Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
A DAY after the headlines screamed of police searching for a Camperdown High School student in a stabbing death, Camperdown student Jonhoi Vaughn addressed the matter poetically.
He was ending Tuesday night's fellowship of the Poetry Society of Jamaica at the amphitheatre, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Arthur Wint Drive, St. Andrew.
"A schoolmate of mine from Camperdown was stabbed and killed," Vaughn said, after saying that the poem had been written yesterday. He said it caused him to question himself, to ask "was I really feeling what was there".
The untitled poem utilised the image of a mirror heavily, Vaughn eventually saying "I tried to run/but I could not break free/for my hand the mirror clutched". He ended with "there I stood, looking at my own reflection".
It was the second poem from Vaughn in closing the night, which had previously seen single poem contributions from a number of persons. The other was actually done twice, as a repeat of a poem he had read earlier was requested. The first time around, Vaughn had explained the background to With Our Own Senses, saying that there was a deaf, dumb and blind woman who was an extremely good piano player. "She could tell what people liked from the vibrations in the ground. It caused me to ask what we do with our senses," Vaughn said.
SINGUALR MOTHER
And, accordingly, he did that poetically, querying "with your own two hands/have you ever touched the sky" and urging all to "touch the earth's surface now/tell us what you feel". He ended with "when this day passes forever/let these simple words linger".
A slew of writers presented works of varying standards on Tuesday evening. Chris Riley preceded The Brown Shining Pearl with "me no know if is a poetry dis" and Marolyn-Lucy Gentles used unamplified guitar accompaniment for Singular Mother. The poem spoke of a mother who "a nuff hungry belly she haffi feed/an de wuckless man she have deh pon weed". Playing on Marley's Johnny Was, the mother moved from a "no emotion she have to show" to, at Johnny's funeral, "har heart start bleed ... de emotion a show".
"And somebody say hol' yu tears/From Johnny dead we no have no fear/Johnny was a don man," she ended.
Victory's Animal Kingdom explored the base political instincts where "the king of the jungle is always worried about a coup", Issachar went rhythmic in playfully refusing to curse the leader again.
Maa spoke of a "political potion" and Cecil Reid repeated "hungry a buss me shut" over and over and over, while Sage and Lynch of LSX delivered in tandem, the former saying "words of clarity carry LSX over troubled skies", while the latter said the trio "still a rise without the glory."
Before Vaughn's second time around, there were contributions from Payne ("clouds hug up the mountains, wrapped up in a blue blanket"), Melissa, Purifier, Charlie Bobbos and Kwame I.
