A poem, like any art form, storms through the creative within without warning. There is a magic to writing a piece, a sadness to letting it go, and an ecstasy to performing it for and with an audience.
Life happens, and through the experiences we evolve, and as we do, so does the medium through which the art is received and transmitted. I have seen the direct relationship between the evolution of my own self, and the very poetry I write.
I’ve been writing and performing spoken word, on and off, since 2003. I’ve also established a creative and spiritual platform in Southern California for artists, poets, and musicians.
Several years back, I reached a point at which I realized the importance and significance of writing and expressing poetry that is as close as possible to the essence of things. The essence is simple, universal, and relatable, and the further away one moves from that central point, the more complex the phenomena and the more difficult it becomes to communicate art (or anything else for that matter). The complexities we see in the universe are derivations of what is simple. We live in a world that is experiencing a great divide; secular versus the spiritual, the illusory versus the real. However, both sides are part of the great collective that is moving in one direction. So it becomes absolutely necessary to create art that transcends labels, identities, and other forms that distance us from the essence. Creativity at its purest form should reflect and communicate the essence with the essence of who we really are; for we are not the color of our skin, our socioeconomic status, or our political or religious affiliation(s). We are a self, an intellect, a heart, and most importantly a soul; they make up the essence of who we really are, an essence we should seek to connect and communicate with.