Original Works by
JaMeS
Back with a vengeance & perfected purpose
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About the Poet
THe Voice Behind THe Verse
"I lost the power of speech for an entire year. Now every word I write carries the weight of silence survived."
James is a former investment banker, 2x cofounder, and stage IV throat cancer survivor who lost the power of speech for an entire year. These poems — handwritten in journals between 2000 and 2003 — predate the silence but prophesy the reckoning. They wrestle with identity, faith, materiality, and the relentless human search for purpose. Now he's back with a vengeance and a perfected purpose: to share what was written in the dark, so it might resonate in the light.
3
Poems Featured
2000–03
Written
ATL
Based
Featured Works
THe Poems
Handwritten in journals, carried through years. Click any poem to read the full text.
BACK OF THE CLASS
In life you sit at the back of the class past by the last, new math you can't pass yet always ready to show yo' ass, alas, shame overtakes you for…
In life you sit at the back of the class
past by the last, new math you can't pass
yet always ready to show yo' ass, alas, shame overtakes you for
you dull your pain through daydreams of cash
yes – just one big stash – yes – just one big lick
and you'll make 'em all sick, quick, so to the illusion you stick
just the same – chaos you claim abdicating your name
for a chance at the game your spirit you maim
fame… forever just beyond reach
you're called upfront now to teach
your chance for all to see – more importantly for you to show
that you do know – dormant seeds once planted eventually can grow
to the front you now confidently go…
walk that walk… talk that talk…
magic wand is the chalk… the teacher you balk
just about to bust the convention and
open the door to the dynamic dimension…
Oh shit! did I forget to mention that
in the back of the class they don't pay attention
and now that new math is wippin' that ass
like staring into the looking glass
although easily over 6ft tall you're feelin' real small
… tryin to stall … shrinking while you crawl
for you can't save both face and ass
– as you reclaim your seat at the back of the class.
REALITY VS. MATERIALITY
I am the scion of the solution son to the evolver of evolution whose divine power emanates in elocution casting forth his revolution of absolution…
I am the scion of the solution
son to the evolver of evolution
whose divine power emanates in elocution
casting forth his revolution of absolution
birthing the distribution…
of sufficient grace to transfigure a race
in whose face is found the trace –
of the divine…
if we but first remind of a time
in which the mind was refined
where the true Son did shine
where materiality was a crime
perpetrators punished with hard time
sentences served in prisons of closed mind
yet… a hope of parole one can find
in the following line – sublimely defined:
Materiality = shadow behind the back of reality…
MISSING MIND
Thoughts of anger and frustration caught in a vice like grip… anticipation of desperation blind following the blind into the ditch i trip…
Thoughts of anger and frustration
caught in a vice like grip… anticipation of desperation
blind following the blind into the ditch i trip…
40 days and 40 nights lost in the wilderness at the back of my mind
feverently searching for that which i've left behind
that which was bequeathed to me and undeniably mine
for even the prodigal did return in time
his true purpose to find
oh seeker of a sign I am the seeker after the same sign
sense of self i seek to define
toward the prodigal allegory i now incline
for you see i've lost my mind
yes, i've lost my mind
yet i seek to find – to this regard
throughout my past i rewind
as to that part of me – a
pow of the babylonian captivity
desperately needing to see
repatriation of what i used to be
if the sum doth equate to the whole
then to be whole is my geometric goal
as capitalism steals the communal soul
but in the meantime
between time
i exist in the sublime and wrestle with the cipher that is my divine
until i find
the key to my missing mind
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THemes & Tags
Faith
Reckoning
Identity
Seeking
Redemption
The Divine
Struggle
The Prodigal
Purpose
Materiality
Grace
Silence & Voice
Captivity
Wholeness
Survivorship
Allegory
The Back Row
Babylon
Rebirth
Reach Out
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