"Reggae is Africa humming her favourite tune. Slaves singing as they cut cane in the heart of paradise. Reggae is Two Sevens clashing on the top of a hill... Reggae has only one king, but a vast nobility... Reggae is chatting over 12'' version sides at your brethren's house when you were thirteen. Reggae is a Super Ape . Lee Perry. Lee Perry?? LEE PERRY!! MADNESS.

INSANITY. GENIUS!!!. .. Reggae is the sweetest voice on the face of the Earth singing over a bassline of pure THUNDER.'' *** Vejay Steede, a 26-year-old Bermudian poet, has received international exposure through the publication of his ten-page poem "Reggae'' in an anthology entitled "Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry''.

Mr. Steede's achievement is particularly noteworthy since he was the only writer in the anthology who was previously unpublished -- the other contributors read like a "Who's Who'' of Caribbean literature and includes Linton Kwesi Johnson, Olive Senior, Kamau Brathwaite, Jean Binta Breeze, Lorna Goodison, John Agard and Grace Nichols.

The book, which has been published in Canada by Goose Lane and in England by Peepal Tree Press Ltd., may soon go into a second printing in the UK.

Mr. Steede is currently on Island substitute teaching for a year in between studies. The young Bermudian was studying history and literature at the University of Sussex in England when he decided to send samples of his poetry to a few small presses. About a year after he sent his poems, he got a response asking for permission to use "Reggae'' in the anthology.

"I wanted to get this particular poem out there because I think it's a piece of work that can be looked at and learned from -- and if you can cross-reference everything in here, you're pretty good,'' Mr. Steede chuckled.

"I wrote the whole thing in a weekend. It's something I've lived with, that all of us have lived with, and you really don't need to be inspired to write about what you've lived.'' Mr. Steede said he's currently working on an epic poem about slavery, which, he noted, is an inevitable topic for Western writers.

"Every literary artist coming from our part of the world eventually has to deal with it,'' he said.

"There's a place for flowery poetry, but if you want to live in reality the serious issues have to be raised.'' In Mr. Steede's biography in Wheel and Come Again, he refers to himself as being primarily "nationless'' -- which he said was for "historical and technical reasons''.

"I despise the idea of nationalism -- people are killing each other for borders all over the world,'' he said.

"Technically, I'm a Dependent Territories Citizen, so what nation am I from? Identity is more than what passport you hold and what part of the world you're from,'' he added.

Although this is Mr. Steede's first major poem to be published, it's far from the only bullet in his arsenal.

He's self-published two booklets of poetry while at university which he occasionally gives to his friends -- one entitled "Reggae and Other Poems'' and "born 2 b blakk and other poems''.

Wheel and Come Again is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.