Vintage Poetry Series

Not of This World (Excerpt) Please don’t be afraid as I tell you a secret, Of emotions this  human tongue can reveal, I may be in this World, but I’m not of this World, This world as we know it is not real. Oh sure… I could be the form of a million atoms, A gay gender of a certain class or race, But those distinctions seem to restrict  my soul, I’d use them to only save face. Call it the curse of being a deep mamma jamma, Since these thoughts are not produced on a whim, I have two
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Contemporary Poetry Series

Echoes in Red (Excerpt) Fury is the dart You throw to my heart When you fail to see I Am U But should I bruise The ruse Is that you are really killing yourself Hoping that I may die splendidly But mentally You can’t want for me What you don’t want for yourself Since we are one So if you commit or condone violence You must want my death Since death is the logical extension But in this dimension You also want your own death Or to be deceased Which means you really want peace Since in death there is
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Short Stories

The Rain Dance (excerpt) On the other side of me, a stern woman sat beside me dressed in lima bean Chanel.  The Bible was pressed tightly in her hand, and every other word of her mouth was  “Amen.” I think her name was Ms. Johnson, or at least that seemed to be the name of every elderly Black woman I met in the church.  The sermon went on for another ten minutes with its usual cadence and intonation.  My clothes felt hot, and I couldn’t wait to get home, eat, and watch football. A lot of the men had the
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Reflections

Sporty Tongues I don’t know when it began, but poetry has become a sport. I always thought it was disingenuous to see art used as a competitive medium, but there are a number of contests to see who can “battle on the mic.”  Poetry is the channeling of Spirit. If I am channeling Spirit, there is no battle…just sweet surrender. If art is based on truth, and in particular my truth, there is nothing you can say or do that will extinguish it.  Conversely, there is nothing that I can say or do that will eradicate your truth.  That begs
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The Ballad of Joel A. Brown, Part 1

People would say: Bro…you need to share And I thought: Boy that sounds nice People would say: Bro…you need to share And I thought: boy…a compliment made twice And people would say: Bro…you need to share You got a lot of rhythm and spice And I thought: Hmmm…let me be humble Since I’m just trying to spread my own light But it took me to new heights And people started to grasp Kindred spirits started to ask How could they get a copy of my words I was surprised because it was just me Putting a little twist on some
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