As I have gotten older, reflecting on all that I have witnessed and wondered, I would call myself more of a writer of poems, more so than a poet. That was what I was, when I wrote my first poem for my grandfather’s funeral when I was 12.
I found myself bound by structure, rhythm, rhyming, more than what the piece needed to say. Today, I let the piece tell me what to do, and I follow the flow.
It may begin in a rhythmical structure, but then go off course to new directions. The words appear on the page and then when completed, I’ll see what it has to say and leave it alone. Titles are the last thing to emerge.
The initial lines are to draw the reader in, like a Caribbean market street vendor. To keep them there, carress them, switch on a light, or blow out a candle.
It is not so much autobiographical, but penned as a reporter, bearing witness to life events, conversations, wishes, wants and fantasies – not all of my own.
The Last Poets
Amiri Baraka
Nikki Giovanni
Sandra Sanchez
Langston Hughes
I had to discover them on my own, because they were not taught in our public schools. They were searching for me in the darkness, and one day, I found them.
A writer of poems, I am…
