
And think, after all,
There is no God.
There is only what we want.
Copyright 2008 by Ariana Rodrigues
3RD PLACE WINNER - SOOKDEO MANANSINGH
VAGRANCY - FOR NOT WANTING TO LEARN
From the rotten language of indiscipline minds in mockery
of the GodsI look and listen to the vagrants as they dance and cry,
like a flock of sheep lost among wolves knowing not
when they will die;
without any hope or any purpose to live
each day to them is just the same,
half-naked on the wayside they assemble themselves
neglectful even to add value in name.
Pretensive in their efforts to show love unto others seem to them
as a fault in the heart,
to think without reasoning and to act as wild animals
before an audience they fit perfectly in playing each part,
Having lost their character and stained with the poison of their deeds
only time is left to determine their fate,
What a pity I feel for them but in their helplessness to understand
and to bring change I ask is it too late?
Like a cloud the opportunities of life goes pass by
and will never return,
how unfortunate are those who are left behind
in their failure for not wanting to learn.
To heal the pain from ill-gotten wealth is as equal as
the pain from the vagrants whom I meet,
Whether the law of creation condemns them or not I am only a spectator
of humility and for their passion I weep.
As they stretch out their arms in wantonly my words of blessings I can give,
To remove the veil of ignorance only by themselves can be fulfilled
so in grace I pray that they may live.
"Curse is the mind which has fallen prey
to the arrow of greed,
Salutation to the successor of knowledge who will not find
it a burden to comfort his need" .
Copyright 2008 by Sookdeo Manansingh
4TH PLACE WINNER - DASIA EDWARDS
THE WILL
A tribute to what we gained and lost
The authority of courage
The power of will
Pure will
Naked will
Precise will
It reigns still…….It reigns still
Above the crucifixion
The brutality
The passage
Oh God! The passage
The struggle
The red of blood
The filth turn mud
The stifling stench
The fury of pain
The moans and cries of the naked
It’s the dark ones
Dressed up in misery
Dancing in the darkness of deceit
Deranged by the damned desires of the light ones
Crossing the unknown
From one shore to another
Reaching a new land with new sand
sowing the roots to be grown
Roots that defies the wave
The commanding wave
The forceful wave
That surge and collides with the roots
Trying to quench its thirst to connect the past and the present
Tying a bond from generation to generation
A culture to last from civilization to civilization
The will
Strong will
Supreme Will
It reigns still…….it reigns still
They felt it
I feel it
You feel it
We all bare markings of the will
By the way we love
We love and love hard
We love pure
An emotion our hearts guard
Defying the impression of hate
Presenting passion to our lovers
An acute sensation pouring out to others
We all loved like this
As if the sun had given our smile a big kiss
Then this same love this same sun burned us
Breaking the skin scorching our hearts
The pealing parallels of pain and pleasure
Soon became a reeling reality we all experience
Realizing the truth of the notion
The one you love the most
Has the power to hurt you the worst
We press on
We carry on
We grow…… we mature
and we love again
The supremacy of will
The strength of will
The solace of will
It reigns still…… it reigns
The spirit of the will propels us
Weaved within us
Like the defining pigment of our skin
That makes our struggles the same
For it we find courage in ourselves
Comfort in our souls
We see the future in the eyes of our children
The sting of destiny
opened infinite possibilities
Giving birth to
the resistance, the rebellion , the rebirth.
For the will we know the pen and paper
We own our destiny like the birds own the air
Love courage and wisdom surrounds our souls
Like a secret invader shooting at our hearts
Removing our mask of invisibility
Powerful will
Humbling will
Compassionate will
It reigns still………..it reigns still
Copyright 2008 by Dasia Edwards
5TH PLACE WINNER - KASI SENGHOR
SMALL MAN FADDER
O frig
Small-man geh big
He ent plant no fig
He ent wuk on rig
He toting uzi an mig
Bang
Small-man leading gang
Shotta
Small-man now is fadder
Cussing people mudder
Killing out he bredda
The country bawling murder
Hail
Small-man out on bail
But wait
It might not be too late
For smally to re-dedicate
Live love not hate
Good vibes create
Wow
Small-man geh kill jus now…
O fadder fadder
Why yuh not bawling
murder murder
Yuh forget yuh controlling
Thunder thunder
Ah not hearing yuh screaming
Thief thief
Hiding an denying
In grief grief
But yuh not even grieving
For relief relief
Like yuh only dealing
In leaf leaf
Is mother whe wailing
Mih son mih son
Dem boy dem shooting
Wid gun wid gun
An fadder jus cool
Nah rule Jah rule
De boy dem deading
Like fool like fool
De rule ah de fadder
Missing missing
Small-man toppa toppa
Dissing dissing
O fadder fadder
Some ah we all
Leaning we ladder
Gainst de wrong wall
Climbing liming
Like we happy to bury
We little male pickney
Rather dan stan-up almighty
In dignity with empathy
Love cyar be so blind
That it could only find
Dey body an not dey mind
An dey mother behind
We leave she caring
We sons we sons
We sons dem shooting
We down we down
An fadder jus digging
Dey grave dey brave
We sons dem dying
Like slave like slave
De rule ah de fadder
Missing missing
Stablish man order
Kiss him kiss him
Copyright 2008 by Kasi Senghor
