Jamaica has been long known as an island prating topographical beauty, a rich culture and a unique blend and calibre of peoples. Famous for producing great athletes, musicians and scholars, it stands as a beacon of light to the world despite its hardships. The writer having seen his quota of difficulties in the Jamaican paradigm fighting to retain his artistic vision while confronting some of the more gritty realities of being part of a society largely insensitive to his issues has however, managed to stay afloat because of underpinnings of community-based value systems and members with which and whom he grew, they impacting him so greatly that he has immortalised a few of them in verse. He unveils in the four chapters of this collection his experiences on 'that same speck of beauty' as he calls it in one of his poetic lines, painting colourful pictures of childhood adventures, giving images of treasured moments which made life special for him, even linking nature with emotional highs and lows by giving firsthand accounts of his days from boyhood to manhood in his rural hometown of Morant Bay, St. Thomas where he has spent most of his life to date. Again, he deftly pens his accounts in verse, promising laughs, tears, queries as some of his pieces written in amusing dialect bring a truly authentic Jamaican flavour to this book into even sharper relief. This account proves a shift from more spiritual themes as he goes back in time to showcase his neck of the woods, his heartland Jamaica, land of wood and water.
About the Author: Sean C. Harrison is an author of music and poetry who was born and reared in St.Thomas, Jamaica. From an early age he showed artistic promise, doing his first concert at the tender age of 4 years old. He grew up listening to a wide repertoire of music including classical, which his father played while living there. His childhood was bittersweet as a stormy family life was mingled with boyhood joys that almost completely eluded him in early adulthood when he was diagnosed with a mental challenge at 19 years old. Yet the foundation laid by an avid love of literature and reading early in his life and a giftedness in the areas of music and the English language saw him continuing his writing of songs till he stumbled upon poetry. His rich experiences sees him giving honest accounts of his own life with its vicissitudinal shifts and telling the stories of those persons he credits with bringing depth to his Jamaican experience. He continues to write from a wellspring of imagination that never seems to run dry, being keenly observant and highly deft in his handling of his native and learned languages. Underpinning his writings are messages of hope, instruction and wisdom exceeding his years but now he sees more clearly the purpose to pain as being the fruit in the form of his artistic expressions and continues to live in hope in spite of serious challenges he faces in his relational and personal life.