Guest Post: Yes, you do by Mercedes Lewis |

Regal Crest author Mercedes Lewis is here to chat about poetry.

She’s giving away 3 copies of Glimpses of a Fractured Soul to 3 lucky winners. More details are below.

Please welcome Mercedes Lewis.

Yes, you do.

Poetry … and the room goes silent! Not in anticipation, but in dread perhaps of what might come next.To lighten to mood, and make it less scary for them, I joke, and tell them, “Not really, it is a book of very, VERY short stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, … but it is called poetry”.

When I tell most people I write poetry, and their immediate response is, “I don’t read poetry”, or “I don’t like poetry”, I am saddened. Not because they won’t give my work a chance, well, that too, but more so, because of how bland their lives must be!

Do they not listen to music? ALL music is poetry. Yes, even instrumental music, with its flow, and its movement. Have they never taken a walk in nature, and listened to the silence? Or, the birds chirping, the wind blowing, the water flowing, the bees humming and flitting from one flower to the next? Or, even the flowers and trees themselves rustling and moaning to the breeze or stillness?

Have they never sat in silence and darkness, and listened to the mechanics of their own body? Have they not heard the sounds of the city, its cars, the horns, the lights changing, the sirens, the buzz and hum of thousands of people, living their lives?

Greater sadness, have they never conversed with another person? The ebb and flow of conversation, the emotion, the timbre?

And, the greatest sadness, have they never heard the unfettered, uninhibited joy in the laughter of a child?

Even those without the gift of sight and/or sound know and appreciate poetry. Just look to Beethoven, Helen Keller, and Stevie Wonder, just to name a few.

Poetry ‘meets you where you are’. What do I mean by that? If you are queer, the poetry is queer, if you are lesbian, so is the poetry, if you are a survivor, find it in the poetry. The simplest, and some of the most complex poetry can be read and understood immediately. But when reread, and pondered, can mean or address so much more. Take for instance, my poem For All of Us. It is simple, it rhymes(don’t even get me started about that, lol), and it makes you laugh(hopefully). But, a closer look reveals that it deals with myriad complex issues such as: relationships, how we approach aging, the changes in our bodies and minds, forgetfulness, and things we ALL go through as we age. These same thoughts could have been conveyed in a thesis, or, in a haiku. These same thoughts could be expressed in an almost incomprehensible medical journal, or, a convoluted legal or government document. Me? I try to help you find the simplicity and humor of it all.

Voltaire is quoted as saying, “Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls”

So, yes, when someone tells me they don’t read, or like poetry, it makes me a little sad, and I want to respond, “Yes, you do.”

GLIMPSES OF A FRACTURED SOUL

We are three parts; body, spirit, and soul. Emotion, which echoes all of our parts, is a multifaceted, multicoloured palette of feelings, a kaleidoscope of colors from the palest of white, to the deepest, darkest of black, and everything in between, all formed by three primary colors.

We use words to express ourselves. Poetry does so in a succinct, no-holds-barred fashion, using words as color to paint our joy, our pain, our BEING. Sometimes, we get glimpses of colors not usually shared.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Mercedes Lewis is retired military, and now writes for Regal Crest Enterprises. Mercedes has work in three anthologies, and one standalone book of poetry. She hopes to write novels, and is considering returning to school to improve her craft. Mercedes encourages everyone to check out the diverse anthology Our Happy Hours, a concept prompted by the Pulse Nightclub Massacre, and curated by Renee Bess and Lee Lynch. Proceeds from the anthology benefit the Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia and Ali Forney Center in New York City, both of which assist homeless LGBTQ youth.