Riled & Wise

Powerful Prose-Poetry for People Who Like To Think

This is a short book of seven of my own favorite prose-poetry works (and a bonus haiku).  Some sound like stories, others like sermons.  In any case, they are all an acquired taste.

To me, they really are not that deep and heavy.  To me, these words just represent normal human feelings that most folks can relate to.  But I needed to describe them somehow so that you would have an earthly clue of what to expect.

I created these many years ago.  I have been writing in this style for over twenty years, redeveloping some of these particular works along the way.  A couple of them were used for some spoken word events (under the stage name 'Voyce') in my hometown (New Orleans).  I was never good at actually performing my poems.  I just read them to the crowd from my journals.  Although I could never match the higher quality performances of those other true spoken word artists who would be on stage those same nights, I always felt honored when they clapped for me and said they liked them (blush).  The titles are:
Incomplete
Fire-Star Love
I do
Twisted
Zen Beauty
Universal Letter
Logic and Pain 

To sample, here is an excerpt:
IV.  Twisted

Twisted thoughts that make me feel special and all alone
Twisted like:
People should live to be happy
You should love who you marry
And the only burden we all should carry is to
Take care of the earth and each other
Twisted sick thoughts like
Life is short, so families should work to
Keep the especiale bond God made
Like its okay to do what you love and be paid
I work from a corner in my bedroom
Alone
Because I’m twisted
And I have thoughts and dreams like
Giving myself to the world on a silver platter
And sharing my with my husband and daughter
Mediocre people see it like walking on water
Because I’m twisted and strange
A dreamer deranged and alone
With twisted ways like
Loving everyone
Accepting everybody as they come
As they are
Because we all fall far from
The images of imagined ideals
Somebody made up to steal spirits and
Complete their quest for world domination
Brainwashing us to believe in damnation
When the God I know would never
See us as twisted
Unworthy of any love
And leave us alone to die so
Some ‘will’ be done
That was already done with his damned Son.
It’s their own writer’s story!
Did they forget the plot?
No, they just twist it
The goal is not unity
My purpose as I pied à Terre
Is to be free
To find and see
The God in me
His image
To see in you
God’s truth
To be truth and to walk it
Lies abound so
It looks twisted
Here
I hope my sister hears it.
I hope my friends don’t fear for my life
Just because I stand my ground and
Stand alone
Because I’m really not…
See, you would want company
Sick with this energy
Riled for power, raging, growing
Inside rejecting the conspiracy
For my soul
Just know I’m around
Still hurting because you think like me and
You feel my speech but
You…you just won’t make a sound.
And lies abound so I will look
Twisted.
Mom, look... see I didn’t live in fear and
I made it all the way over here alive
I did it.
I wish you were here.
I wish you would hear me.
But you are all plugged in
Waiting on your version of heaven
Buried under thoughts like
The Devil and sin
And excommunication
And the ‘End’
And you won’t talk to me again because
I’m so ‘twisted’
The blood and flesh and spirit that
God gave us to cherish and share
Doesn’t seem to matter
I still willingly sharing my poor little old platter
Of life wide open with no remorse
I see above your prophecies
They are only the inescapable routes of
Human decision and choices that were chosen
Words in that book were changed by a king
You can tell by the ring of human frailty and sensibility
And the stubborn ignoring of universal realities
Of the real world truth we all can see...

~to finish, buy now...and thank you for reading!