WE LITERATURE - V.I. Callaloo - a well-seasoned poetry book

Callaloo is a tasty Caribbean dish that is high in nutrients and flavour. Callaloo is a ‘cookup’ of spinach or dasheen and other leafy vegetables, okra, peppers, onions, the usual seasonings and the ‘salt thing’ of your choice. Some of us remember Callaloo to include fried fish, salted pork and ground provisions which makes this dish a complete meal.

The idea for the book came about from the Callaloo concept – a complete meal with different flavours. There are eighteen poets included in this compilation. Each poet has a unique writing style that offers the nutrients which make this pot flavourful and complete. V.I. Callaloo consists of poems of love, awareness, social issues and culture.

The Callaloo Poets are Lavanta Thompson, Oren Hodge, Tremis Skeete, Linette Rabsatt, April T. Glasgow, V. Celeste Fahie, Earold O’Kieffe, Urenna Francis, Stephen Payne, Prudence George, Raja H. Pemberton, Jehu Nisbett, Quincy Lettsome, PH.D., Charles P. Bartholomew, Elton Hazel, Jerome Joseph, Sonjah Smith and Justin Hodge; all with links to the Virgin Islands - both British and US. Some of the poets have roots in other Caribbean islands – Trinidad, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Antigua. Although each poet has a unique background and writing style, each share a love for writing and desire to inspire and uplift readers.

You can purchase V.I. Callaloo online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Yahoo Shopping, Ecampus.com, Booksamillion.com and AuthorHouse online. Copies can be bought in the BVI at Serendipity, Esme's Shoppe, BVI News, Mellows Moods and from all of the poets. V.I. Callaloo is available in St. Thomas, USVI, at the Dockside Bookshop.

For more information about the Callaloo Poets, you can visit www.freewebs.net/vicallaloo, www.myspace.com/vicallaloo or email vicallaloo@hotmail.com.

Monthly poetry readings are also held every third Saturday of each month at Mellow Moods or the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park, both on Road Town in the BVI.


When a Rose Stings – Urenna Francis
So beautiful it stood there
Petals perfectly made
Swaying in the wind
Anyone who dares look at it becomes enchanted
By such beauty
To behold its loveliness
Wanting so much to reach out and touch such splendour
Without warning or alert
You reach to pluck a rose
Only to be stung
Because you did not see
What was meant to deceive
What seems to be a rose
Was a serpent in disguise



A Cooking Oddity - Quincy Lettsome, PH.D.
Some may call it a cooking oddity,
Virginners – no peculiarity
To pick a sugar apple, full and green
Boil! A custom never before seen.
Ripe and full, apples come from the same tree
This is something there for every one to see;
They could be hanging close together
Perhaps even touching one another.
A recipe of our ancestral line
Perfected so it will taste mighty fine
Boiled apple – corn pork – a delicacy
Dessert an apple so ripe and juicy!