I Am – Author Lawrence Mashiyane

By Raja's Insight on October 16, 2016 • ( 0 )

I am a Man

Not just by genitalia or the way

I was woven in the womb of the woman

I thus call Mother

But, as well, by the ambition of my heart

That leaves me swung to and fro

The hands of failure and success

The battle scares of life, my heart knows well

I am Black.

Yes, it is the colour of my skin

And the rest of my African kin

And kin all over her blue and green face

It is my colour, but not the extent

Of my intelligence, ethics and morals

It does not restrict my abilities

And nor is it a cognitive dissonant

That I can be both black and highly capable

I am Gay.

A Homosexual.

Not cursed or blessed but just ruled

By the beat of the drum that,

Inside me, beats loudly

The beat of my heart

That magnetic attraction I get

When I meet someone

And happen to be taken by them,

Romantically, intimately and yes,

It just so happens that the person

Is the same sex as I

I am Human.

A Homo Sapien,

The same being as you

Breathing oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide

Heart pumping blood through my veins

Just as yours fills your veins

It is my heart, mind and soul

That make me Human,

My gender, race and sexuality

Do not make me less Homo Sapien that you

I just am who I am.

Excerpt form the book “Divided Lines – A Poet’s Stance”

Foreword . . .

In a world of ever increasing advances seemingly created to make our lives easier to manage, envisioned to bring us together, to draw us closer, we are still in many instances isolated and at odds and validly apart. Something is missing, there is a snag, a rip, a hole in the spiritual fabric that we all see; yet we continue to fail to address.

It has been said by self-proclaimed philosophers, theologians, scholars’ and politicians that the abuse of words can be a danger, there are those that believe words are a leading factor in what ills our society. Of this we do not deny in full, there have been abuses, history is but a melody to that fact, yet it is also true that words have the innate capacity to bridge, to heal that which divides.

Opinions, views, religions, nations, people, even love divides. The focus of this book and the poets here in, is to give breath to a wide range of issues both small and controversial that lie beneath the surface. Things that we are often hesitant to discuss. In saying that, I will offer that the role of a poet is not to persuade or to add more rhetoric to the static we hear. A poet’s responsibility is to shine the light of awareness, to create a platform for dialogue, for healing, to gather up the images in an attempt to understand what we see.

Demitri Tyler, Author

Now Available at: www.createspace.com/5573754

Creative Talents Unleashed: www.ctupublishinggroup.com/anthologies.html

100% of all proceeds from this book are being donated to the “Starving Artist Fund” to assist writers in becoming published authors. Purchasing this book can help a writer become a published author!