O Jamaica Poem by Buxton Shippy

O Jamaica
How I missed you
Your easy gait
Mangoes and pears
I left your majestic hills
And clean sea breeze
Songs of the humming birds
Dub poets
And breadfruit trees

O Jamaica
I missed your reggae rythms
Bungo sounds
And Natty
I left for a land I knew not
A land of plenty
Was it for wealth?
Was it for pride?
No!
For knowledge, maybe
Yet I am empty

O Jamaica
I missed your beaches
And Negril
Sitting on stones reasoning
Now I get you Peter Tosh
And Muta is right too

Hardly a day goes by
That I do not think of you
It's not physical
Just an inexplicable pain
One that holds no hope
Without the LORD
I could not cope

O Jamaica
How I missed you
When will I see you again?
Dance with you again?
Land of wood and water
'No problem people'
People of hospitality
Of clean water
Where the sun never sleep
Snow-less land
Land without debt collectors

Twenty five years since I left your shores
But it feels like sixty
Twenty five years since we walk and play
But it feels like sixty
Twenty five years since I saw granny's tomb
But it feels like sixty
How are the dandelions?
Is Blue Mountain still blue?
And how is Kingston
And Montego Bay?
O Jamaica!