Like Mr. Shawn Carter has stated in one of his rap lyrics, “death don’t discriminate, it eliminates all”!This statement couldn’t be any truer. Death visits us even in our most untimely hour and it has recently knocked on the door of one of my friend’s closest family member (My Sympathies…). Of course, there is nothing that can physically nor scientifically be done to escape its grasp, but we can all cope with the situation and make two choices: live within the agony of sorrows of a lost loved one or move on with cherished memories that live beyond our physiological existence.
I was on the phone with my friend to convey my comfort towards his loss yet be somewhat of a conduit to his time of need. I will be attending the wake of his fallen family member today not to only mourn the death but to also celebrate his living memory.
So, after getting off the phone with him, it inspired me to write/type this poem dedicated to this subject matter from his emotional perspective. This was the first time I ever wrote the piece on paper prior to typing and aggressively editing it to my satisfaction:
In Loving Memory:
"Full With Emptiness"
Yet another passing
Time has flown away like two white doves prepared to meet their maker
Fluttered wings flap with aspirations towards new beginnings
A new day rests at the far end
Though the plight of my heavy loss has left an estranged emptiness from within
Burning with flames of rage untamed
Flooded rainstorms can't quench my un-healing temperament
Only fuel for the void that expands with vastness
Deeper sorrows clawing my chest cavity like a clamp forcing its will upon my rib cage
Seemingly never to find ease from the spiritual birds that flew away from my aching palms
Leaving behind the melody of memoirs once cherished with flights of delight
Also melodies of screeching harmonies that broke through the sound barrier of my universe
Screaming freedom with deliverance from the worldly sins and his loving kinship
A trade from existentialism toward the ascension of transcendentalism
Physiology holds no bounds
Leaving once again a bigger empty hole
Gravitating like a vortex
Unexplained by science
Growing in hunger
Nourishment is needed for the malnourished
Unfulfilled with fulfillment
Estranged with the mediocrity of nature's thievery
To take back what once belonged to me
Now returning to the ground that I stand in
To be buried beneath my cold feet
Warmed by your decaying skin and bone
Dust will remain to blow in the wind to travel distances beyond worldly fathoms
Night travels for so long until day breaks
The end of the tunnel is at the end of this long heart race
The hole soon grows shallow like the depths of a stream
To shine under nature's light
My skin-deep circumference is recycled with inner peace
I breathe a new air left with celebratory memories of thee
Symbolic to your blank color
Majestic to your angelic figure
Parted between the wings of your nature
Forevermore to fill the gap that was once created by you only to be sewn back together by a simple white smile
Last weekend was another eventful two days dedicated to the art of bone chilling, heart warming and aesthetically portrayed words, that which we call poetry. Thanks to the Azul Smoker, I gained an experience that had me enveloped in an environment of afro-centrism, hip-hop oriented, finger snapping, and musically inclined feel.
It started at the notorious Nuyorican Poet’s Café by which was my first visit. Honestly, I pictured it as a grandiose atmosphere of waited tables, chairs, big stage, banners, but on the contrary, it was the opposite, nonetheless grand in essence. I watched talented high school kids perform with a passion that evoked a sense of enjoyment in my seated stature. Urban Word NYC will be competing for Nationals next month in the state of California. GO NYC!
On the following day, I spent another exciting evening at Le Poisson Rouge.It was filled with celebrity poets congregated to perform a live show with singing, background instrumentals and floetic vocals on the mic for everybody’s nightly enjoyment. I was enamored by the experience. And what I took from it was the amount of practice, diligence, and preparation required to reach such a big stage. On top of that, the fun, amusement, and jollification; also, the interaction between artists and audience alike, feeding off each other chi, all conducive to a great night of poetry.
On that note, I will be attending more in the future and one day grace the big stage in the near or far future.
