I had a ton of fun reading from my masking book and performing some poetry from my book, Sprung (even though I was coming down ill that morning 🙁 ).
It’s been a while since I’ve been on the mic spittin’ words. I returned to oldies but goodies, as they’re deeply embedded in my memory and I can recite them without practice. (I didn’t make time to rehearse).
Here’s one of them, from way back in my late teens:
Torn
Torn like a thorn ripping through the tender flesh
Confused in two worlds that by nature do not mesh
Divided like a canyon that separates the land
Undecided like the dice held within the dealer’s hand
Wanting to be kind with a soul that’s filled with rage
Not knowing what I’ll find every time I turn the page
Trying to be gentle in a world that’s full of hate
Feeling rather mental in this contradicting state
Sometimes I want to heal it upon the sacred mound
Or maybe just conceal it as I crush it to the ground
I am driven onward by my desire to create
Yet sometimes it’s hard to focus in this life obscured by fate
An easier existence I long for in my dreams
But the path of least resistance isn’t always what it seems
So I live with the torment of this life misunderstood
Always opening up doors that I never knew I could
But nothing leads me closer to the answers that I seek
Nothing external to define if I am strong or I am weak
No one to truly grasp all these dilemmas in my brain
Just those who stand outside and judge if I’m a genius or insane
©1990