The measure - Lena Kent

Measure thy moral worth not by the dream
But by the deed; not by the high desire,
The beautiful intent, the lofty fire
That lights thy spirit with a fitful gleam.

A Small Prayer for the Unflummoxed Beaver - Kei Miller

so unmoved by the boat’s slow approach – the boat
drifting across the flat green acre of water; a small prayer
for these acres of water which, in the low light, seem firm;
the squirrels, however, are never fooled or taken in;

The lost mate - Arabel Moulton-Barrett

Two singing birds have come flying across the sea;

but only one has reached land. He mourns his mate:

Answer me, sing to me,
Mate of my heart,
Tho' I call out to thee,
Silent thou art.

It's Christmas day - Roland L. Gayle

I just woke up and it’s Christmas Day

Christ is born, Hip, Hip Hooray!

One Year After - Claude McKay

I

Not once in all our days of poignant love,

Did I a single instant give to thee

My undivided being wholly free.

Marrysong - Dennis Scott

He never learned her, quite. Year after year

that territory, without seasons, shifted

under his eye. An hour he could be lost

in the walled anger of her quarried hurt

or turning, see cool water laughing where

the day before there were stones in her voice.

The Coral Reef - Vivian Virtue

The sun discovers, probing the shingling sea,

A lurking down in the coral woods below

That merge, through hollows where the warm flow,

With bloom-like beast and flower pulsating free.

Lessons for Young Women - Frances-Marie Coke

Proper English words were not enough

to teach the serious lessons girls must learn.

Fire - Kwame Dawes

He is the man with the axe with its white edge.

He was born to a time of fire.

He took a pickaxe and walked to the rail

track and asked for work; and he stood

by the sparks and forging fire, standing

there as if the heat is food, pure food.

Elsie - Pamela Claire Mordecai

Elsie could cuss like a sailor

rip masts too when she swept

like a storm upgrading

minute by minute trading

trees and the silence around us - Japhia Beckford

Trees are big

Trees are small

But no country has them all

Fitzy and the Revolution - Ishion Hutchinson

The rumour broke first in Duckensfield.

Fitzy dropped the shutters of his rum shop.

By time it got to Dalvey there were three suicides.

The mechanic in Cheswick heard and gave his woman

a fine trashing; but, to her credit, she nearly scratched his heart

out his chest during the howl and leather smithing.

The Barrier - Claude McKay

I must not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
I must not watch you as you go
Your sun-illumined way;

Guinea Woman - Lorna Goodison

Great grandmother
was a guinea woman
wide eyes turning
the corners of her face
could see behind her
her cheeks dusted with
a fine rash of jet-bead wars
that itched when the rain set up.

Vincent and the Orient - Lorna Goodison

The blackbird in the bougainvillea bush
brushes against the powder blue sky.
The carnelian froth of the flowering tree,
and the way that this picture
framed itself inside my window,

The Earth is our Friend (Garden of Creation) - Yasus Afari

The earth is the garden of creation
Purposefully clothed with lush, green vegetation.
Roots!
Firm enough to prevent critical soil erosion,
All elements working in union,
For natural joy and satisfaction.
The earth is a friend, we are the friends of the earth

Her Granddaughter Learns the Alphabet - Olive Senior

I myself had learnt the alphabet, once, long ago,
in a place that was small and known.
But my forgetfulness has grown.

The Spanish Needle - Claude McKay

Lovely dainty Spanish needle
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?

A Song for My Father - Delores Gauntlett

Against the yam-vine quiet of the garden
a nightingale stirred with my father: the lift
and fall of the pickaxe, the heaving throat
of the hidden bird exacting
the subtleties of song.
This would become the memory of high grass
brushing wet against the black waterboots.