Pull Quote: “It was so good to read. And you used to do poetry in school. You had to do poetry. You used to have to say a poem, memorize poems, but that is not happening in schools anymore.”
By Leon Suseran
It is indeed a momentous and special occasion when one lives most of one’s life and then suddenly discovers their inner being, their talent, and finally comes to the realization about their true purpose in this world. You continue to live your days when—just like that—it hits you! Your gift which you had possessed all the time within you is exposed, strengthened, and then you nurture that gift for the good of mankind. Loved ones around you lend you that support and this makes it all the more worthwhile.
So it is with this week’s ‘Special Person’, Mrs. Stephanie Felicia Bowry, who resides at Smythfield, New Amsterdam.
Writing poetry is not everybody’s favourite thing to do these days. In fact, our generation today has lost the essence of what poetry is really about. Many of us do not even read anymore. Most young people today do not know what it means to truly love and appreciate the messages of poetry. Mrs Bowry not only loves and appreciates poetry, she lives it! She is renowned in literary circles for a creative way with words – in forming verses that can sooth the soul. She has appeared in almost every major centre in Guyana where she was called upon to perform and dramatize some of her more popular pieces of poetry.
Her love for poems and short stories has matured today in the publishing of three books, with the fourth one at the printer’s desk.
Stephanie Felicia Bowry was born at Cumberland Village in East Canje on September 6, 1946, to Henry and Duchess Thomas. She grew up for some time in Cumberland, and then moved to her current location of Smythfield. Her father, who went away while she was very young, was a plumber and her mother, a domestic. She had 3 brothers and 3 sisters.
Her memories of childhood are as vivid as they come. She sat down to share some of her more pleasant memories. She can’t remember being unhappy or hungry, and even though she did not live in a mansion, she had so much fun.
She got married in 1978 to one Mr Richards and then later in 1985 to veteran Berbice footballer, Kenrick Bowry. They met since they were both employed with the New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council’s Office. She was employed as a Clerk and subsequently took a course in Foundation in Accounts. She was then transferred to the Treasurer’s Department. Mr Bowry was the Officer in charge of the Town Constabulary. Her second marriage, she noted, allowed her to see herself in a different light and this paved the way to a deeper self-discovery. The first union bore 5 sons – Dwayne, Graham, Richard, Anderson, Mark – and the second union bore one, Colin.
After retiring in 2001, she continued by working with the Business School in New Amsterdam and Comforting Hearts, a Non-Governmental Organization, as Finance Officer. She was also involved in a lot of social work, “sensitizing school children, work places….counseling generally and so on”. She also worked with the Roadside Baptist Skills Training Centre.
Stephanie enjoyed spreading the word about HIV/Aids and helping persons to live safer lives and to adopt better behaviour patterns. During this period, she gained meaningful experience working with employees and talking to them about Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
“That kind of work gave me a kind of fulfillment and you feel that you have at least reached one person.”
Despite being an introvert, Mrs Bowry somehow was able to “come out of the shell”, and then it all began.
“I discovered myself and then I was able to blossom. Sometimes, because of lack of opportunities and environment, you become sort of pressed down. You have talents, or you can do something, and they are not allowed to come to the fore, but then, as you go along in life, and the opportunities come, you discover you can do this or that and then you have the chance to rise.”
So who encouraged that transformation and self-discovery? She credits “the inner strength and belief in myself that I got from my [second] marriage”, because “everything fell into place”. “Sometimes we need people. I just needed my husband at that particular time, so he helped me to see that I was somebody.” And the rest, as they say, is history.
“I discovered that I could write, that I had a voice, I could speak, that I could reach and touch people, and then I became me,” Stephanie said. She added that she was transformed from being shy and quiet to somebody outspoken, not afraid to speak, not shy to act, “because I acted and dramatized my poems”. “Since then I have performed at so many occasions… political, religious and ordinary social forums, schools and elsewhere”.
She did write poems for no special purpose before her marriages. Some of these poems were sent to GuyFesta. “They had a segment for written work and I got certificates of Excellence for each of them.”
Her first book, ‘A Splendid Dozen’, a book of poems for children, was self-published in 2000. Her very good friend, Bernadette Persaud, whom she met while performing a poem at Castellani House, encouraged her to start publishing her poems. ‘Esteemed’ was published a little later on, followed by ‘…and Departing Leave a Star’.
“They say fact is stranger than fiction. Strange stories that actually happened to people, so I just dressed them up”, she explained. Writing, for her, is a process. “You find if you write something now, and it is perfect, and then tomorrow, you decide to read it over, there is something you want to change”.
Everyone wants Mrs Bowry to perform at their events. She has exhibited her talent at venues such as the National Cultural Centre, Castellani House, Ocean View Convention Centre, City Hall, N/A Town Hall, Hotel Tower, Umana Yana, etc.
“I like telling stories, so I decided to write some”. A good writer, she stressed, needs to “reach his audience, find a way of writing that will make the person want to read, to continue to read, and to not abandon the book at the first page. Your opening sentences are very important. People like suspense and they like language; the way you put the words together, and the way the sound together”.
She makes use of a lot of poetic and literary devices in her works, such as similes, metaphors and alliteration, all of which she says spices up the poems and stories.
The very first poem she wrote and won during GuyFesta, ‘The Two Faces of Death’, was written shortly after her “very favourite brother died”. She had just visited the morgue in Georgetown “and he was lying there, helpless on the shelf”. That was her inspiration to penning her first piece. “The feeling that took me, I found peace only when I got home back, expressing it in writing”. She shared the poem during the interview, a part of which says;
“I saw death; I walked into his chamber once,
when he was unaware;
I saw his ugly form crushed below beside the altar,
upon which laid the broken body of a man, young, uncaring, dead.
Somehow I stifled my desire to claw death’s truth,
to force him to repent his treacheries against mankind
and sought the victim’s face, alas!
My brother! My father’s and my mother’s child!
With whom I spent so many days,
the memories of now which race like madness through my brains!”
“Guyanese people don’t buy poetry,” she said. And this sparked a new discussion, or rather debate as to whether poetry and reading are dead in Guyana. She related the passion and excitement persons in the past had while visiting libraries.
“When I was a child reading was so important. The library was at Church Street, New Amsterdam, the librarian used to have to chase the children out, because nobody was going home. They (children) used to hide the books they needed and that were in high demand, within the shelves so that they could find it when they would go and borrow.”
“It was so good to read. And you used to do poetry in school. You had to do poetry. You used to have to say a poem, memorize poems, but that is not happening in schools anymore,” she asserted emphatically.
Mrs. Bowry blames the system for changing this. “Now I find that the teachers, even if they try to teach poetry, (they) don’t know how to teach poetry. There is scarcely English B being done in CXC now.”
The self-made poet opined that teachers today ought to be knowledgeable about how to teach poetry and to help children to critically analyze poems. “There is no real longing after poetry. We used to do nursery rhymes since you started school ‘Jack and Jill went up the Hill’; ‘Mr Dan is a man in the van’. Maybe it sounds stupid, but it is alliteration.”
“But we have let the little good things slip out of our hands and it is hard to come back,” she reflected thoughtfully. “A child can benefit from loving poetry because he or she will develop a love for language. Your speech will become finer and poetry is something musical. If you can say a poem, and speak with the rhyme of the poem, you can make a good speech also,” Mrs Bowry added.
“It loosens your tongue, poetry. Poetry is my life. I love to do poetry, to perform all kinds of poetry. I do monologues, too. I take stories from the Bible and act them,”- one of which was the story of Sarah when God promised her a child, as well as the Red Sea Crossing and the Leper that was healed.
She performs these undertakings on her own without assistance from organizations or other sources. She does receive much-appreciated professional assistance from the likes of Mrs Ameena Gafoor, who edits ‘The Arts Forum’ column in this newspaper, and has featured Mrs. Bowry’s work on several occasions.
“Ameena Gafoor is my friend, and I usually email the stories to her and for her to read. She chose one ‘Faster than Lightning’ to put in her Journal ‘Guyana Review’, as well as the story ‘Cuffy Watch’.” Mrs Bowry has a few copies of her books at home – the publications were usually available in bookstores across the country at one time.
The Women & Gender Equality Commission bestowed upon her a special accolade in August. She was among 51 other women who received the honour in recognition of International Year for People of African Descent.
She then shared with me two special poems in one very special book she compiled, ‘….and departed leave a star’. They were both very long poems which she had penned for “my two deceased great leaders, Presidents Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan”. ‘The Last Story’, she wrote and read a few years ago at the Botanical Gardens for the death anniversary of President Burnham. Then she read ‘The Last Journey’, which she wrote specially for Dr Cheddi Jagan at his funeral at Babu John in 1997.
When Mrs Bowry is not writing short stories and poems on her computer, she enjoys dancing and gardening.
She ended with a few words of wisdom. “Don’t give up on reading. If you read, you learn to write, because you will get ideas from the same book you read and it will make everything for you easier… your essay and speech making and everything. Don’t let the television tie you down, read! There is so much knowledge you can get from reading.”