Back in those early days when I began my apprenticeship as a poet, I also tried to voice our anger, spirit of defiance and resistance in a Jamaican poetic idiom.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.
I am for poetry that is admired by peasant and aristocrat alike.
Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.
I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.
I came from a very strict background, and didn't hear any Jamaican music when I was growing up.
When I was younger, I was terrified to express anger because it would often kick-start a horrible reaction in the men in my life. So I bit my tongue. I was left to painstakingly deal with the aftermath of my avoidance later in life, in therapy or through the lyrics of my songs.
I am often asked why I started to write poetry. The answer is that my motivation sprang from a visceral need to creatively articulate the experiences of the black youth of my generation, coming of age in a racist society.
Boxing gave me a voice to express the anger I felt for where I came from.