Category transcendence

FMM 8 15 2025 Thinking with the Heart

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ~ Robert Frost. I can’t say that I have ever been very good at debating on the fly.  Some people are quick, able to respond to taunts and jabs with a rapid response, cutting and accurate.  Me, my best responses […]

FMM 8 8 2025 Take a Beat!

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~ Maya Angelou. There is something so peaceful about a house in the early morning, before dawn, before the neighborhood awakens.  It has always been a favorite time of day for me.  As a teenager I would […]

FMM 8 1 2025 Too much Noise out there!

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!” ~ Marcus Garvey. Last week we enjoyed a cultural event, attending a play written and directed by a local African American poet and playwright, Darius Daughtry.  This is the second of his plays that we have attended, and one of the most noteworthy […]

FMM 7 25 2025 Writing my Truth

“Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.” ~ Alice Walker. It hit me this week that I am not familiar with my children’s (now adults) handwriting.  It was when I was reading over something my father had written in 1992 about the town I grew up in, in Jamaica.  Those […]

FMM 7 18 2025 No Trouble

“Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” ~ John Lewis. One of the most important things we teach our children, in almost every culture that I know of, is to be polite, to have manners.  Even before kids learn their […]

FMM 7 11 2025 Body Language Included

“Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth.” ~ Wole Soyinka. There is something in the light of a Jamaican pre-dawn.  For those who leave a country and live away from it for many years (at this point, many decades), there are things […]

FMM 7 4 2025 Ode to Joy

“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” ~ Emily Dickinson. After seven days of activities and events here in Jamaica that have produced so many moments of joy, I am not sure how I will report on them in just one post.  But perhaps I can tempt your senses with […]

FMM 6 27 2025 No Excuses!

“It doesn’t take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.” ~ J. C. Watts. One of the messages that was drilled into me as a child, was to never give up.  There were any number of rhymes or quotes to instill perseverance. ‘If at first you […]

FMM 6 20 2025 Amplifying Hope

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~ Desmond Tutu. My thoughts have been on my childhood a lot recently.  Ever since I was invited to be the guest speaker at my old primary (elementary in the US) school’s graduation, I have been reminiscing about those days […]

FMM 6 13 2025 Of Men and Moons

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” ~ Buddha. Growing up in Jamaica, in the center of the island, full moon nights were special.  For a start, they were so bright you could actually read by the light.  For another, they changed the environment into shades of grey, leaching out […]