Filleting fish with 

a sharp machete, the master

bad as yaas! Fiyah! 

Poet, Filmmaker and Media Personality,  Falloon-Ried is also an adventurer, and is credited as the first Jamaican woman to visit Antarctica and has written, Antarctic Adventures with a Jamaican on Ice, 2020, that chronicles her trip. Here she talks about her new collection:

Jaiku, is a collection of Haikus and photos. In 2022, my husband and I moved to a small town called Puerto Armuelles on the Pacific Coast of Panama. The shift awakened my creativity in a new way. I had always been an amateur photographer and a nature lover, but living steps away from the untamed Pacific Ocean, having a yard filled with fresh fruits and flowers that grow and free from the stresses of America, I started writing haikus to accompany my photos and posting them on social media. The response was overwhelming. For me, this collection is a testament to the power of nature on our mental, spiritual, emotional and physical state.

Mango blooms in heat

A promise of things to come

Summer tun up high. 

While many authors sometimes find it challenging to come up with a title, Falloon-Reid’s focus was clear

Jaiku is a combination of Jamaican and haikus. I have used that hashtag for the past three years on social media to describe my combination of photos and haikus that often include Jamaican language.

It’s been three years in the making although, the idea of creating a book to house the photos and haikus didn’t materialize until early 2024 when friends and social media followers suggested that I create a book.

While the world cries blood

my garden blooms love and peace

man could learn something. 

Responding to the importance of this collection now, Falloon-Reid reflects on the technological impact:

In a world where AI seems to be taking over, it is important that live photography continues to have a space on bookshelves and in people’s consciousness. AI can never replace a photographer’s eye. AI has no emotion, empathy or ability to see beyond the natural. It simply mimics what already exists. I also live to inspire others to see their creative work, whatever it is, as valuable and I hope this collection will inspire photographers and writers to think outside the box.

A single red stone

defies the waves. I shall not

be moved. Be the stone.

While a writer’s process is often an indication of her productivity, Falloon-Reid keeps it simple but her ambitions are not:

I simply write as it comes. I know my main characters and storyline and how it begins then let it surprise me as it unfolds. I follow my characters as they tell me their story.

I aspire to be a famous author. I just want to write everything that is within me until my mind stops giving me words and my inkwell runs dry.

Writers, like the general public, are impacted by the social factors that arise. Here is what Falloon-Reid has to say about living under Covid 19, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the present US President:

I have always been considered a poet who speaks to issues of the day. I continue to write on the black experience, living in Amerikka and social justice in poetry. Jaiku is a little different. It has a mixture of observations, inspirations and social themes that accompany the photos and although most are haikus, there are a few poems as well. For example, the poem No Trees Aloud accompanies an image of machinery deforesting an area and speaks to the problems of gentrification and cutting down forests to build concrete jungles and the impact on nature. I also try to inspire hope in poems such as the one below that accompanies an image of a sprawling tee with massive roots.

With strong roots spreading

your leaves will shake, branches bend

but you will survive.

And like many writers who complete one project then go on to the next, Falloon-Reid might be doing some back-pedaling:

I am working on a relaunch of my novel The Silent Stones as well as filming season two of Mirrors in Paradise, a six-part series I wrote for PBC Jamaica, based on my book Are Mirrors Cleaner in Paradise?

The Silent Stones was first released 10 years ago but my mother passed away shortly after its release. I am updating it and doing a new cover before rereleasing it later this year.

Finally, the quirky thing about Falloon-Reid that you might not know is:

I don’t like structure, capital letters or punctuation. I use a lot of fragments. And, I like to start sentences with “with” and  “and”.

Website: jfalloon-Reid.com

YouTube: youtube.com/@Judithfalloonreid

Facebook: facebook.com/jfalloonreid

Instagram: instagram.com/barefootislandgirlja