A Little Poetry Anyone?

Howdy! As it may be known - I dabble in creative writing often in the form of poetry. I started writing poetry during the fall of 2020. It happened spur of the moment and randomly while watching an interview between Jay-Z and Dean Baquet on The New York Times YouTube Channel. I’m not too sure which part of the interview it was, but Dean asked a provocative question on race and Jay’s answer moved me so much to the point that I paused the video right there and started writing.

Since 2020 to now I have amassed some 100+ complete poems. I have attempted to combine some of my works into a full length poetry book, however my novice knowledge of poetry books at the time had accumulated pretty much a patchy story of my true thoughts and intimate feelings. I was proud of the work, however I did not want that to be the first work I put out for people to get to know me.

I have since contemplated with the idea of a chapbook for my first release. For those who don’t know what a chapbook is, it’s a small paperback booklet containing tales, ballads, or as in this case, poetry. This would be more marketable and much more concise and to the point, thus a great introduction method to my works of poetry.

While I entertain the idea of a chapbook, enjoy this excerpt from the piece I wrote while watching the Jay-Z interview (this happens to be the first piece of poetry I’ve ever written).

“They see I’m black and the way I dress and suddenly they try to put me in a box.

Because I’m tall dark and a man people think they can label me

Don’t take the time to realize I’m not a trapper, but an artist.

I learned from afar that trapping is just that.

A trap.

Especially if I get caught alone in the dark.

And don’t let me be in a car in a white neighborhood doing the same things that every white man could.

Cuz they see that as a threat…”

- Young Black Artist by Christopher “MOOD GIVENS” Moore