Prepare for a brand new book of poetry in 2017, and to help you get ready is the video above. Play, watch, listen and then click the embedded link to hear the featured spoken word inside of this upcoming release!
Sunny Sides of My Shade
AMAZON NOOK iTunes
Poetry with perspective is everything in Sunny Sides of My Shade where the poetry tells symbolic varieties of stories, African American in nature, along with many of their possible walks in life, from the sunny, or good sides, versus the shaded, or bad sides – who they are, have been or will be, in thought, action or deed, from the funny, failures, stereotypical, uplifting, encouraging, romantic, angry, lost, and the lovely.
The title Sunny Sides of My Shade represents the many sides of being someone of color, what thoughts could make them smile in the middle of turmoil, slavery, and free lives, in love and out of love, lost love and complete love, dirty deeds and mixed creeds, broken faces in bruised places, hatred and despair, uplifted and dragged down, rich and poor…just a great people with many sides of their shade that are actually very sunny and passionate no matter which way things are turned because through it all, there is ultimate survival.
Below are two poems from the book of poetry, Sunny Sides of My Shade.
With Her Black Self
With her black self…
She has black children
With a black man.
That forms a black family,
And they’re married too.Her black children are smarter than mine.
I must admit, I get jealous from time to time.
Her black man even earns a good living, too.
They don’t beg, steal or nickel and dime for their due.She has a black family,
And I’m so shocked they weren’t depraved.
When they moved into my neighborhood,
I just about died and went to my grave!I would look out my window
And peep through the blinds.
It was all I could do to keep from crying
When her family behaved better than mine.With her black self…
Behind the Poem Titled “With Her Black Self “From the Author
The whole stereotype of the black family in general is that they are broken, lesser, unintelligent and wild. All of these adjectives that tend to be linked to the African American family are widely stretched and wrong. The fact is that there are many black or African American families that are in tact, intelligent, successful while maintaining control of their every emotion responsibly which is the opposite of wild. For as a matter of fact, most of the time, we see the intelligence of the black person every day, on and off television, in the streets, restaurants, office buildings, hospitals, schools, etc, however, many people fail to attach these positive attributes to the African American.
This is why I wrote the poem With Her Black Self. It comes from the vantage point of a person with negative preconceived notions about black people and the black family. This person was shocked that there was actually a full family with good credit enough to move in right next to her. Instead of going to meet the people, she learned of them only by watching through the blinds, keeping her distance, as she watched a man with legal employment. She found, to her shock, that an African American family really is a real family who even behaved better than her children. All this to say that color doesn’t make the man or woman. It is what is inside.
The main teachable aspect of the poem is to forget whatever negative myths/stereotypes there are about the black family because it (the black family) really does exist and exists very well against all odds. This fact makes it another Sunny Side of My Shade.
Life Saving Love I-IV
If I could take my love and fly away, I would.
When I feel the urge to drop him from the sky, I wouldn’t.
I fear that he would crumble without me.If my love would crumble without me,
Then a naive girl would have to sweep up the mess,
With no idea that he can’t be put back together.
I digress…If he can’t be put back together,
Then there is only one purpose for the sweep.
We will mourn for his life together and clutch his dust as we sleep.And when we both awaken to his ash,
I will steal the most important pieces of the stash.
His heart will be gone, flying in the sky with me again…Alas.
Behind the Poem Titled Life Saving Love I-IV
Life Saving Love are the stanzas of one poem split apart as introductions to each chapter changer in Sunny Sides of My Shade. It’s truly a love poem, a life saving love poem as the stanzas speak of an incomplete and dying yet never lost, resurrecting and protecting type of love that a particular woman has for a particular man.
Each stanza is broken from the complete poem and titled Life Saving Love I – IV, and the last stanza is at the end of Sunny Sides of My Shade. Read Life Saving Love in completion and unbroken below, and download the book of poetry Sunny Sides of My Shade now.