Have you ever been in a long term relationship where you got so comfortable that found yourself in a place where you began to take the love for granted? Then one day something occurs, whether simple or special, that reminds you why you fell in love in the first place? Or perhaps that something causes you to fall in love all over again? Well, on Saturday evening that happened to me. I renewed my love for poetry. I simultaneously found myself thrown into the midst of a love triangle because what I experienced renewed my love for my city too. It was ignited when I went to a screening of a documentary about poetry in my city called, “Televising a Revolution of Spoken Word from Detroit.”

It touched on the city’s history of poetry, how poetry relates to hip hop, poets as revolutionaries and activists, the spoken word versus the written word and slam poetry. It highlighted poetic pioneers such as John Sinclair and Naomi Long Madgett (Lotus Press), and trail blazers such as Jessica Care Moore, Khary Kimani Turner, Omari Barksdale and Stephen “Sparrow” O’Neal.

The documentary was brought to life with performances where poets not only wrote poems for the sake of poetry, and they not only spit for the sake of entertainment, but they all delivered soul stirring pieces that dug deep.

This is the very reason that for me and poetry…it was love at first write.

When I could think of none other than self-destructive ways to cope I turned to poetry to process my emotions. So in a sense, poetry saved me from internal spontaneous combustion.

That same poetry evoked such emotion in others that I began to wonder whether I was supposed to keep it to myself of share it with the world.

It then became a way to capture precious moments that might meld into my massive memory bank and fade away. It also served to take traumatic times off of my mind and out of my heart so that I could move on and heal. I could put those hurtful moments on a page, move on to the next chapter, then ultimately close the book…A book that I would then pass on to another, who could relate, and see that they are not alone.

I fell in love with Detroit all over again, because although people tend to focus on the negative, I was reminded of the raw and pure talent that oozes from each and every pore of this thick skinned city. The cultural and literary arts scene is so rich and vast that I would shamelessly dare to compare it to any other major metropolis. All we need is a Motor City Makeover of our mindsets because all we have to do is open our eyes to see all of the natural beauty that the city holds.

It was an awesome experience to see the finished product of something from someone that is not just out to make money, but to make something meaningful…a masterpiece.

Initially I’d gone to see my cameo appearance in the documentary, but I got so much more out of it. And the executive producer, Dina Bey, had the audacity to apologize for there not being more footage of me. I had to explain to her that I was beyond honored to be amongst such poetic royalty, ink slanging icons, and living literary legends. I would even go as far as to say I felt unworthy…but I won’t, because I am hot in my own right. A contemporary to be exact, because that was what I was listed as in the opening and closing credits amongst profound talents such as Marsha J. Carter, Jamaal “Versiz” May, Men-Tal, Ber-Henda Williams, Cassie Poe and BLK to name a few.

I’m in love with poetry. I’m in love with Detroit City. They are the flint and the spark that starts the fire of the creative energy that burns within me.Visit My Website