Warner Brothers- Poetry

At our Warner Brothers mentoring session yesterday, the mentors and mentees had the opportunity to express themselves using one of the rawest forms of communication. Poetry was written and read with the help and guidance of Street Poets. Street Poets not only shared some of their amazing, deep, and real poems but they helped create a space where our young people felt safe to not only write about their stories but also share them with the room. The poem below is from one of our young men who was forced to move away from his family in the Central Valley and move in with his aunt in South Central. The problems and violence that threatened the safety of this young man and his family forced him to leave and continue his life else where. His poem reflects the emotions he struggles with as this process continues.

When I speak
I start to panic
Trying to find the right words
Trying to find the right verse
To express how I feel
I feel empty
I feel sad
Or do I feel proud of myself
I left my family to better myself
To set an example for my brother
That would make my dad proud
I left so my mom wouldn’t cry
When she saw me out there
No more calls from the school
Giving them bad news
No more calls from the cops
Telling them they had to come pick me up
I look at myself in the mirror to think
Where I’m I, did I do the right thing leaving my family?
They say its ok, I got a new start
I better myself no more problems,
I don’t have to watch my back
Bit when I speak to myself
I still feel empty inside.
I wish my family could see
And be here for me
But instead we are miles apart
I hear their voice on the phone
Its not the same
Sometimes I don’t know how I feel
But sometime when I speak
I’m proud of myself.
I reached my goal that I promised my dad,
I did what some homies told me was WACK
But I think about it
So now when I speak
I do it to get ahead in my life
I don’t know how I feel thought
But I guess that’s life.