Hidden Fears & Forgotten Courage

By Walter English

Hidden Fears & Forgotten Courage is the debut poetry collection by content creator and founder of the Brister English Project, Walt Way aka FormerlovePoet. This book is a representation of a FormerLovePoet show. A group of stories coming together to tell one. This one tells the story of Walt. From the highest points of love to the lowest dep

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walter English
• Release date: Oct 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088064726

Book preview

Hidden Fears & Forgotten Courage

Collection of Poetry

By FormerLovePoet

Note to readers

This book explores themes around generational trauma, anxiety, suicide, depression, self-harm, cancer, slavery, gun violence, racism, and hospitalization.

Copyright © 2022 by Walter English

Published by FormerLovePoet

All rights reserved

While writing this book, I also started something called the Brister English Project. It helps American descendants of chattel slavery connect with our ancestry through genealogy at no cost to us. The project runs off donations and a lot of heart at the moment.

It’s one thing to read about Black people in history, but it’s another to see yourself there. Hear names for the first time, see faces that look exactly like your mother’s. I think we all deserve to know more about us and our families. Our ancestors.

History told here in the USA doesn’t tell us much, so I decided to step in. I’ve helped about 50 families myself but with help from volunteers, we’re trending past 60. I gave up my full-time job to give my community all that I have over the last 10 months.

The people I’ve met from two time Olympians to folks related to Ida B Wells, makes the stories I’ve seen, and the connections that have been made seem unreal. It has been going strong since Christmas, and I want this gift to keep on giving.

I also compiled a database of over 20 free resources to help find family before and after slavery. From newspapers to slave ship manifests like the one I found Brister on. You can google FormerLovePoet and check out my linktree with all the resources.

Thank you to everyone who supported me and the Black community in this. And as comedian Gigi Leflair says, You are actually putting an exclamation at a place where there once was a question.

Learn more about the Brister English Project here. Again, thank you and much love.

https://linktr.ee/formerlovepoet

-Walt Way

Dedication sees dreams come true.

-Kobe Bryant

I Used to be a Love Poet

Pretty Little Liars (Erasure)

Can You Keep a Secret

Letter to My Younger Self

Unraveling Sins

Nobody Asked Me But,

Mask On

I Wish I Would’ve Said

Hurt on the Inside

Haiku

Maybe

Culturally Black

P.O.C.

A Guy on Facebook Said

Faux News

Thoughts From a Black Boy in America (Pantoum)

Thoughts from the System (Ballad)

Pretty.Hurt

Robert K.

Royalty

Scrolling at 4am

Hurt on the Outside

Happy Birthday to You

To You Happy Birthday

Boardwalk

Cultural Appropriation Guide to African American Vernacular English 101

You Remind me of the Culture

Can’t Take my Eyes off of You by Lauryn Hill (Erasure)

What tastes Like Home

Little Black Girl

For the Storytellers

Solomon Grundy (Erasure)

Sunday

Seasons of Love

Monday

The Gift of Love

Tuesday

Letter To My Unborn

Wednesday

Chris Evans is the Best Wingman

Untie my hands

How to Start an Argument on a Wednesday Afternoon

Thursday

someTHING

Pieces of Me

Friday

Humanity Found Peace

Peace Found Humanity

Saturday

Catch the Moon

Sunday

Walt

Don’t Cha Know

Losing Him (Ballad)

14 and a Half Things my Mother Taught Me

Nessie’s Wedding

Butterfly

Gift of God

Shannon Sharpe

The Full Story

Last Letter to my Godmother

The Pharaoh ft. The FormerLovePoet

I Finally Wrote a Poem for Speak Easy That isn’t Sad

Do Not Read with a Broken Heart

I Used to be a Love Poet

I used to be a love poet.

I am still a hopeless romantic.

On me and my wife's first year anniversary

I wrote 365 reasons why I loved her

on scraps of paper until my hand cramped like

my style was in danger

I used to write her love poems every morning

I would say anything,

and I mean anything

to see my favorite curve on her body

When I was a love poet, I would write things like...

If I could rearrange the stars,

I would sacrifice every single fingertip to blisters that come with handling heat without a glove just to spell out

I love you.

I would dive into the deepest ocean,

In the fruit of my looms,

knowing damn well