What inspires me?
The thing that continues to inspire me is the city of Oakland and the community therein. Not specifically the Mills community but rather the city as a whole. It’s not like my writing focuses on Oakland as a main topic, or even my experiences specifically in Oakland, it’s more like what the city brings out in me. It’s the thoughts that come to me while walking down the street which I then need to write down immediately. Or it’s the smells and sounds that trigger memories of being a kid. I think that most of my work might be posturing, that is posing. Most of my poems are reflections on how far I’ve come from when I started becoming self aware. I think I try to show this in the small instances where I discuss children. Sometimes it’s me, and sometimes it’s me chilling with a little kid and trying to understand the world. That is, my world. Not the whole world, that would be crazy and impossible.
But I digress.
I think in this last year, more than any other year in my life, I have met a lot of people who have changed my view of things. Philosophically speaking, these people have influenced my very perception, not always in ways that they themselves were aware of. I think that’s what I want to capture, how people have changed me without their knowledge; the thoughts in my head that form there in the moment and also my reflection on it later when I take some space away from them. I think so far I have shown this the best in Fight the Good Fight because I put myself on the street with this guy and I am taking in the whole of my surroundings.
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sounds like a lot of personae at work here.
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