I started out as a Hip Hop head listening to Biggie and KRS-One and Rakim and Group Home. I fell in love with the New York state of things and lyrics. It was something I could relate and respond to. Coincidently, a friend of my mother's lived in New York and she taught me about the Harlem Renaissance and Brooklyn and the Nuyorican Poet Movement. 

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In high school, I was one of the cool kids, but quiet. Most thought I was shy, but I was just reserved. I had a lot going on in my life and I was doing even more just because of the stigmas in my environment. Writing was my escape from that. I printed out my first novel and sold fifty copies. It was a romance novel based on the stories of my brothers and I. At the time writing was like I was having movies play out in my mind what I wanted to write.

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Poetry was an afterthought for me. I started off thinking that everything had to rhyme, but then I adapted to the words. It was amazing to write the hardest things and it would shed a tear. I could write about something horrible to go through and make it soft and running with emotions that it possessed and provoked at the same time.

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Poetry is an elemental blend of so many different things. I write from every angle because there are so many sides to life that we mistake and neglect. I write on different subjects and combine them in topics that might not fit because sometimes it doesn’t hurt to try something different, like sweet and sour or hot and cold. I write things because I know we feel different things and it is worth doing.

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Ready

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these wings,

princed in artistry,

may fall and rise

more now,

these webbed tentacles

will grab air

as if it is solid

and somehow solidify

the fact that dreams

do not fly away

like this,

these annexations

will tilt in a hemisphere

on an atmosphere so stratospheric,

it will be the impeachment

from the reality of normalcy

that the exacerbation and exasperation

will pool off the wing tips

and dovingly,

this body will become

the angel it prey as,

and these wings will go

to a different rhapsody

to be deceitfully docile

within the fruitation

of idle inspiration

being falsified by the sweet glamour

the sun makes the new pond look or love,

still, these wings

will fly outstretched

to eternity

because this is the feeling,

this is ready

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I write now from a place of understanding and curiosity. Losing my mother made me want to know what else I may be missing not only from the world, but myself. I write to challenge others and myself. I write to keep the bar interesting. It’s hard to identify where and why people write nowadays because it’s the same thing over and over. I write to exploit and change that.

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I love prospective writing and I use that in not only my poetry but in my novels and articles as well. We’ve lost our reality in fantasies. That is all we’re interested in now, things we are not used to and things we want because we don’t have. I write reality novels because I love the simple things in life. Something simple can also be the most complex thing in life. It’s exhilarating at times and very special. I write to tap into those moments because it’s relatable.

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So, although I have my mother to thank for my writing, for giving me the tools to be who I wanted to be, from books to the encyclopedias people sold door to door, I know that from the first, writing was familiar to me. No moment is ever dull. I would love to call it my job or passion or hobby, but it’s so much more than that. Writing is who I am and I write because of that. It’s my life.

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Thanks for reading JWorld Café, The Poetica Magazine Blog

Balik Whack, Guest Blogger

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Balik Whack is the creator of "The Vulgarity Report" and is focusing on a company called "The Starworks Company" to help develop writing programs for underprivileged children. He is a columnist for UNIverse.com and working on reprinting his first book of poetry, “Likage” as well as two more books of poetry, “Deconomics” and “Star Conversations.” He resides in Norfolk, Virginia where he is active in poetry open mics, and is a member of Java Poetry Club, Hampton Roads Writers and Virginia Beach Writers. He can be found on Facebook or can be emailed at decskills@gmail.com  - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor