Chantelle Smith wants to be a journalist and a poet.
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
BORN WITH a naturally creative mind, one word is enough to send through Chantelle Smith's mind a riot of images which she feels compelled to commit to paper.
For example, a lesson in the weather at school resulted in this poem:
'When will I see the sun shine again
When will I see
The little brown roosters
and the little brown hens
When the sky turns blue
I know that the sun
will shine again, Amen'
The 'Amen' at the end of her poem is typical, as the young student who says that she is also a Jehovah's Witness, laces her thoughts with references to or images of the divine.
Some are quiet apocalyptic.
Here is part of one poem that was stimulated by thoughts on the problem and results of crime:
'Judgment, me say judgment
When de fire start fall
everybody start bawl...'
Quite comfortable in the Jamaican language too, Chantelle has expressed a versatility that has captured the attention of staff and students alike at Moneague Junior High where she attends school.
They have been treated to many "readings" by the young poet.
Writing since she was three
Chantelle has been writing since she was three years old.
"I write when I feel like," she tells Outlook.
The feelings come almost every week. As a result, she has 'books' of poems.
Living with her grandmother in Moneague, St. Ann, she states that she lives in the best place possible, because the area has so many trees.
Little brown roosters and hens are not the only pleasant things that march through her dreams.
The 10-year-old shyly admits that when she dreams, she imagines that she is in paradise.
"When I dream, I dream of paradise. It has a lot of flowers and trees, and people live in peace."
Chantelle is clearly entranced with the countryside in which she lives and told Outlook that although her parents reside in Kingston, she just cannot imagine living there.
Reading between the lines of her poems, the countryside is innocence itself, free of the violence of the Corporate Area.
"The crime rate (in Kingston) is too high," she states with a serious look on her face.
Asked if she had any thoughts on solution to this problem, she suggests that "people should stop telling lies."
'If a me like you
me stop telling lie
Imagine your soul
A bun like tyre
Judgement
Me seh Judgement'
"Lying leads to stealing. Lying leads to violence," she told Outlook.
Already, she has made the important connection between moral decline and a society in trouble.
In interview Chantelle is as quiet as a mouse until she chants, 'judgement'.
Smiling, she told Outlook, "I want to become a poetess or a journalist. To do this, I believe that I have to improve my writing skills." Already she is on her way.
Chantelle has a love affair with words and reads whenever she has the opportunity to do so. Her current favourites are Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries. She is also fond of spelling and lists this as being among her hobbies.
She admires the Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley and says she wants to be like her.
For Chantelle, words are her world. There is nothing more interesting right now than what can be found between the pages of a book. If it's not there, she has no problem writing it.
