Jimmy Cliff has passed on to a better singing career. We celebrate and give thanks for his life with this poem about “The Harder They Come.”  We thank JahJah for his life and know he rests in peace and perfect harmony. Poet and visionary for Perry Henzell and Jimmy Cliff the share of the poor…

Because of Hurricane Melissa, there is now a serious outbreak of leptospirosis in the island, “not unexpected,” according to the report. The disease has increased the hurricane’s death toll, having taken the lives of eight people up to now. Many more are ill.  Education must be part of the hardening of Jamaica’s infrastructure so that…

I asked a family member where they were making their contribution to the Hurricane recovery effort. They told me of two sisters “down the road” who were packing up their truck and heading for St Elizabeth. It wasn’t their first trip. My relative said they purchased food and other goods and took them to these…

It took Hurricane Melissa, a wretched, wanton witch whom I narrowly escaped to get me writing again, so though it is good to be here, I’d have been glad for some other motivation.  If suffering Hurricane Melissa from afar was traumatic, any attempt to represent the suffering in the places she obliterated defies language. I…

I used to blog, when the going was good, as often as one post a day. I’m not sure how I did it. I don’t write slowly but I do go over and over what I write. I suppose I feel that one can never be too cautious, or too picky. I’m not just talking…

I never wanted to be a writer. Talk the truth, I never thought about what I wanted to be, apart from a mad wish to be a ballet dancer, one time, when I was very young. I let it go when it became clear that I didn’t have what it takes, and I came to…