Words for the Soul: The Cure for Poetry, Hip-Hop, And Spoken Word: Volume One

Words for the Soul: The Cure for Poetry, Hip-Hop, and Spoken Word (Volume One)

Copyright © 2015 by DeJuan A. Cuffee

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Photography: Gerald Pendleton (Pendleton Photography)

The models on the book cover are DeJuan and Marsha Cuffee.

Please respect the fact that this is art, and it is meant to entertain the reader. Though there are a number of opinion pieces in this book, in no way, shape, or form does all the poetry entailed within, depict or allude to the lifestyle, mindset, or actual character of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4835566-5-9

First off I would like to thank God, for without him none of this is possible, I’d like to thank the love of my life, my wife (Marsha), and our beautiful daughter (Brooke), my Pops and Mom (John and Carolyn), yall are still my heroes, my little brother (Chris), hold your head up, my crew, the Horsemen (The Mighty Reid, Nate, Don, Vaughn, Cool D), you are all my brothers from another mother.

To my Facebook friends and family, you know who you are, those that have read my poetry and shared their poetry with me, written poetry with me, thanks for inspiring me.

Thanks to Gerald Pendleton for providing his expertise on the cover photo.

This book is dedicated to all of those that have lost their lives unjustly no matter what the reason was, whether it was because of war, disease, bigotry, hatred, domestic abuse, child abuse, economic hardship, or the like. This is for the underdogs, the people without the voice, let my words scream for you.

Thank you,

DeJuan Cuffee (Sultan)

Contents

Chapter One: The World We Live In

Pearls

Yes, You’re a Woman

Ruins of Madness, Closer Than You Think

Not Guilty

Devil May Cry

Truman Show (Television These Days)

The Art of Storytelling

Wars for the Sake Of

Truly Yours

Downfall in Two Acts

Show More Teeth

Quickies Make Love to Short Stories

Fiends

Sniff This

Encounters of the Opposite Sex

My Love for Katrina

Chapter Two: A Pure Romanticist Locked in Time (The Adventures of the Don Part 2)

Classical Music

My Molecular Theory

Right Before My Eyes in Three Layers

Captivating, Truly Captivating

Love Debris

The One and Only Don

Julie

Light My Fire (Featuring Flame On and Why Not)

Joie De Vivre

The Julie Files

Another Draft Bust

Model Number 2090 (Excerpts from Planet Zudo)

Sample the Ole Pleasurable In-Out Fascination

I’m in Love with an Alien II (Excerpts from Volume 3 – The Lady I Love)

Thinking about Love

Can’t Let Her Go

Intermission

Chapter Three: The Art of Poetry

One of Four

Music for Aliens

Back in the Day

Rock On

Sometimes the Man, Always the Don

Appetizers

All Day

Everybody Knows I’m Here

An Ego as Wide as the Universe II (Times Like This)

Scenes from a Movie

Speculations of Grandeur

Conquer Thy Enemies (Visions of War)

Habit Forming

Crown Me (The Reunion)

Real Horror Show II (Discoveries of Disillusion)

Time on my Hands

Introduction

Most likely this introduction is a little different from what you are used to. Welcome to my world. In this part of the book, just pretend you are in a supermarket where someone is giving out samples of food, a taste test of sorts, well, in this case I’m giving out samples of poetry, appetizers if you will, before you actually dig into the main course, enjoy these brief excerpts.

God told me nobody wins

as I came up short in my bid to convince him that revenge

isn’t as bad as the original sin committed by men,

well Lord, how about survival,

not trying to witness a genocidal revival,

even Ms. Tubman had to aim a rifle

at those slaves that tried to trifle with the freedom of the others

Can you blame her?

– Excerpt from Randomness (2012)

I obliterate your first rate blowhards into fragments and shards,

leaving their fan bases scarred,

expose my world of bizarre to your overrated all-stars,

exposing the mirage,

I disassemble Babylon in my garage,

step right on up for the next beating,

these lines are colder than your ex-wife at the divorce proceedings

– Excerpt from Abductions (2013)

Chapter One: The World We Live In

Pearls

(2015)

Never take your wife for grant it,

her and your children are your biggest blessings on this planet,

salute to those that are fortunate enough to understand this,

many men are incapable of standing on their own two feet,

their bad life decisions have reduced them

to being homeless in the streets,

they babble on about what they need

in order to be complete,

possessing the characteristics of a leech,

a burden to their family,

leaving behind the plague of lies and deceit,

is this you,

the man that never laid eyes on his son or baby girl,

here, save these pearls…

because it wasn’t too long ago when evil men enslaved this world,

who am I kidding,

with disease, addiction, physical and mental prisons,

along with the misinterpretation of religion,

mankind is still floundering about like primitive pigeons,

hold your arm out for the incisions,

with more backwards ass conspiracy theories to mix in,

misleading stories intentionally fed to the public,

don’t you love it,

political puppets corrupting governments,

man has been uprising since, I don’t know,

forever,

look here,

you push that button, she’ll pull that switch,

I’ll pull this lever,

maybe, just maybe,

we can figure out a way to do this shit better,

but don’t be too clever,

because first they will assassinate your character,

then murder you altogether,

your history will be in ruins,

like you were never even here,

fuck your race,

if you’re not of a certain breed or class,

you may as well be a pile of waste,

replaced like a condom,

they’ll find your family and bomb them,

napalm hymns,

still,

sex is why we all exist,

but even that has been corrupted

into robots with tits and a dick,

what kind of madness is this,

as television and social media raise your kids,

what you consume adds to your mindless bliss,

another princess starved for attention slits her wrists,

I went corporate because shoveling manure was the pits,

rather use my mind than raise my fist,

but at times,

they must both coexist,

an ongoing saga to resist being spiritually tainted,

shameful how righteous acts have been

wrongly portrayed and painted,

racism is still being used as a weapon,

attending so many funerals behind fear and misperception,

these here pearls are the exception,

may they prove as contraception

to eliminate the birth of further ignorance…

Yes, You’re a Woman

(2011)

Why oh why do women,

black women,

die poor, lonely, and sad,

tell me why oh why do women,

black women,

die poor, lonely, and sad…

The roach ridden projects are the destination

as our black women struggle within a nation

whose only answer is a crippling crutch termed welfare,

when you’re poor who cares,

a predominant mentality,

I don’t have to describe the same ole grim realities,

rap music has that covered,

figured I’d hover above a different celluloid,

and dissect the primitive poisons that leave the future of

our race null and void,

an experiment gone bad,

actually,

I can’t say that,

those bastards are glad that stress, poverty, and drugs

have created handicaps, landmines, and mishaps to paralyze a generation,

what’s your favorite radio station,

Jason just got shot over his PlayStation,

accepted rationale,

dancing to the gunshots on a nightly basis,

is the system racist?

On what can one base this?

Oh, my black women,

I wish I had the answers, I wish I had the answers,

Perhaps we,

black men,

are the culprit,

constantly fucking you over,

and not staying for the result,

nine months later may as well be centuries later,

respected like slave labor,

we