Fitzroy Cole - CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
IN SOME ways, Fitzroy 'Jagga' Cole has always lived or worked at places connected with words. His home is on Text Lane in downtown Kingston and he was employed to the Central Sorting Office of the Postal Department for 27 years.
However, in a deeper sense he has lived for words, a passion for poetry growing since his early days at Kingston College, through consistent visits to Poetry Society of Jamaica meetings beginning in 1986, making an international leap to the International Society of Poets' fifth annual convention in Washington, U.S.A., in 1995, then taking root as a founding member of the Dub Traffickers poetry collective in 1997, along with Vernon 'Rass Rodd' Chambers and Roger 'Konkrete' Hasfal.
With the recent publication of his double collection 'Lyrical Sonnets' and 'Sojourner', Cole has tripled his book output, with 'Beloved Enemy' published in March 1995. With 19 poems each, the two books are presented in a single slim volume, each side having its own design. The designs were done by Dianna Wright, who also typeset the collection.
He explains that the sonnets, which were ready for publication since 1999, are the main thrust of the double book, with 'Sojourner' being added "after we said the sonnets were too small to put out there". While the sonnets focus on love, the 'Sojourner' delves into concepts of God and social issues.
Cole speaks intensely as he outlines the various kinds of sonnets, each consisting of 14 lines, detailing rhyme schemes and discussing the styles of writers Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Milton and Shakespeare with the familiarity of consistent reading.
CONSISTENT
And he has been a consistent reader and writer since attending Kingston College in the early 1970s. "It come in like the first year me go KC me start write poem," Cole said, crediting Muriel Riley for early guidance. "She was my form teacher and also taught English. She sort of mould me," he said.
His ambitions were clear from very early. "Me always want to be a poet. People want to be lawyer, doctor, me wanted to be a poet, a god ... world traveller. A poet can be anything. A poet can move mountains of people. I want to be a good poet. Maybe one day me will be good, then me think 'bout great and to influence people certain way," Cole said.
However, although he did literature at the GCE O'Level, Cole dropped out of sixth form due to domestic issues. In fact, he recalls much of his early days as "pure foster homes, ward of the court" and chuckles when he remembers that he "run away from a couple foster homes".
And there were times when he read by light coming through the burglar bars at the Boyd's Place of Safety, which was where he was when he took the Common Entrance Examination and passed for KC.
His literary education did not end with dropping out of KC. "Me used to say me have to master English Literature after me leave school, so me go through an' try to learn the devices, figurative speech, to teach myself," he said.
He started writing sonnets in 1986, while on leave from his job, saying that he has reached his heights in Sonnet 38 (of 41 so far). The first was written to his son. Although he studied the greats he did not imitate them, coming up with his own style of 'lyrical sonnet'. "Any man can put himself to discipline and make something and stick to it," Cole said.
And he is sticking to poetry, having taken early retirement from his job. The next book, 'All About the Knockings and More' is in the works, but it will come out under the moniker 'Viva!', which he traces back to his love for Spanish in school, as well as a line from poet Walt Whitman, "viva to those who have failed".
"This is my life now. I sitting down and writing," Cole said.
