Harold Mikal Smart was born in 1949 in an oil camp named Cruse that was located near Point Fortin, Trinidad and Tobago. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to St Margaret’s Village, Claxton Bay. At age three, he was sent to live with a cousin of his father at Vista Bella, San Fernando, where he has spent most of his life.
His first two years of primary education were spent, one at San Fernando Methodist and the other at Coffee Boys Anglican, after which he attended San Fernando Boys’ RC for the last five years of his primary education. His secondary education was at St Benedict’s Collage, La Romaine. In his final year, he was elected the head boy.
Professionally, he has been a primary school teacher. He graduated from Mausica Teachers College in 1972 and taught at Vos Government Primary School, Gasparillo from then until he retired as its principal in 2009. He is also a graduate of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad.
Harold Mikal is an artist by inclination specialising mainly but not exclusively in the painting of abstract pictures and in copper repousse. His art can be seen on his website mikalsmart.com.
Harold Mikal started writing verse seriously when work demands and family responsibilities made it too challenging for him to sustain painting pursuits, which were much more time-consuming. As a teacher of children, with many experiencing reading challenges, he successfully wrote and used verse for his pupils as a means of getting them to respond better to the printed word than their text was able to. Two of the poems ‘Recess’ and ‘In the Drain, In the Rain’ have been included here.
Since 2009, he has been giving equal attention to painting and to poetry.
Twice married and once divorced, Harold Mikal is the father of five sons and, to date, the grandpa of four girls and two boys.
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