Anything can inspire me
Anything can inspire me to verse:
a dog sleeping soundly
on a makeshift veranda
thick croton flowers lining a sloping path
leading to an outside wash area
lanky trees spiralling to the heavens
like the hope of a family
praying, Love is enough
is stronger than death
richer than wealth
But what gives the greatest inspiration
is the smell of seasoned meat
sizzling in a pot
drifting across the valley
lifting sweet scents to the open air
Old paradox, new verse
A heavy mist rises
out of the valley
like gun smoke, rifling
the air, setting off a time piece
of timelessness.
The sound of dew dripping
from leaves, but no dew felt.
This unmetered rural wetness
that meets me most mornings
ever since I’ve transported
to this mystic realm.
This meditation, this poetry.
A thousand unspoken words
inhabit these fat, yellow-green leaves;
these long limbs.
These crooked Einstein branches.
The figure in the cane
whose greetings each morning
without language haunt me.
The sunless days and moonless nights
are the old paradox
of my new verse.
Nicholas Damion Alexander is a teacher of English and Philosophy. His works have been published in the Jamaica Gleaner, the Jamaica Observer, Caribbean Voice magazine, Poets Against War, Auckland Poetry (New Zealand), the Black Collegian, Angelfire, Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge, Eos, Poemhunter, Truml (Poland), the First Cut (Ireland), Cartier Street Review (Canada), and the Calabash anthology So Much Things To Say. In 2008 he was awarded a fellowship with Calabash International Writers’ Workshop. In 2011, he was featured in e-Buffet’s online magazine Postcards from the People of Earth. He has also been featured on TV programs and in newspapers in Jamaica.