Why "Navy Speaks"

Audiences hardly ever get to hear the stories behind poetic pieces, whether at open mics or in books. We poets never really have the opportunity to talk about our pieces while on stage. So since there aren't any 3-4 minute time constraints or "no intro" rules, or print limitations here, I shall delve briefly into the personal insight and inspiration and even history too often hidden in the background of poems...

"Speak" is my self-defining piece. It is the poem that took me to a new plateau. I had been writing and performing in Trinidad for just about 1 year at the time that I wrote this. Without a doubt it was thanks to the (then new) creative energy with which I had surrounded myself by joining the Poetry Club in my first semester at Monroe College (New Rochelle). Shoutout to the President at the time Shawn Bolden a.k.a. Shawn B. This piece is my equivalent to the "Why I Write" pieces that just about every poet has. It is what I advocate...

SPEAK

They say SPEAK!
When you are spoken to
But I SPEAK cuz from my sleep
I was awoken to...
Write a piece
Just for a chosen few
So I could unleash the beast
And I have chosen you
To give my lyrics so tight
They be choking you
And I be up on such heights
I be provoking you
To think...
Cuz that's what I'm supposed to do
I'm trying to get into the minds of most of you
See through this ink...
Some get their rage out on a page
And then put it in a book
And there it stays...
But not me
I get my rage out on the stage
And let that aforementioned beast out of its cage
See I SPEAK to get my word out
Describe scenes you've never seen but mighta heard bout
At times might seem obscene but keep absurd out
Your contradictions, cuz when I speak I leak the conscious diction
See a lot of us just want to do the writing
But not much of us want to do the bright thing
And SPEAK, and bring forth something exciting and
Enlightening, inciting fighting for the right thing...
TRUTH...
Is in the spoken word
That's why I'd rather not be read
But instead be heard
To get the message across
This is the method preferred
So I break a piece of bread
And I feed it to the birds...
Food for thought...
They say, SPEAK your mind
But, mind what you say
And it's less about the what
But, more about the way
So I, reach my mind
And I touch what I pray
For when I'm day dreamin
Like my name is Lupe...
What good is a radio if you don't have a speaker? SPEAK
Through these words, how else I'm gonna reach ya? SPEAK
Tryna learn but you don't understand your teacher. SPEAK
Little boy being touched by his preacher. SPEAK
Concerned, not gettin much from your leader. SPEAK
You miss your babygirl, love her and you need her. SPEAK
Your sister hungry and you got to work to feed her. SPEAK
Daddy not at home, Mommy isn't either. SPEAK
All these problems make me feel the need to SPEAK
To somehow seek the way to solve them
But...
In the end the choice is yours
So just open up your mouth
The voice is yours
SPEAK!

By: Yvan 'Navy' Mendoza