“Neglected but Undefeated”: The Poem Behind the Book’s Title

Some titles are chosen for how they sound. Jonathan Anthony Burkett’s memoir carries a title that reads like a verdict on his own life: Neglected But Undefeated. It is also the name of one of his poems, only ten lines long, and lines from it open the very first chapter of the book. If you want to understand the whole story in a single breath, this poem is the place to start.

The poem

Neglected but undefeated
I say to you today
Never believing my childhood years
Was about to hit the ground and,
Heartbreaking trials and tribulations
Was along the way
But I stand here today
Neglected but undefeated
Striving to succeed
Into a pathway of victory

— Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated (2012)

Notice how the poem moves. It begins with a boy who never saw the trials coming, and it ends with a man standing upright, still striving, on a “pathway of victory.” Both words in the title are true at the same time. That is the point.

What “neglected” means in his story

The book’s subtitle is “The life of a boy who never knew a mother’s love.” Jonathan was born in Miami on February 1, 1987, and sent as a baby to live with his grandparents, Arnold and Lynn Burkett, in Westmoreland, Jamaica. He felt they were truly his mother and father because of the love they gave him every day.

In March 1993, a month after his sixth birthday, he was brought back to Miami. There, his mother kept him away from her, often refused to feed him, and beat him. At eight she put him out of the house. By fourteen he was sleeping on the streets, in cars and in parks. Looking around her house as a teenager, he found no pictures of himself and none of his school awards. In his own words: “I felt so unwanted, unwelcome, uninvited, unasked for, unneeded, and useless.”

That is neglect: not only what a child suffers, but what a child never receives. It is also part of why the book exists. His psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist and counselors told him he needed to let it all out to move toward a better life.

If you know a child living through something like this, please act. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911. In the U.S., the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is 1-800-422-4453.

What “undefeated” really means

“Undefeated” does not mean Jonathan was never knocked down. He was knocked down again and again: by grief, by seizures, by homelessness and by words no child should hear. It means he kept getting back up, holding on to his promise to his grandfather that he would become a successful man in America.

He realized it as a boy, after nights of beatings and no sleep: “Yes, I realized I was a survivor.” Years later he wrote, “I’ve brushed myself off and gotten back up with the help and the love given to me by my Father God in heaven.” And he is honest that he did not do it alone: “If I couldn’t get up, God had someone else come into my life to hold my hand and help me back up.”

Those hands belonged to real people. A teacher, Mrs. Vigness, ate lunch with him in her classroom for a whole school year after his grandfather died. His godmother, Marise, a hospital worker, cared for him like a son and found a surgeon who would not charge him. Strangers fed him. His little brothers sneaked him into the house to shower and eat.

The story in brief

The book follows one long road. Here are its main turns:

1. Jamaica: a happy early childhood with his grandparents, the best years of his life.
2. Miami, 1993: a new country and a home where he was neglected and beaten.
3. Loss, 1996: his grandfather, the man he called his superman, died in November.
4. Seizures: his first seizure came in 1997; doctors later found a tumor in his brain.
5. The streets: years of parks, bus stops, friends’ couches and a shelter.
6. Turning points: a judge who ordered therapy, a jail guard’s words, and a decision to change.
7. Surgery, 2006: a craniotomy on January 30 at Memorial Regional Hospital, two days before his 19th birthday.
8. A new start: forgiveness, writing, and becoming an entrepreneur.

Striving to succeed

The poem does not end with “I made it.” It ends with “Striving to succeed.” That is an honest ending. Jonathan has written that he still has “mountains to climb and a rainbow to follow to find my pot of gold.”

If your own life has a hard word attached to it, whether neglected, abandoned, sick or broke, this poem offers a different way to hold it. You do not have to deny what happened. You can name it plainly and still add a second word. Neglected, but undefeated. Hurt, but still standing. The first word tells where you have been. The second tells where you are going.

Try it today: write one sentence about your life that holds both the hard truth and the hope. Keep it somewhere you will see it.

Read the whole story

This poem is the shortest version of Jonathan’s story. The full version, from the crossroads in Westmoreland to the operating room in South Florida, is in Neglected But Undefeated, available on the Books page. For more of his poems and quotes, visit the Quotes page.

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