Spotlight on Tshombe Sekou

My Story

Written by Tshombe Sekou

www.tshombeism.com

Between the rivers that run deep beneath my surface

And the war that wages above it,

There is a universe that exists, which has yet to be discovered.

Only to be written in poems for understanding and inspiration;

Though it may sing in the melody of my blackness,

Many can spend a lifetime in explorations

Trying to define the depths of my ever-expanding atmosphere.

-Tshombe

Life began for me in the brokenness of New Orleans,

where butter and sugar sandwiches and "junking" with my father

were the best things. If I could read as well as I could watch life

pass by in the ghettos of my life, I would be a scholar by now.

However, that wouldn't happen until I was sixteen-years of age,

when a family friend found me intently flipping through a TIME

magazine as if I were reading it; though truthfully I was making

up the stories with each turn of the page. Imagine going through

an entire world history letting the pictures be the proverbial

thousand-words.

After living abroad in Israel for most of my childhood, it

was time to return to the land of my birth with a whole new

outlook on life, seeing cultural appreciation at an apex, but also

at the genesis of its decline; the music began to change. Trying

to understand how to survive this starvation of cultural famine, I

began to gather with talking groups, community centers, and

ciphers in and around Chicago; getting involved in activist groups

responsible for stopping gang activity and raising awareness

about community development—Chicago is a great scene for

activism if I might add.

In 2004 I began to blog on cultural awareness, heritage

appreciation, and other cogitative material. All of which was

inspired by my wife, who encouraged my writing not only as a

form of creative expression, but also for its therapeutic value.

Somewhere in all of this, someone called me a "poet", and not

knowing really what this new title meant; I began to explore new

way of self-understanding, and a new way to reach out to pass

on a message of truth and inspiration to those who read and

listen to poetry. It was also in this year that I co-wrote my first

short play titled RUN, which was performed abroad and in the

United States.

I found love again

One that glows as the moon

Rises in the sun

Letting the rebirth be done

2005 was the year that it all came to a single explosion,

in the way of directionality for my poetry. Years prior it was just a

pen and book, but now it was time to use the synthetic-universe

(internet) for some good. Along with two other young poets, we

began an online poetry-writing group known as the Po3tic Voices

or PV if you will. We went from hosting workshops to

podcasting, and 2006 we went live across the globe with what

became known as The STORM, my first brainchild of many, and

subsequently led to me releasing of four albums of my own and

co-producing several others over the years.

It is more than just being a poet—it is the artistry of

constructing change while doing a few creative things to form

poems. The poem is the revolution and I find myself every time I

get lost, it is like learning to read backwards—seeing the words

and finding the pictures. Though considered by many as being a

poet, on most days I am a critical thinker who looks beyond the

known ledge {knowl~edge}, seeking out the fullness of purpose,

and learning to share that experience with you: Purpose driven

art. My writings are about constructing context from the subtext

of life, which aims to negate any pretext on the path of selfunderstanding—

sounds complicated I know; it truly is just simple

enough to be complex, like love or life—this is my story, help me

understand it!

Genesis, when all was dark and chaotic, space was filled with random noesis; there was no rhythm. As the silence covered the existence a poet set his mind on creating a verse that expanded beyond the concepts of time. Where time was a mere syncopation of breathing, the supreme let his thoughts roam the vastness of the infinite, in the break of silence beginning and end spoke to create a free verse, which ignited an apocalyptic chain of reaction.

An alchemist at work mixing syntax, intelligence of mathematics, chemical reactions spitting light from the belly of heaven; a light that waged war against the darkness, chaos became order making every verse one as the sun. Discovering the power of both tongue and mind, learning to let the power of the original spoken word artist who breathed of himself into my nostrils become the exhalations of inspiration. Free Verse is my chosen path, just as the Divine spoke one verse (the Uni-Verse) into the darkness and raised a sun; I am God’s poetry animated…-Tshombe Sekou

              Untitled/Genesis

It might have happened over jazz

laughs and flirty smirks, if I know him well

she with an appetency for intellect

caved despite her reservations

she knew it was stealing…love

selfish are the desires when we say “love“

a thought exercised in chemistry

the product of two souls

total oppositions drawn together

electromagnetically charged

dispositions remiss forever

they would destroy the world

to build a new one…destiny

desire transformed into love

to plant a seed, her first…

…his second

both moon and sun

sedulously instilling

themselves into

one being

birth from the dark

of their taboo

a child of struggle

burning unconsumed

given purpose by name

to illuminate with wisdom [Sekou]

the dwellers of God”s earth [Karkiyah]

Blessed beyond measure [Tshombe]

from the moment of womb ejection

injection into this consciousness

running in the race to the sun

I was conceived for this

to complete the circle.

…did they know before hand,

know what they were apart of;

envision the future to give birth

to the now; were they complicit

in love for that moment…

for this destiny…

Copyright c 2006-2011. Tshombe Sekou