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    This Bleeding Heart of Mine
    This Bleeding Heart of Mine
    This Bleeding Heart of Mine
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    This Bleeding Heart of Mine

    By Errol St. John Stephenson

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    In the poets words which project a clear image of the ghetto environment and evoke the introverted feelings of a community exasperated by its situation and their ultimate solution for escape, came their denial and confused ideology. In my hand, there is a gun. Deep, deep in my heart there is revenge. The cry is agonizing, stained by frustration. It is the reflection of a society warped by social injustice, of minds poisoned by revenge.

    As a nation, our conscience is pricked by the poets scorching words. We are moved by the embarrassing plights of our brothers. We are touched by his grief in Unemployed concerned for his welfare and future, a dark illusion. We travel through his mind to spiritual world and hear his questioning prayer, How Long I Pray. As he unravels his mind, we are engulfed in his humane nature, we hear his talk about his Friend then we are wrapped up into romanticism. We perceive his erotic desires and feelings in My Woman. Indeed, we can see variety of its theme and conclude this is someone having experienced life in its fullness.

    This book of poems comes at a time when our nation is once again undergoing a transition, and will no doubt serve as a stimulant to our minds. Its theme and message will at the most evoke that humane nature deep within us, motivated to help someone from a miserable condition, now that we are aware of it. Invariably, the aim of the poet is to garner this response to this critical problem, which he himself has experienced over time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateDec 5, 2012
    ISBN9781477272084
    This Bleeding Heart of Mine
    Author

    Errol St. John Stephenson

    Born on August 26, 1955 in Mount Maria, St. Ann., Jamaica, W.I., Errol St. John Stephenson first attended Mt. Maria Primary School to jump start his formal education before heading to the Alston Junior Secondary School. At the age of 13, young Errol migrated to Kingston which has since become his home. Errol’s early life revolved around the Ghetto environment of Kingston, living dangerously and adventurously in an area where life was a constant fight for survival. This factor motivated his desire to help people to overcome this barrier of life. To this end, he attended various international seminars dealing with youth development and welfare. He became active in politics, where he got involved in social work. Errol’s long and intimate relationship with the poverty-stricken ghettos of the ‘70s, when the proletariat was torn by gang warfare and political tribalism, was manifested in his poems as a poignant call for liberation of the ghetto youth. He was an elected Councillor with the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (K.S.A.C.) spending only one term before being controversially kicked out by the his party, the Jamaica Labour Party (J.L.P.), who thought his type of politics did not conform with their viewpoints. A writer, poet, former politician, businessman, the people’s man: Errol, a man with a wealth of experience.

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      Book preview

      This Bleeding Heart of Mine - Errol St. John Stephenson

      ROOTS RADICAL

      THIS BLEEDING

      HEART

      OF

      MINE

      Revised Edition

      Errol St. John Stephenson

      US%26UKLogoB%26Wnew.ai

      AuthorHouse™

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.authorhouse.com

      Phone: 1-800-839-8640

      © 2012 by Errol St. John Stephenson. All rights reserved.

      Cover Design by Greg Jeffers

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 11/30/2012

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-7210-7 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-7209-1 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-7208-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012918665

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Dedication

      Welcome Friends

      Who Or What Are We?

      Beyond The Angry Dark

      Rebels

      The Last Mile

      Life

      I Am Not A Mad Dog

      Crying In The Wilderness

      My Crumbling Wall

      Friend

      Wondering

      Facts Of Life

      Politician

      Unemployed

      Frustration

      If I Must Die

      Enough

      It’s Getting Late

      Cries Of Revolution

      I.M.F.

      Jahman

      Words, Sounds And Power

      Why Should I Run?

      And When I Die

      Against My Will

      They Are Dying To Kill

      Damn You

      Black Woman

      Chant

      Beware Youthman

      Blood Of A Hero

      How Long I Pray

      My Woman

      This Bleeding Heart Of Mine

      A Mirage Of Love

      A Constable’s Prayer

      A Lonely Heart

      A Political Coward

      Abandoned

      Asafa, Usain

      B P R C

      Blood Of Ignorance

      Breaking Up

      Bruce

      Celibacy

      Christian Soldiers

      Dead Man A Walking

      Delinquent Heart

      Dirty Old Man

      Elusion

      Faces

      Fallen Hero

      Ghetto Children

      Grants Pen

      Ghetto Radical

      Your Twisted Mind

      Hypocrisy Of Christianity

      Ignoramus

      Infatuation

      Lost Love

      Loyalty

      Murder Suicide

      Ode To A Drunkard

      Ode To My Jamaican Politicians

      Perpetrators

      Pride Of A Politician

      Promises

      Rogue Cops!!

      Roots Radical

      Slipping And Sliding

      Temptation

      That Haunted Song

      The Windshield Wiper

      This Thing Called Love

      Voice Of A Heathen Rage

      Who Am I?

      Dedication

      29690.jpg

      Dedicated to the memory of the many lives

      which were lost in gun violence in the ‘70s and ‘80s

      and to Carlingon Sinclair, a local radio announcer, whose positive influence

      has helped to convert the poet from a life of delinquency to one of positivity.

      Welcome Friends

      28096.jpg

      Dress yourself to your eye teeth

      And starve all day

      So you’ll have plenty of room

      For our political heroes of the west

      Come with your arms laden,

      Not with gifts but with goodwill

      Good habits and loving thoughts

      For my friends and family our house

      Will ring with laughter and sparkle

      With lights, flowers and flashes of symbols

      Of peace,

      And what is ours is yours to enjoy

      This will be a year of pleasure

      Both pure and bright

      All in the proper spirit for we must unite

      Let’s make a resolution right now

      Instead of waiting all year for this

      Magic opportunity let’s expand its

      Warmth throughout the years to come

      Peace and love my Brothers.

      Who Or What Are We?

      28098.jpg

      The sea is calm and sea gulls flying to their nests,

      The setting sun casts shadows over the mountain top

      The sound of night gangsters firing their illegal guns at

      human targets.

      Who or what are we?

      We must face the facts of life

      Where has all the love gone?

      Where have all the good jobs gone?

      Our spirit, our Faith, where have they all gone?

      Who or what are we?

      Could we be dreamers, fools or cowards?

      Fellow Jamaicans, let not your eyes be blinded

      By some folly we may commit.

      Let us be strong and forget our wrongs

      And make up for our deeds.

      Who or what are we?

      Could we be over-grown animals?

      Waiting to be slaughtered by our political bosses

      Or are we human beings drowned in dreamland?

      Who or what are we?

      Beyond The Angry Dark

      28100.jpg

      Beyond the angry dark

      Laid a thousand years of hate

      Trying, trying to spread its roots

      among the black

      Beyond the angry dark

      Laid millions of savages

      Descended upon the earth to

      poison our brain spread hate

      among the black race

      Beyond the angry dark

      A disease has been hatched

      Black springs among themselves

      hating each other, killing each

      other, raping because their brains

      have been poisoned.

      Rebels

      28102.jpg

      Here oh ye rebels

      Freely, freely I give unto you

      A cup of my blood

      Drink, drink, a cup of my blood

      I have been a victim of time

      A victim of society

      Oh rebels my strength has been fading

      My heart has been broken.

      My journey has just begun

      And my patience runs low.

      The Last Mile

      28104.jpg

      A mile far beyond my reach, a mile

      Like a thousand years,—the last mile

      I know it’s not the end of life’s journey

      It’s but the beginning of the struggle

      The last mile, so rough, covered with darkness

      The mile of a thousand failures, but for me

      The beginning of challenge, struggle and revolt.

      It strains, it hurts like a whiplash across my back,

      Like thorns in naked flesh, but the last mile

      Shall never conquer me, though demon it be,

      With confidence, with guts, with

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