Poetry by Vincent Lamar Williams

You Don’t Know My Struggles
By Vincent Lamar Williams

You don’t know my struggles, where were you when my 17-year-old brother bled to death in my arms?
He laid there breathless, he didn’t mean anyone harm.
I was only 13 years of age, terrified from what I’d seen,
It left me numb for years,
As I struggled through life unable to control my fears.

You don’t know my struggles, where were you when the robber held a 9mm to my head?
If he’d barely touched the trigger, I would have been as well as dead.
I was only 18 years old, in my first year of professional baseball,
Worked hard all those years, and this incident could have ended the call.

You don’t know my struggles, where were you when my 21-year-old brother got shot through his heart?
He was way too young for us to be set apart.
I was only 20, tragedy had dealt me plenty,
And life for me had gotten so very hard.

Life began to take a downward spiral
My patience had gotten so narrow,
Until I’d gotten to a point in life where nothing really mattered.
I dipped and dabbed in crime.
There was so much despair in this heart of mine,
That it left me in a state where I didn’t care as my life was shattered.

You don’t know my struggles, where were you when my best friend on earth passed away?
My mother was a loving and caring woman, who always made my day.
I was her baby boy, and she felt that I could do no wrong.
She always showed me love, and made me feel like I belong.

God took my heart and life, and turned it all around for His divine purpose,
So why do others hate on me when greatness in my life is at its surface?
Why don’t they congratulate, appreciate, have a heart to celebrate?
My destination is success, greatness, fulfillment in this life, and then glory.
So there’s no more excuses for their hate, because now they have a glimpse of my story–
You don’t know my struggles.

I Take Your Spirit With me
By Vincent Lamar Williams

I take your spirit with me,
I take it in my spirit,
I never leave it behind.
Everywhere I travel, you travel
my love,
And whatever task only I can do, you inspire it
my queen.
I have no fate, for you are my fate,
my princess,
I don’t desire this universe, for beautiful,
you are my universe,
my trust.
Here is a deep secret I’ve shared with no one,
Here’s the seed of the seed, and the rose of the rose,
and the heaven of the heaven,
and the breath that gives life,
Inhaling and exhaling more than the lungs can promise,
or the thoughts can hide.
It’s the miracle that’s keeping the planets separated,
I take your spirit with me,
I take it in my spirit.

Glaring the Blue Sky
By Vincent Lamar Williams

I watched you glare to measure what was
Not, against what was. The Sun and blue
Sky hurt your eyes as your neck bent,

Through. Brightness no longer anything
But a dim light. Squint the old sight,
See what is visible, the rays beaming

From the shining horizon. Each stare taken
Was how you would never view enough
To stop, or stop looking before you lose

Your sight to blindness. You will never see
What the blue sky we can. The Hand holds–
Alone in its place of existence.

Outside of what He has made, and the permissible
That lies in whatever blue you have missed.

The Man MLK Jr.
By V. Lamar Williams

Under Abraham’s barren eyes
You promulgated a dream
A vison
That bloomed a sun
Where dimness had prevailed
A Vision
That be stride the eagle
With resounding spirit
Rotating high above
Whipping truncheons thudding
On naked flesh
From convulsing wilderness
You fashioned a valley
Where stain and clouds
Embraced and blended
With the voice of mankind
Hidden in his neck

Nothing Brown Can Stay
By V. Lamar Williams

Nature’s first green is brown,
Her shade of color renown.
Her beginning leaf is a flower;
But only lasting for an hour.
Then leaf wilts to leaf.
So Eden sinks into grief,
So early night goes down to day.
Nothing brown can stay.

Poetic Seed
by Vincent Lamar Williams

Poetic Seed imparted
into humans’ hearts,
Sown into the mind of dirt-
grounds of thoughts.
More than mere words;
Seed that provoke
habitual memory
and engrafted into
the soul,
Springing out of
the soil of life
as manifested actions.

Wipe Your Tears America
by Vincent Lamar Williams

Wipe Your Tears America!
Your people have come
Back to you
Out of the many storms and squalls of barron travellings
Through the crown of the wave and the uttering of
the light wind
Over the chemical element of the west
And the dimension of the setting sun
the caps of the haughty mountains
and the grasslands soaked with light
Your people return to you
out of the many storms and squalls of barron travellings .
Wipe your tears America
Your people have drunk
From all sources
of mis-fortune
and of vain-glory
And now, once prodigal, we have come to ourselves
To the magnificence of your beauty
to the smell of your woodlands
to the attractions and grace of your waters
to the pureness of your skies
to the tender touch of your sun
Are the attraction at your mass leaves
Precious by the night’s moisture
Wipe your tears, America!
Your people have come back to you
our hands full of toys
and our spirits full of agape.
We come back to dress you
in our visions, dreams, and our hopes.

First Light of the Morning
by Vincent Lamar Williams

O birth of light
Where do you hide your colors at dusk
That calm breath, that fragrance
With which you make sweet the morning air?

O birth of light
What tongue do you use
To teach the feathered creatures to sing
Their morning songs
And small invertebrates to sound
The rhythm of an American heartbeat

O birth of light
Where do you discover the good will
To accelerate the morning traffic ahead,
Awaken the freezing drunkard
And send your stray and barking dogs
To herd robbers into their dens?

O birth of light
Whose calm breathe makes young men and women
Happy to have warm sheets
Enflames the vision of single ones
And carries informal noises
To excite the Hearts of those who are married?

I Use To Be
By Vincent Williams

Barren land, devoid of fruition
a desert, from a life of neglect
pleading for showers of rain.
Then you stormed over me, and I bloomed
and blossomed.

Stifled and longing for affection
wanting for connection, but never fulfilled
submerged in desire.
You blew your breath into my lungs,
and I discovered devotion.

Lost, searching for meaning, for purpose
a stranger to compassion and love’s labors
begging for peace.
Your guiding star appeared, to nurture me to shelter.

Now, I am an unknown creation – even to my own self
an enigma – full mirror,
reflecting on who – I used to be.
Grateful for the virtue you imparted in me.

The Space Between (Luke 16:25 & 26)
By Vincent Williams

The space between here
and now is narrow,
the space between what was
and what is – is far spent,
the space between love
and hate is division,

the space between the mountain top
and the valley is resilience,
the space between victory
and defeat is perseverance,
the space between heaven
and hell is a great gulf – fixed;

no one can travel from one place
to the other,
because of – the space between.

Springtime with Birds
By Vincent Williams

Springtime kicks the door open on winter –
first – with a loud knock,
Ushering itself in like
the alarm on a clock,
Birds appearing on the scene,
all kinds – in a large flock,
Wild geese flying high in a “V-shape”
distinguishing their stock,
The rooster starting the day off –
opening up with a loud “cock!”,
Pigeons roaming the sidewalks
like thugs hanging out on the block,
The mock-ing-bird mimicking other birds
with a sarcastic “mock”,
The blue jays’ white, black, and blue neck
looks like the rings at the top of a sock,
The gray doves’ coat of feathers resembles
the color of a normal rock,
Wild ducks evading the boardwalk
like they are the owners of the dock,
Roadrunners roaming the plains with
the endurance of a jock,
Eagles dominating sky territory –
putting the lower airways on lock,
Springtime’s season is limited –
it’s on the clock; “tick!-tock!”