The First 50 + 1

Yes, I know, most poems are drawn from personal experiences. Well just to let you know, this book is not solely on my personal experiences. Some of the events in the book did involve me, but some are just things that I observed in a regular day. You’re free to decide what I went through or what I simply saw someone else go through. However, the main purpose of this book is to open up your eyes and mind to the deeper things of life. My intention is to change or mould the way an ordinary person thinks while exciting the reader and make getting the information or motive interesting. Please note the poems are done mostly on serious life based topics, from love to success and health etc. While this book makes some harsh points throughout, I don’t intend to verbally harm anyone. Please read with an open mind and if you find yourself guilty of any remarks, it’s for you to use it as a motivation to do the right thing. While writing, I tried various styles of poems, word play, different forms and basically just developed each poem with its own special form which I created. While writing, all ideas of the styles of poem came directly from my own thoughts. Please forgive me if any of the styles that I used was already established, I honestly didn’t research any forms of poems as I tried to come up with my own. Again, read with an open mind and enjoy.

As you might know, my name is Zelvan Phillips and I'm 21 years old. I was born on Dec 6th in the year 1990. I was born in Kingston, Jamaica of the West Indies and grew up in the country part of the Island being Yallahs, St. Thomas. I attended Excelsior High in Kingston, graduated in 2007 with four CXC subjects out of a possible six, and migrated to the USA on Dec 7th of that same year to live with my mom, Angelene Jordan. I lived with my dad, Howard Phillips, most of my high school years, up until 9th grade when he passed. I lived with my grandfather for the remainder of high school. Life has thrown its challenges at me, throughout high school and especially after I moved to the US and had to work while attending college, Bronx Community College (BCC), all at once at age 18. It was difficult due to the fact that in Jamaica, as a child your only requirements are going to school, behaving yourself, getting good grades and doing your house chores. Now working fulltime and attending college while fulfilling those other requirements is another thing. I had my first job at 17, working at a KFC and Taco-bell almost 2hrs away from home. However, I didn't work during my first semester at BCC as I wasn't sure what to expect and I also had the responsibility of representing the college in soccer along with sitting five courses. I passed all classes with B- or higher that first semester and participated in every soccer game for the college (Fall 2008). For my remaining time at BCC I worked numerous jobs, played another season of soccer and did fulltime semesters. I graduated in 2011with my Associate Degree in Sociology.