Jonestown Remembered and Other Shorter Tragedies: Jonestown Remembered

By Erwin Brewster

Jonestown Remembered is a poem about those who lost their lives as a result of the machinations of one individual who sought to direct the lives of some 912 persons in an isolated region of Guyana during the period of 1976 to 1978. Having formed the Peoples Temple in California, he transferred his activities to a country that was anxious to accommodate him without reserve or supervision. His name was Jim Jones. He felt that his view on how life was to be lived was unique and admired the socialist ideology. But all was not well with the administration of the community, which eventually climaxed with the deaths by suicide and murder of all its members save a few who had escaped.

The poem seeks to recount the trials of the occupants of the Temple, their sense of abandonment at having been removed from the comfort and camaraderie of their friends, and their feelings of impotence to do anything about it. But still, for some, this experience was a deliverance from a much worse condition of life that they had experienced in the US. These felt that they owed allegiance to their leader, who had made their lives worthwhile for the first time. The poem seeks to explore both these responses and how the final sacrifice or deliverance was accomplished.

Other poems of tragic loss are included in the book that suggests that life is not always a bed of roses; that the joy and happiness derived from love is often a prelude to tragedy and sorrow. That the love and contentment derived from a life well spent will come to an end, inevitably, with the final parting, and loved ones are left in their solitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524558413

Erwin Brewster

Born in Guyana in 1939, the author attended secondary school there and later read law at the University of Durham. He married, and his wife, Pearl, also from Guyana, bore three children. On returning to Guyana, he was employed first in the sugar industry then in the bauxite industry and, later, in the life insurance industry, both at home and abroad. He retired in 2005 after twenty-five years of service in the insurance industry and now lives in Florida, USA. In his employment, he managed several disparate activities and formed a good insight into the ambitions of people for themselves and their families and the difficulties they often faced in trying to attain their goals in this regard. He made it a cardinal policy to ensure that his own family was secure and his children exposed to the finest education possible in his circumstances. Among his extracurricular activities he played basketball and took an interest in debating. An avid reader, he perused several books of poetry and literature, both classical and modern, during his working life, and since his retirement, this is his most favored pastime together with a keen interest in genealogical research into his ancestry and origins. This latter activity he finds most time-consuming and also most rewarding. He has authored a book on his ancestry, which is only for distribution to his family.

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Copyright © 2016 by Erwin Brewster.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-5842-0

                eBook            978-1-5245-5841-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover Illustration by Jessica Weng

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Rev. date: 12/14/2016

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CONTENTS

Jonestown Remembered

The Ballad of Kakum

Our Pearl

Robert Henry

The Draycart

Walker the Briton

Oh Guyana

Poems of Tragic Love

Jonestown Remembered

(1)

In verdant pastures near a winding creek,

Jim Jones his paradise on earth did seek,

And would extend his grace in ample store

To all the weak, the wretched and the poor;

Especially a poor or homeless bum

Who wandered aimlessly on opium,

The solace of a gentle lamb to find;

They gathered in their numbers, of one mind

To follow Jones, to seek the Promised Land,

An undiscovered Eden yet unplanned.

(2)

What confluence of forces can prevail

To chart a course with rudder and with sail

And blow a ship quite destined to its doom

Each hand on board a captive of the tomb?

What cosmic source will set in full array

The patterns of a trust that will betray

The hands that nurtured it to fulsome bloom,

And feeding on itself, itself consume?

A bastard plot, a diabolic scheme

Its embryo? A man, some land, a dream.

(3)

A soul to save, a miracle to work,

Some dire compelling urge that seems to lurk

With unsuspecting fervor, to redeem

The sins of man, and like a shimmering beam

Restore an ailing soul to wondrous health

And blessings of eternal joy and wealth.

No greater prize could anyone reveal

That would entice the suffering to feel

Contented, chosen, happy and unique;

What greater pleasure anyone could seek?

(4)

So then descends this calling forth on Jim

To preach the Word to all mankind from Him

Who would bestow in rich abundant fold

His fruits on all who did His work behold.

And thus did Jones with mantle and with hood

Become the medium through which he could

With dire threats of Hades and damnation

Exchange his appetites for salvation;

A fair exchange he thought for it could win

The favors of those who were inclined to sin.

(5)

This ruse he felt was just the kind of trick

That he could play so as to have his pick

Of those who in their simple faith and creed

Deferred to him to satisfy his need.

And this was great, for he was sorely cursed

Since boyhood days with craving and with thirst

For power over men and women too,

His bidding so he urged on them to do,

That in beguiling ways, but seeming just,

He thus did satisfy his carnal lust.

(6)

When lesser stars that but a glimmer show

Forsake their course and through the heavens glow,

They leave a trail that shining brightly first

Illumes the night and then exploding burst;

Their moments of true glory shortly spent

To be the brightest in the firmament.

So lesser mortals, reaching for the sky

Will oft eclipse the earth and passing, die;

Their marks of high achievement grimly cast

Their baleful shadows o’er the distant past.

(7)

To such a stellar reach was Jones intent

And so he labored according to his bent

To preach the gospel with impassioned case

That all might fall within his wide embrace.

And soon he