TALENT, IT seems, makes no deference to age. So it was that Andrae Lynch wowed the gathering at Tuesday's installment of the monthly fellowship of the Poetry Society of Jamaica.
Lynch is a student of Campion College and came as one of two representatives of that high school's poetry society.
'Goat Skin', Lynch's second poem, seemed to be the uncontested poem of the night. "Long tie goat skin heart yearning to beat out words and riddim," he read in a poem which called for the weeding out of 'dead expression' and an end to "linguistic oppression".
The poem's end brought an immediate cacophony of praise and requests that he read it again. In response, Lynch read his third poem 'I Heal'. However, when he turned to go someone gave out, "Yuh nuh done yet. A weh da bredda ya a go?" Not having any more words in his arsenal, Lynch returned to 'Goat Skin', which suited the audience just fine.
Nikeisha Sewel was the second representative of the society. Her poem 'The Definition' also found fertile ground with the audience. "I may not be that 6'1" size 2 blonde/ but I have that unaltered inner beauty," she read much to the audience's delight.
The two students brought a fitting end to the night where the quality of verse read had swung madly. The night got off to a slow start with only a skeletal version of the usual audience at 8 p.m. Fortunately, as the night lengthened the fellowship grew.
With the two students from Campion as the featured performers, the night was made up of mainly the open microphone segment. This featured old and new poets testing either new material or falling back on some of their old.
Lesley-Ann Wonliss was another of the young voices who proved particularly impressive as she read two poems that dealt with the depressing economic state of Jamaica, who she described as a once virgin now "hooked on morphine to ease the pain of poverty".
The night also featured readings from Jah Children, Melville Cooke, Ras Rod and Kashka Hemans. Hemans performed 'Damn Extended' a poem that deals with pretension behaviour as epitomised by a twang laden 'damn'.
Cooke performed 'The Grill', which seemed to have been intended to be a soothing balm for all those new voices who found themselves intimidated by the vicious response that can follow it. It was indeed a fitting addition to the night as Tommy Ricketts, who leads the monthly proceedings, had just been ranting about the need for the elusive new voice.
In his introductory words, aimed at explaining the night to new comers, Ricketts explained that they were seeking inspiration, as he called for works that fit that undefinable yet recognisable label 'poetry'.
"It's all about coming down here and making the language sound fresh," said Ricketts. Tuesday's episode of the search for, as Wonliss put it, the line to replace "The revolution will not be televised", was certainly not a futile one.
