A Little Souvenir in Poetry

By Sislyn Peters

In A Little Souvenir in Poetry, Sislyn Peters selects classic and contemporary favorites from her compilation of poems.

This is an intelligently written work, which exposes Peters as a visionary who brings issues to the fore, such as in “The Stoning,” “When You Ain’t Got Time,” and “To A Mother.” She makes full use of figures of speech; the reader is not at a loss for sharp imagery.

            It is obvious that Peters is a literary artist. Her poems have a musical beat, and are sculpted. They are also engrossing, and cause the reader to become engrossed, pause, soul-search, and smile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 10, 2008
• ISBN: 9781467093712

Sislyn Peters

Sislyn Peters was born in St. John’s, Antigua, then British West Indies, and attended the Ebenezer Methodist Church, and Sunday school.  She is a graduate of Princess Margaret High School.  As a child, she wrote verses, and short stories.  As a teenager, she sang with local bands, including Pat Edwards’ Playboys, and Vere Anthony’s Teen Stars, and is also a playwright.  One of her plays, Trust, was adapted by the City College of New York’s English Department, Division of Humanities & Arts, and performed at the Aaron Davis Hall, in 2001.  Sislyn Peters has been referred to as gifted, and a deep thinker.  Her public literary voice lay dormant for all these years, waiting to burst forth.  It finally has.

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2008, 2021 Sislyn Peters. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

For contact or special permissions, send email to Sislyn Peters at

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Published by AuthorHouse 02/16/2022

ISBN: 978-1-4343-3109-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-3110-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9371-2 (e)

For all of the teachers who taught me,

and for everyone from whom I learned.

To Order Copies of This Book:

Please visit AuthorHouse at www.authorhouse.com.

Copies of A LITTLE SOUVENIR IN POETRY

can also be purchased from wherever books are sold.

Selections

The Bouquet

Legacy

Mother

Father

I

Affirmation

An Inner Strength

In This World

No.

Stop

How Much Do I Know?

Youth is

RELATIONSHIPS

The Puzzler

Impediments

14th January

Fantasy

A Friend, Indeed

And Then the Fire Died

Allow Me

To My Children

My Children

My Sister is an Island

When You Ain’t Got Time

Bad Model

Their Father

Freeloader

Why Did They Give You Up?

Swindler, Polygamist

Family League

To Gemmie (Germaine Colette J.)

Say It Loud

I Never Needed You More

CROSSROADS

Three Questions

Now

Depression

City Angels

Maturity

I’ve Drawn a Blank

I Feel Ridiculous, Today

Why Wrong Place, Wrong Time?

Time and Place Intersection

O Two, O Two, O Two

California Fires

Their Conviction

Worms

Rock Bottom

Lastly Shall Be Firstly

Suddenly, I’m Alone

Grief

Y2K

HUMANITY

Short People

I, Hermaphrodite

Those Young, Grotesque Faces

Keeping Cool in the Neighborhood

The Ultimate Motive Benefactor

Discrimination

Forbidden Fruit

Innocence and the Forbidden Fruit

The Volunteer

Afghanistan

Fairness

Lost Boys of Africa

Don’t Cut My Clitoris

Black History

The Pain

When They Don’t Mean You Any Good

Museum Bones

Keep An Open Mind

Life Perpetual

Music Binds the World

What Is This New Song I Sing?

I’ll Be Strong But First, I Cry

Freedom City

The Stoning

CULTURE

House Cleaning

Harlem

Harlem - Gentrification

The Mix

Ethnic Foods

The Biggest Roar

The Subway Sweeper

Yellow Taxis, Yellow Cabs

Rats

To a Mother

MOTIVATION

That Family

Proofreader

Exercise

String of Cobweb

The Challenge

The Bird

Greedy

A Physically Challenged

APPRECIATION

Trees

So You Don’t Like America?

Rain Drops

Do Not Take Her for Granted

Thanksgiving

Central Park

Empire State Building

My Kitchen

It and I

The Color

To the Patchwork Sheet

Privileged Clueless

LEISURE

I Had a Blast in St. Croix, Ooh La La

Trick or Treat

Madison Avenue, New York

An Insomniac’s Mind

Sleepless

RESPONSIBILITY

Blame It on Yourself

Debt Lover

Song of the Wild Birds

Radical Mind Surgery

Oh! How I Wish I Hadda

ART

gongorism unseated

Fruit Vendor

Slanted Eyes

Ailey

He’s Last of the Beat Generation

Clean Feet

Purple Play

Potpourri Music

The Squatter

VANITY

Virtue

Self Esteem

Vanity

What I Saw on Madison Avenue

Hair I Am

Hair

Who’s Saggin’ Now?

Voyeur

Who Are You?

Tell Me a Little About Yourself

2001

2002

Sudden Exit

Final Destination

Angel Caressa

Another Realm

She Rose, Again

Aftermath

WHATEVER

Are Tick You Let?

Reflection

Turn Around Their Apathy

In the Darkness of the Deep Forest

On Being Disgruntled

On a Rash Decision

On Being an Artist

On What Matters

On Her Own

Ode to a Pervert

My Comfort Home

An Allergy in the Workplace

Letters, Conditional

Don’t Judge Me

Six Figure Incompetence

Who’s Weird?

The Rainbow

No strings to untie,

no packages to unseal—

words that meet the eye:

they hurt, and they heal.

The unlikely souvenir

that’s made up of thoughts

is yours for the reading—

provoking all sorts

of discussions.

The Bouquet

Fresh I am, and innocent

How I look is beautiful

What you see’s transparency

What I speak is only truth

Time is fleeting, though it’s slow

What looks real is a mirage

Solid mountains melt away

Vanity lives inside of youth

Fragile does disintegrate

Clamoring’s only for a time

Use your energies for love,

Passionate, while you’re in your prime

Lasting is integrity,

Faithfulness, endurance, strength,

Positive high energy—

A little glimpse of firmament.

Legacy

My father said to me, one day:

"See that man with half a leg?

Don’t make fun of him.

He came by that loss

when we were boys,

and he made fun of a man with half a leg.

The man gave the boy

half a leg."

My mother said to me, one day:

"See that family that lives

in the house, up the road,

with the car parked in front of the house?

They always have money.

They can buy ice cream

from the ice cream vendor, every Sunday.

But don’t ever envy them.

They rush to sell their childrens’ bodies

to sea bees, when the steamers

come into the harbor.

Now their children are adults

before they’re grown.

They don’t know how to play doll house.

They know how to play husband and wife."

That beggar who loiters

at the market entrance used to be rich.

He became a beggar

when he invested all he owned

with all that another owned, together.

The other was a beggar who wore a costume

he had found, of a rich man.

Now the other owns the beggar’s riches.

The other’s costume is appropriate, now,

and the beggar owns the minus

that the other once owned.

Mother

Mother is a wise

gentlewoman/economist/psychologist.

She holds out her arms:

"Come to me. You are my children.

We’ll struggle together."

Mother breaks a tiny peppermint sweetie

into six pieces

for her children, who range

from two to twelve:

"I don’t have enough

but there’s enough for everyone."

Mother is full of surprises:

"I played with white children

when I was a child.

No problem.

They hadn’t learned about racism, yet.

Their father used to take me to school

in his car,

on a rainy day,

with his own children.

No problem.

By the way,

I’ll teach you how

to play the piano."

Father

Father is a carpenter.

He drives a nail

with a hammer

into the