We continue our celebration of National Poetry Month with a very special pair of poets. In this back-to-back double post, Tracie Morell and Desmond Collier, two highly successful poets from Erie, Pennsylvania, are the only Mother-Son combination to be featured here at 5Writers this month. As a reminder, 5Writers is celebrating National Poetry Month by offering one poem for each day of the month from ten different poets. Each poet has graciously shared with us three poems each: one that inspired them to write poetry, one written by a friend of theirs, and one of their own. A list of our contributing poets and links to their entries follow this entry.
April 19, 2015-Desmond Collier
My name is DC and I’m a rapper from Erie, P.A. I love rapping and it’s my passion. Rap stands for rhythm and poetry. So the lyrics I write I try to keep poetic as opposed to the mainstream songs about drugs, money, and sex. I hope my positive message can prove more powerful than the negativity that is all around. If you’re reading this, you probably have read my lyrics so go like my page on Facebook DC.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
April 20, 2015-Desmond Collier
Sins
Jake Monroe
Walking through the fields of fire
always fuels by lust and desire,
greed and gluttony,
sloth and pride.
These are the sins
that people abide
through lost hope
and unintended reactions.
They lie in their grave
with the past of their factions.
It’s quite interesting of you can’t see
how the weights of the world
can crush the strongest of them.
Just like an ant picking up ice
karma is a bitch, and you won’t suffice.
You’ll get frozen by her frosty bite
with a chance to struggle, but none to fight.
For she like you to try with all your life
before she stabs you in the back with her frosty knife.
The queen of life, the queen of death
if you’re not kind, better savor your breath
but if you’re kind, your life will be saved
she respects the bold, and admires the brave.
April 21, 2015-Desmond Collier
Who I am Today
DC
You can set me on fire leave my ashes out to lie
And if I start to perspire maybe I’ll come out alive
And as the flames grow brighter we all go tonight
And as it takes me higher we scream we’ll never die
The say were creatures of the night
They say that we are impolite
And that’s one thing that’s not right
You judge us but don’t see our might
I’m soaring like a kite
Watching the indigo sky
The stars all look like small lights
In the sky up so high
In the Milky Way
I have to say
We should seize the day
Because we all just keep on munching on ripple Lay’s
Looking up at the world above us
We’re so small in a world that’s humongous
You know that most things are redundant
But stupidity is so abundant
Do you realize
What’s beyond the skies
I can’t compromise
What in the afterlife
Because on earth
Although things hurt
We’ve been in the dirt
We’ve been hurt
But we’ve felt heaven
Forget cloud nine I’m on eleven
Average days on seven
But it’s all unrelenting
And as we slowly lose our youth
Like gets hard like pulling a tooth
There’s days we need a truce but that’s just life you see its true
But I’ll never again
let the world ever pretend
That I’m severing ends
When I’m making amends
And you know that we’ve all changed
but from toddler to teen. We can’t stay the same
There’s a change in our brains
But there’s times where we can seem insane
But I must admit
I’m in love with my sins
And I’ve been to the bottom of the rocks
The long nights where my line was crossed
So I know one day I’ll take it to the top
And I’ll be the one to make it where everyone else stops
And although it seems like we all have had our rough times
When we had to rock climb
And we lost our cloud nine
When we’ve just felt like dying
But I’ll be the first to say
No pain no gain
Because although it’s been a long way
My scars have made me who I am today.
National Poetry Month and…
Dominique Traverse Locke (4/1-4/3)
Art Zilleruelo (4/4-4/6)
Robin Clarke (4/7-4/9)
Cee Williams (4/10-4/12)
Melissa Prunty Kemp (4/13-4/15)
Tracie Morell (4/16-4/18)
Five Writers 