My Poetry Corner February 2026 features the poem “Uprising” from the poetry collection Belmont Portfolio by poet, preacher, and retired teacher and librarian John Robert Lee, published by Peepal Tree Press (UK, 2023). Born in 1948 in the Caribbean Island nation of Saint Lucia, he majored in English and French Literature, including Caribbean Literature, at the University of the West Indies in Barbados (Cave Hill Campus) and Jamaica (Mona Campus) in the early 1980s.

Ordained in 1997 as an Elder of Calvary Baptist Church, Lee continues to be active in his local Baptist Church where he preaches occasionally. While he remains connected to the pulse of Caribbean literature and the arts, he is no longer actively involved in theatre and broadcasting as he once was. Father of three children, he lives with his wife in Saint Lucia.

During an exclusive interview with Caribbean Writers and Poets Magazine in November 2023 to talk about his poetry collection Belmont Portfolio, Lee said:

“I explore my world and what is happening in it, Caribbean and international; my culture and its history, its music, both traditional and contemporary, its life in all that complexity; my own personal experiences of maturing, aging, and my ever-deepening faith.”

Belmont in the title is a historical and cultural neighborhood in northeast Port of Spain, capital of the Caribbean Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. During his stay in Belmont, while attending the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) in 2019, Lee took photos of the area that later inspired a series of ekphrastic poems.

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