Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Life Pages: A Poetic Path to Self-Empowerment
    Life Pages: A Poetic Path to Self-Empowerment
    Life Pages: A Poetic Path to Self-Empowerment
    Ebook115 pages52 minutes

    Life Pages: A Poetic Path to Self-Empowerment

    By Darryl R. Carr and Gregory D. Carr

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In the human species, there has always been the mantra that we are higher-order beings. Even though the Homo erectus led to Homo sapiens, it is still true that we share some common DNA with great apes. Theyre proven to have reasoning skills, dexterity, cognitive and affective domain traits, as well as the social paradigm structure of nuclear and extended families.

    With that backdrop, its hard to figure out what caused the social breakdown of modern society, and particularly in the African-American persuasion. No physiological, sociological, psychological, or ideological constructs are able to prove clinically and/or empirically whats wrong.

    New Yorks Hells Kitchen, Miamis Overtown, Chicagos Westside, Garys Glen Park, Memphiss Orange Mound, New Orleanss Ninth Ward, and Los Angeless Compton could well be the same places where all the same social stereotypes and maladies are ever-present. The same could be said about most other US urban centers, as they relate to the fate of African-Americans. To be sure, the black male is a low-valued commodity and is arguably close to extinction.

    Life Pages is an anthology of poems that will take you on a sensory journey of emotions. Its aim is to inspire you to seek and gain a better understanding of history and a better self. I hope youll embrace or at least find new appreciation for our ancestors crucibles, pain, and unwavering fidelity to their personal constitution. When boiled down to a low gravy, that means you should approach life with zeal and forthrightness, with all deliberate speed. I trust that among other things, you will come away with the distinct understanding of the thought processes of the inner-city youth, and the day-to-day struggles growing up in todays society. This is a quest to figure out where the black youth belong in this swath of earth called America.

    Man can clone man, but hell never be able to clone my pains!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateJun 20, 2018
    ISBN9781984534545
    Life Pages: A Poetic Path to Self-Empowerment
    Author

    Darryl R. Carr

    History. His story? Whose story? My storywhat Ive witnessed! I have a dream, was not my story. By any means necessary, was not my story. Crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge, was not my story. My story is being the twelfth child of a married couple from the Delta of Greenville, Mississippi that moved to Chicago, then Gary, Indiana, in the late 1940s. My story is their 8th and 10th grade educations. My story is about them cobbling out an upbringing for all sixteen of their children, even though one died just a few days after birth. As I pen this ode of homage to them, Ive lost three more of that original sixteen. Oh yes, this is my story. Hand-me-downs? You better believe it! Meager subsistence living? Yep! Knocked down many times, yet answering the bell after each? Take it to the bank! Evicted? Absolutely! We were the very caricature of heads being bloody, but unbowed. My story is about growing lush vegetation, in the aftermath of the tsunami. This is my storymy life pages. Our literary ancestrythe proverbial family tree, if you willis heavily laden with low hanging fruit. If we dont harvest it now, it will fall to the earth and rot. I will prevent it from falling, because Id be unable to bear the stench of its decay. This fruit is sweet and delectable; it is the life blood to us. The smallest and newest buds are our children. If its not nourished and harvested in a timely fashion, that fruit will parish, without exception. What fruit? Tyler Perry, Carter G. Woodson, James Baldwin, Oprah, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou. Oh, the wafting of sweet aromas. This book is underpinned by these luminaries, and their life struggles that preamble their subsequent eminence. Accordingly, the following volume of poetry seeks to send a powerful message of struggles and successes, emphasizing inner-city tumults, faith, family, and future for African Americans. This is Life Pages.

    Related to Life Pages

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Young, Scared And Feared

      Apr 23, 2023

      Young, Scared And Feared
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Happened to Empathy?

      Oct 12, 2023

      What Happened to Empathy?
      6 min read

    • Article

      This Native American Life

      Oct 12, 2018

      This Native American Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letter to My Son

      Jul 4, 2015

      Letter to My Son
      30 min read

    • Article

      A Border Need Not Be A Wall

      Apr 1, 2024

      A Border Need Not Be A Wall
      6 min read

    • Article

      Leaping The Moat

      Apr 17, 2020

      Leaping The Moat
      3 min read

    • Article

      Leaping The Moat

      Apr 17, 2020

      Leaping The Moat
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Myth Of The Moral Middle

      Nov 5, 2018

      THE FIRST TIME I FOUND MYSELF FACING A political dilemma was in the year 1976; I was 5 years old. My parents were what we used to call “movement people,” veterans of the civil rights movement who leaned toward black nationalism and pan-Africanism. My

      5 min read

    • Article

      On Ants, Life, And Spinsterhood

      Jul 30, 2018

      A note on entomology: A type of ant has been discovered that engages in suicide bombing. This ant, the Colobopsis explodens of Borneo, wriggles so hard when threatened that its body breaks, releasing a toxic slime that repels predators. The ant, of c

      5 min read

    • Article

      Why We Must Look At Grief

      Apr 16, 2022

      Why We Must Look At Grief
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cause For Optimism

      Jul 10, 2022

      Cause For Optimism
      2 min read

    • Article

      Surviving This Pandemic Isn’t Enough

      May 10, 2020

      We need to remake the world we left behind. And we need to start with how we care for one another.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Boy Unerased

      Jan 8, 2019

      Boy Unerased
      5 min read

    • Article

      Power With, Not Power Over

      Aug 15, 2019

      I don't know if words can transform the world -- I know they can't bring back a murdered child -- but I have a few of them to scatter on the grave of Derrion Albert, the Chicago boy whose brutal slaying stunned the city and the nation: I would ask th

      3 min read

    • Article

      We Must Turn Off The Gas

      Dec 9, 2023

      GASLIT. Anyone else feeling it? Saffers would be grateful for any steady light right now, but enough with the gaslighting already. Stick with me here. Remember that to fix something, you first have to see it’s broken. Gaslighting is defined in the U

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Upside Of Social Media

      May 22, 2020

      The Upside Of Social Media
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Life Pages

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Life Pages - Darryl R. Carr

      Copyright © 2018 by Darryl R. Carr.

      Library of Congress Control Number:   2018906990

      ISBN:      Hardcover        978-1-9845-3456-9

                      Softcover          978-1-9845-3455-2

                      eBook               978-1-9845-3454-5

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Rev. date: 07/12/2018

      Xlibris

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      780900

      Contents

      Foreword

      Dedication

      Haiku Poems

      I WITNESSED THE GHETTO

      Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

      Vietnam

      Reflection (Letter to the streets)

      Chip Off the Old Block

      Lonely Cell

      Broken Portrait

      Mona Lisa

      We’re the Prey

      Trapped

      Black Lives Matters?

      Where Were You (Daddy)

      What’s going on?

      FAITH

      The Greatest (Part I)

      Unworthy

      These Open Arms

      My Diary

      Tomorrow

      Assassination Of The First Black President

      Alzheimers

      I’m in your corner

      Homeless

      The Greatest (Part II)

      HISTORY

      Letter From A Slave

      Letter To A Slave

      Mahogany

      The 5⁴th

      My Father’s Father

      LESSONS & BLESSINGS

      Concrete Road

      Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

      Jasmine

      Soul Food

      Lady Liberty

      Eyes Wide Shut

      Double Murder

      LOVE & PAIN

      Tear Stained Love Letter

      Love Under Construction

      Ghetto Love

      Secret Garden

      Black Diamond

      Harlem Renaissance

      Time Will Reveal

      The Tenth Day

      Finally

      EDITOR’S CORNER (GREG D. CARR)

      The main event

      The Prey’s Prayer

      Half Past This!

      Point Well Taken

      Pulpit Pimpin’

      Blood of My Blood

      Epilogue

      Foreword

      In the human species, there has always been the mantra that we are higher order beings. Even though homo erectus led to homo sapiens, it is still true that we share some common DNA with great apes. They’ve proven to have reasoning skills, dexterity, cognitive and affective domain traits, as well as the social paradigm structure of nuclear and extended families.

      With that backdrop, it’s hard to figure out what has caused the social breakdown of modern society, and particularly in the African-American persuasion. No physiological, sociological, psychological, or ideological constructs are able to prove clinically, and/or empirically what’s wrong.

      New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, Miami’s Overtown, Chicago’s Westside, Gary’s Glen Park, Memphis’s Orange Mound, New Orleans’s Ninth Ward, and L.A.’s Compton, could well be the same place, as all the same social stereotypes and maladies are ever-present. The same could be said about most other U.S. urban centers, as they relate to the fate of African-Americans. To be sure, the black male is a low-valued commodity; and, arguably close to extinction.

      Keep Hope Alive! Black Power! Soul Brother! Each One Teach One! Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud! Hands Up: Don’t Shoot! Black Lives Matter! I Can’t Breathe! Sound familiar? Hollow words falling on deaf ears? Do you believe in evolution? Food for thought!

      As a black man, and retired Navy Senior Chief, growing up in Gary, Indiana, and the greater-Chicago area, I’ve seen an awful lot. I’ve heard the stories from young men all over the U.S. and abroad, while serving in the U.S. Navy. I’ve drawn this conclusion: We’re from different ‘hoods, but the same streets. Yes, it’s hard to compete with the influences of millionaire athletes, rappers, and drug dealers when it comes down to keeping ones boys on the straight- and- narrow, try if you may.

      I’ve been a mentor, father figure, confidant, advisor, and the like to any number of young men from 16-30 years old, over the years. Some listened and some didn’t. Some went to jail, and some to the graveyard. That said, I still feel that I’ve made a difference. Better still, I know I have, with all due humility. How? They tell me all the time when I see them in their professions, or in the general public, particularly those who seemingly were headed for destruction. Guru? Not by any stretch! Strongly opinionated? Bet on it!

      All we can do is what we can do. Telling them what to do, no longer works. However, explaining and reasoning do, for the most part. Above all, we adults must do what we don’t do very well—LISTEN to them! If we look inside ourselves to the extent that we can, or are willing, we’ll acknowledge that if we

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1