Welcome! I am an author: an essayist and I am a second-generation poet committed to providing creative thought and well-written literature that opens the possibilities of the mind and the faith of the soul. I write on many subjects of today. My many topics include; spirituality, race, love, humanity, business, mental health, and social justice issues. I have self-published over four new books of poetry in the past several years and I have written over three hundred new poems. (Look below and on My Poems page to read some of them!)
Since I began writing poetry, again, I have had the opportunity to meet and learn from others, although all my poetry and writings, are from me, from a deep down love! If you have read any of my books, and have an area- or issue-specific thought of interest from my books, I would love to share my thoughts with my readers through email at jvperrytv@optonline.net or click the My Contact button on the top of the page.
You can find my books online, at Barnes and Nobles.com (i.e, www.bn.com), Google Books, Amazon.com, Hue-man books, and etc. I also have ebook editions sold at, www.smashwords.com. Click on the "My Web" button to go to my ebook page directly.
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Welcome! I am Jeffrey V. Perry
BLACK POET
(Part 1)
(From Legacy of an Ex-slave)
How can I continue to write?
When all the greater writers stay white
There was just a period (or two)
That began and ended
That Black writers knew
I am not as he is
His words can never say
Anything that can be heard
To me, my ears
My words
Repeat only real schemes
That is not life
He remains above it
Like insanity,
He is selective
To my past
Never calls into a future.
It is as if
My blood never flows
Only in newspapers
In real words, in real life
That you only imagine-
DON QUIXOTE’S
EFFECT
(From, "Soul Food")
There we go fighting those windmills again
In someone else’s imagination.
We have our dreams of glorious days
Of the extreme –
There are the faces of those
Much greater than we
Ever imagine!
Known as equals
To ourselves only
The more we fight them
The more is the struggle –
Between the good and the evil
Between them and us
They have the power
We continue to give them
And are the ends to all dreams
The “victorious” is
To be with them,
Side by side or hand in hand,
While all the while
They only stand
The culprits, who through
Intimidation and humiliation are
Still turning us into silent victims
(Amidst our roars of victimizations
And discriminations)!
Without a dream
We have nothing
Without a fight
There is no progress
But, like the original chess piece
Peace is the end to wars
War, what is it good for?
We battle the enemy of us all!
It is more than a war
Is more than right and wrong,
Might or strong
Life is the reality
That ends the wars.
His windmills, those that
Don Quixote fights,
Are the luminous life
That reality that we face,
Behold, but we cannot see.
He only understood (the knight!)
That he always had a battle to fight.
And knew that when he stops fighting,
He would not be “Crazy Don Quixote,”
With sword drawn, charging windmills!
That, we would see the power of its
invention,
Its true purpose – intention
‘Not the mythical dragons,’
But the reality of life,
What true power could be!
MARTIN
(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
(From the Positive Prime, a book of Poetry)
It is as though he walked in his sleep.
Through the streets of Birmingham
Marched on Washington
And all about,
-A sleep walker.
Dreaming
He had a dream-
He shouted!
As if he saw the eyes of God
On that Mountaintop there,
"I may not get there with you...,
Longevity, (God explained to Martin),
Would be good... [Of course, you could do more]
(Tell them that)...Little black boy and little black girl,
And little white boy and little white girl,
You see, will be walking, together,
Hand and hand..." (King, M.L. 1968)
Martin, who, was a man of God,
No more, no less, is all.
It was no mystery-
He was called to preach, to serve.
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(Matthew 11:30)
So that he took on the Mountain and he has reached the Top.
We will remember that he walked in
A dream,
Through-out this nation,
That one day,
We will awake!
A promise made is the promise kept.
-Its’ the Promised Land!
(From, "Soul Food")
THEY MAKE AN
ANGEL BLEED
Why they made an angel bleed,
a thoroughbred breed?
They are making the impossible happen.
How do they kiss their face with death,-
without any care for self?
Employing someone else
to cash in a soul-
How many souls are captured?
having gone down
Into that well too often
How they stand to be a man
when not taking care of the husbandry?
If God were here
now, He would Care.
For all that we are, it is not He
who would take the angel’s blood!
While calling my God a lie
as you and I question -
Locked in His arms we all do cry
And in the same breath decry
That my God is much more
than ever we bargained for!
OCCUPY AMERICA
(FROM, "God's Love Downpours In Raindrops"))
Why do I still have to fight as David against Goliath
In a system where we say that there is democratic freedom?
Why is it always me who has to show my love of our country?
Why can’t they see that being an American means much more
Than just being born here, or just living within its borders
If we could envision the America of those not yet here
Then, we might understand the dream that many have of this
place.
Does that dream say anything about having more than your neighbor?
Or does it mention keeping others out of your neighborhoods,
Or only having decent schools for those who can afford them?
Are we a country with police brutality and political
corruption?
Are we a place of the haves and the have-nots?
Are we just the place where poverty is only more expensive?
Maybe I am just the first member of Occupy America?
Do we all just sit on our laurels?
When ever did we, like George Washington, “could not tell a
lie,”
Or like Abe Lincoln, be called honest?
When did we, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Really have any dream for America?
Were we not just the pretending to tell the truth?
Or were we only being
dishonest or just being skeptical with no imagination?
Have we just given up, given into, not even given a damn
any more?
What ever happened to Malcolm’s “By any means necessary!”
Is the struggle of the new immigrants the only struggle here
now?
Or is our drop in the education levels not an attack on our American
will?
Will we ever learn that you reap what you sow?
And that all good ideas must be nurtured in order to grow.
Will we ever understand that there is no ideal?
There is only our struggle to attempt to make it so
And that wisdom is that we know not what we know.
Why are go signs still green and stop signs still red?
Why the future always only go straight ahead?
Yet no words have any direction, but are still said.
While our actions never can go backwards,
But they continue on only forward instead?
(Sounds more and more like Confucius was not too confused)
Intelligence is not supposed to be vindictive; it should not
have been abused
Truth is that the truth does honestly itself show
The only dream is that dream of how much that we never get
to know.
We got it made in America!
Made in America?
A made man never makes anything for himself
Let alone will he ever do anything for anyone else.
Give me a break!
(c.) 2011 Jeffrey V. Perry (First Draft)
THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
(ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED)
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c. 2010 Jeffrey Perry, on Intuit by Homestead
About WELCOME HOME:5/23/2010
Amazon.com: reviews
When I read poetry books I'm always amazed at how each poet creates a unique world of words. Jeffrey V. Perry captures the essence of his message in creative, edgy rhythms. As you read each poem you get into a calming groove. Jeffrey V. Perry writes about love, responsibility, happiness, conflict, marriage, nature, heartache, death, greed, women, romance, beauty, desire, jealousy, presidents and the economy. At times there are startling images like: "Seeing death on every face." This catapults you right into mortal reality. I also loved the line: "This mirror where I look through my eyes." You get the sense that he is seeing his soul. At times the poems are complex and intellectual and at other times they show vulnerability and the tendency to be all too human. Some of the poems are romantic and some are filled with conflicted feelings. One poem even made me laugh out loud with surprise. I really enjoyed these poems and I think you will too.
~The Rebecca Review
MORE EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOKS
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(From, "Obedience to Poetry 2.0")
THE THUNDER IN THE LION’S ROAR
When I heard the Thunder of the lion’s roar
Call me from Africa
From down inside my core
Words chanted out many times before.
It is seemingly, a positive war
With good news and great insight
An innocence love, an allusive fight.
It is not about the conflict,
It is the one who acts as quick.
It is a struggle for wisdom,
(The wise one in his domain.)
It is about our future,
A future to gain.
It is the call in all our spirits.
Déjà vu from all times,
Knowledge beforehand,
The echoes of the constant signs.
I have heard the thunders
That trampled us under feet.
The constant blunders-
The innovative defeat-
But lions are kings
With majestic roars
That deadens the ears,
Sounds that shudder to inner cores.
Engulfed by this thunder,
Left without any wonder,
Fallen to depths I know.
It is a positive strategy,
The strength of the lion’s roar,
I am the African.
I am a constant here forevermore.
I am the wiser one,
Who was prepared for everything.
I am a simple child, who hears
The lions sing.
My father was a Leo-male,
An Afro-American king,
I am Babatu, the Peacemaker,
Son of Oba of Harlem,
I am an African-seeker of the wisdom,
Wisdom sought by his father’s father before.
There are those who we should never ignore.
What have they lived for?
For our sakes and before-
It is a time for us to know
Time we know that lion’s roar.
(Lion of Judah) or (God of love)
Will we sink under or rise above?
We rest there on an African shore.
Time for us to move beyond,
Time to hurry home!
For we have found the thunder in our cores
Let us now hear the calls of those lions’ roars.
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(From, "For God, for Love, for Country, and for You")
HE MAKES IT EASY
I had convinced myself that I was just a sinner;
But, He makes it easy.
For, I knew in my heart that I am a winner.
How His Life has pleased me!
He has brought to the light, my only need.
And I know only love will guide me.
Life is not what I conceive
Nor could my life, I could live with ease,
Once Him, I did receive.
He makes it easy for me
To go on day to day.
He helps me to see
On the way
With Him, for me
It’s easy to face any consequence
No matter not where I may be.
My trials and troubles, He makes them easy and to make sense.
He directs all my ways
Down paths I must go.
He tells me in special praise
How much He loves me so.
He tells me that I’ll be loved, always
That He’ll make it so.
I know if I hold to His ways,
My needs I’ll not have to care for
Nor about those wanton days
My life lived before.
He makes it easy
Now He lives with me
To sojourn here on Earth.
I have no where else to go.
Placed here, singularly, at birth
There is not much else I shall sow.
If it determines my consummate worth,
What gains, I’ll have in my soul.
He makes it easy
In my heart there is peace
When I know I walk with Him.
Although, I have just human flesh,
That is bound to be condemned,
He will separate me from the rest.
When I come to Him
I will find my best.
His simplicity simply is!
He came to offer us a helping hand
He is there for us all - every child, woman or man,
Yet, it is only by faith that I understand
What Simplicity is,
For without Him near, I have no plan
He makes it easy.
How He’ll lead me.
There shining on my face,
Though, I looked once away,
I am not here in disgrace
Since, He has comforted me.
For God knows the human race.
We each are judged, case by case,
For we all have a place.
Even with all our jealousies and greed
We are not in contempt for mere physical need.
When we walk with His spirit, we readily see
How we can go through life with such spiritual ease.
How, He makes it easy
To go,
Easy to know,
Easy to stand,
And with all ease to plan.
When I follow, He will lead.
If I lead He knows my plea’s
As easy as the air I breathe.
Since I have eased my mind
Allowed it in Him to be conceived,
And Him I so received,
I know not to stray away,
And although I did stay
I prayed for that day
When only, in Jesus, I would say, “I believed.”
(FROM "THE FOOL, POETRY AND OTHER WORKS")
I AM LOVE (CS)
I am the spirit of the Father
I am the body of the Son
I am the presence of the Holy Ghost
Yet, I am covered under the Sun
I am Love
Just like all my imaginations can see
I am fulfilled in love
I have become the truth of me
Love is who I am
Love has planted its seed
I breathe for wisdom
I long only for love’s need
I live with fewer doubts
I have fewer questions asked
I wonder never what it all is about
I seek out only my true task
For love has little demand
When love calls my name
Love also knows who I am
Love and I are the same
So let love be your parent
Let love be your child
Let love be your only friends
With your enemies let love be your style
When love becomes about you
When about love you are sure
Only then, you will do what you want to do
And only then, all of your love is pure
FROM, "Forward"
We are looking at the worst of times, for many who struggle to live day to day, while those who thirst more and more for power, seem to ignore even their own vultures using ridiculous excuses, which we just accept as the truth. Scripture again says in Psalm 14:1: “The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God.’ ‘They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” We are in the midst of a troubling and a confusing time, where what seems good, turns out to be bad, and then, the bad proves to be “the better good.” We just have been lied to tremendously, not just face to face, but in every aspect, imaginable. The Scriptures have even added to our confusion, because many individuals, spoken of, whom we have accepted to be of good character, have proven to be not of good will or moral repute. We have gotten used to disappointments in our leaders, and thusly, in each other. But, do not be surprised! St. Mark 13:22, points out that, “For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to deceive, if it were possible the elect.’ But there is still more truth and proof in the Scriptures to be had to oppose even wickedness, for the truth is in the light. Proverbs 3:35 states, “The wise shall inherit glory: but Shame shall be the promotions of fools.” So, remember that the shame that we witness before us in our trusted servants is the sign of their foolishness and not becoming of those whom we should follow. So, whom should we choose in their places? Proverbs 1:7 offers some insight: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Our struggle as humankind is not an easy one; however, we have been given the equipment with which to fight that struggle.
(From, "Legacy of an Ex-slave")
SAYING SOMETHING
I am the wind
Signifying
How life is everlasting
I am questions
Answered
By me who looked-
It is truly the beginning
To the end,
That is only because
This life is incomplete.
We understand now
How wisdom
Is to know that you know
Nothing,
But nothing is the approximation
Of our true worth-
Our humility
Accept this fate
Be counted-
Have accountability.
There is no answer
That is blowing in the wind
Only its call
For you to begin looking-
Signify nothing!
BRIDGING THE GAP, NO… REALLY! (FROM, "For God, for Love, for Country, and for You")
(From edition in New York City Voices, 2010)
Submitted and written by Jeffrey Perry, CPRP
“Bridging the gap” is a term that has been thrown around like a baseball at the World Series. It is a quite popular concept tossed around in the mental health field. The Baltic Street, AEH, Inc., Peer Bridger Program at a Kingsboro Psychiatric Center is one of the established, although, still emerging Bridger Programs, in New York City. It is one of the fourteen, and counting, programs of Baltic Street, Advocacy, Employment, and Housing, Inc., a Peer-Run Agency, which started back in 1998, in Brooklyn, New York. Our mission from the onset has been to help facilitate recovery, during the discharge process, and to help link consumers leaving the state psychiatric center to better stay back in the community upon their discharge. Peer bridging is not a clinical pursuit; it is one which peers or recipients of mental health services, now in their own recovery, use their expertise to successfully navigate the mental health system. Afterward, peers and recipients share this knowledge with others, who use the newfound recovery skills to help themselves on their own way to a successful life. We, as Peer Bridger, are often called, “The Role Models.” We establish a one on one relationship with these consumers to help build a mutual support and self-help understanding that is empowering for many consumers, who may have never envisioned that they could achieve success on their own. It is through direct awareness that others have gone on to live, successfully, outside in the community. Using the Peer Bridger as an example, which consumers innately seem to understand, is also a reason why they are receptive to the service offered, and in many cases, why they begin their own recovery. Empowering the consumers, being a support source, as well as a positive example are the basic principles behind our Peer Bridger Program. We meet consumers individually and in the ongoing groups, which we run in conjunction with the state facility, whose consumers we only serve. So, what is bridging? Moreover, what is bridging the gap? I think the answer to the questions lie with being more consistent in common understanding. Bridging the gap represents the fact that the hospital and the community are two entirely different places; one is a therapeutic environment and the other is the real world. So, there is a gap between the two and so, it might be necessary to have a Bridger that can link the two. A successful bridge is one that takes one from the hospital to the community with a smooth and successful transition. From a therapeutic viewpoint, a consumer is released back into the community upon being discharged by the hospital. The only complication arises when that gap, the transition, is a very wide one, because of long-term hospitalization or because of the revolving door effect (a consumer who constantly returns to the hospital repeatedly.). These two complications can represent many other detailed circumstances that I will not get into, but might include any kind of relapse or complexity that results in re-hospitalization. So, a Peer Bridger’s overall goal is to decrease the number of re-hospitalizations and to increase the number of successful transitions back into the community, or at least to help to increase the length of time a consumer remains in the community - a tall order for a Peer Bridger. Nevertheless, this is where the hope and the ideas of recovery come into place. There are many beliefs that accompany what recovery entails. We believe first that recovery works! We, to a large degree, are examples of recovery in our lives, and we wear the title of Peer Bridger. Is that all there is to bridging or to bridging that elusive gap? No, a lot has to do with a number of circumstances and situations, and of course, it depends on the consumer, who must have the desire for recovery in the first place. Therefore, a large part of bridging might occur while a consumer is still inpatient or still in the hospital. Bridging is also the preparation for a successful discharge. These are the issues discussed by the experienced Bridger, one to one, or in group sessions with consumers at risk of negative community reintegration. We cannot guarantee another’s recovery because it is according to their perceived understanding. However, it may be contagious, where someone in recovery can influence someone wanting to find his or her recovery. Recovery is not very definable, so many think if they simply say recover or discuss recovery that it will just happen. Not even a peer in recovery can say this, but there is a lot of sound information about what can precipitate the idea. Therefore, from the example of a Peer Bridger, mutual support by a peer is one of the first understandings. Self-help or the understanding that we can do and we are not helpless is another factor. The fact that an empowered people can do more and has better sense of self esteem is very relevant. Experience has proven, working, in the case of a Peer Bridger, Peer Specialist, and etc, that they have a greater feeling of self worth. It seems to boil down to advancements in the direction of what the average person wants for themselves. However, long-term hospitalizations and re-hospitalizations help distort the realization of what is the reality of community life. I only can touch upon the tip of this complicated and recent understanding of what recovery is. We are at least here to help the process by our mere presence. We hope that this is just the beginning to looking beyond the stigma of institutionalizations and misunderstandings of the past.Baltic Street, AEH, Inc., also has two additional Peer Bridger Programs at South Beach Psychiatric Center, in Staten Island, NY. The Peer Bridger notion is a very popular one and other agencies have begun their versions of the idea.Jeffrey V. Perry, Program Manager
Baltic Street, Advocacy, Employment, and Housing, Inc.
Bridger Program at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center
Brooklyn, New York
jperry@balticstreet.org
BROOKLYN ARTS COUNCIL, BLACK BROOKLYN RENAISSANCE, (1960-2010) COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS WITH AUTHOR, JEFFREY V. PERRY
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[From, "THE FOOL" (Poetry and Other Works)]
HATERS
We used to believe how fair was fair!
What is good for the goose is good for the gander!
Now, there seems more there to share
With those, who lurch about and who would pander.
Before they were only just the good and the evil,
We saw only in black and white; if you must conceive?
Now there are those other people,
They’re hoping only that we all would remain too naïve.
They stand for nothing but the opposite cause
No reason for what they toss.
They’re just against, who offer us no applause
Unless, exclusively, viewed by the boss!
Self-esteem and pride seemed to have disappeared?
Or as the haters say, “Love won’t pay any bills!”
Just don’t leave your hopes and heart out tearful
“We just keeping everything’s for-real’s”
Watch out! They might hear that you care.
Someone might even see you there.
They will even notice your uncut hair,
Or see real hair through this here weave you wear.
No, but I am too good, and we too well understand!
What good is change?
“They see and are saying the same oh thing.
It is just how the moneys go!”
Now money, prestige, and respect
Are out there on demand
And no matter how you play your game,
You have to learn the same
And earn what you know.
A hater can be a friend, who will cling to your win.
If there’s a fight today, they have gone the other way!
That one who is thoughtful on the surface, but shallow from within;
They only make their presence to be counted on stage.
A hater is only a fly on the wall, there, but not there at all!
We still love our haters, in our company, both big and small.
Since, we each hate at one time, haters keep the truth near.
Those who do not like a hater are haters themselves here.
New book from Rasheid Edwards
CONVERSATIONS WITH A SOUL BROTHER
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God's Love Downpours In Raindrops
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