Morphological Confetti

I stretched forth my arms to the sky as rich sunrays baked my brown skin creation-black Photo Source: Moonk 97 on Flickr Title: Back to the Motherland - Day 72:365

Water from the rooftop Mixed with oil on the asphalt created instant beauty Photo: SBess

Sometime back in the fall or spring 1976, I was just a boy at Washington Highland Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Well, one morning I was playing with some friends outside on the schoolyard pictured above. I remember that it was in the morning right before the bell. That morning, we laughed and chased each other around the bumpy asphalt we called our playground. Back then, there was no soft foam or sand to play on in my neighborhood in Southeast D.C. There was just asphalt, rocks, and sometimes glass. As you can see, nothing has changed.  While playing “chase” with another child, I accidentally bumped into a little girl and she fell face-down onto the hard asphalt. Initially, she did not make a sound and then she rolled over to her back and let out the most horrific scream. It was so loud that all the children stopped playing to look. I stood there amazed as I watched her older sister pick her up from the ground. At that moment, I could see that her mouth ...

Poetry entered David E. Patton’s life in September of 1968. It was in St. Louis, Mo. and the Civil Rights Movement in America was in full swing. David describes his first poem back then as “a sixteen line alternating rhyme of youthful discontent.” Now, 41 years later, David presents to us, The Trinity . The Trinity is collection of poetry and images all created by David Patton. When I first saw the book, my mind immediately drifted towards the Biblical reference of the Trinity: God, Son, and the Holy Spirit; However, David is referring to what he describes in his introduction as the “Body, soul, and mind, the trinity of the self.” So, The Trinity , to me, is an expression of self, and a bearing of one’s soul – open to the public. I’ve been reading David E. Patton’s blog for a couple of years and I’ve always found his poetry to be not only interesting, but very raw and unprocessed. It’s the difference between canned fruit and picking it from a tree. This is what I mean – he seemed to...

April is National Poetry Month! So, take out those pens, click on those keys or just finger them on the glass like you see in this poster. Hey write them in the sand if you're on the beach. As the R&B singer Charles Wright sang, "Express Yourself." I'm not going to attempt a poem everyday as I proclaimed last year, but just be on the look out. I will share my poetry from time to time on my blog throughout the month. Peace~