Category Archives: poet

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Beverly Collins, author of Quiet Observations

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Beverly Collins, author of Quiet Observations
(Xlibris)

Here goes… I am a simple soul who loves all things Art. I was born and raised on the East Coast (Central New Jersey) and currently live in Southern California. My dream is to write full-time and work for an organization that is focused on healing the damage to our oceans… I wrote a poem in Quiet Observations called “Losing our Lease” which speaks of our need to respect Mother Earth.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Quiet Observations?

Beverly Collins: The idea came to put this book together because there seemed to be a theme coming through me, and the book was writing itself. Many of the poems would come to me when I was trying to sleep, and I had to get up and write. I have one poem in my book that I called “Awake” because it would not let me sleep.

JP: What sets Quiet Observations apart from other collections of poetry?

BC: I wanted this book to uplift, inspire and remind us of the simple truths we all Continue reading 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Beverly Collins, author of Quiet Observations

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… The Greatest Poet Alive, author of The Confessional Heart of a Man

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
The Greatest Poet Alive, author of The Confessional Heart of a Man
(iUniverse)

The Confessional Heart of a Man Heart of a Man is my debut book. It contains poetry of different styles and themes. The Confessional Heart of a Man is a book that will appeal to non lovers as well as lovers of poetry.From beginning to end,the reader will feel as though they are looking into the author’s life.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write The Confessional Heart of a Man?

The Greatest Poet Alive: While I was incarcerated, I had been writing poetry for Continue reading 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… The Greatest Poet Alive, author of The Confessional Heart of a Man

Book Review: The Confessional Heart of a Man by The Greatest Poet Alive

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
The Confessional Heart of a Man
by The Greatest Poet Alive
(iUniverse)
3 out of 5 Stars

The Confessional Heart of a Man is the debut poetry collection from The Greatest Poet Alive (GPA). Leading this collection of lyrical introspection is an intensely lusty poem cryptically entitled “A Thousand Times”. The mixture of word forms an enchanting imagery of an infinite desire. With the second poem, “Even In Death”, I was reeled into the power of GPA as a wordsmith. I could visualize his view on love with a bone-chilling clarity. Instead of keeping that momentum rolling with something like “Love Letter” or “Death of a Love”, GPA caught me totally off guard with a crack high in black-and-white entitled “Anticipation of My Love”.

There are many subjects covered in The Confessional Heart of a Man. GPA touches on “baby momma drama”, serving time in the penitentiary, the “n-word” and many others. But GPA is at his best when he expands the possibilities of love and lust with his vivid imagination and control over a vast vocabulary. Even poems like “Stolen Moments” and “Metaphor” are intriguing in their approach to the otherwise mundane or socially wrong. In “Stolen Moments”, the way GPA phrases the adulterous sentiments of a man speaking to his mistress is a lyrically beautiful as any marital bliss. “Metaphor” meanders through metaphors to express uninhibited lust taken out of a female suitor.

Throughout The Confessional Heart of a Man, GPA proves that he is much more than an erotic hustler of prose. The book has four main themes: love/lust, relationship problems, incarceration and black power. He covers each easily. Poems like “Dedication” and “My Thoughts as a Woman” stood out in the crowd because they showed the depth of GPA’s intellectual muscle. His openly discusses the difficulties of relationships gone awry. His love/hate relationship with the “n-word” is just as expressive as his thoughts on black nationalism. He even sheds an unapologetic light on Black genocide at the hands of the police.

It is easy to tell that GPA is a spoken-word poet. The words are there, but I knew that there is a unique way that the poems are supposed to flow. It was like reading a rapper’s lyrics without hearing the song. I’ve had the opportunity of hearing him perform, so I knew reading and witnessing were two different things.

The Confessional Heart of a Man was hard to read because the word order he chose is easier to hear and understand during a performance, but that same word order is hard to read. All in all it is a good book of poetry by an established and intelligent poet that any poetry lover will find something to love.

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