A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN

By Desmond Edmond

Desmond Edmond decided to present his talent for writing in a form rarely seen in poetry books. he presents an autobiographical storyline in A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN. With firm grabse of his talent he meticulously shows the reader his development of emotional stability and a belief in God that hitched a ride along the way. for this, any reader who loves books, especially ones of poetry, gets a rare read of his first poems and pieces of prose. Most writers, of any kind, can only share memories of what they wrote when first starting out. Uniquely, Desmond is able to spoon feed the reader with poems and pieces of prose that date back to 1996, such as STRIFE and 1997, such as AFRIKA/AMERICA. another poem titled JUST SOME WORDS gives visceral feelings when reading it, written in 2005. Viewing Desmond through this progressive lens like his poem YOU AND US, and then looking at poems such as NIKKI GIOVANNI, LION, MAROONS, SUNSHINE and surely to be a favorite THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM, the reader can actually witness the development of a writing style that is meant for the world to read. Rare indeed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jan 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781665750233

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Copyright © 2024 Desmond Edmond.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-5022-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-5023-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023917571

Archway Publishing rev. date:  01/25/2024

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

LOST BOY

My Role

A Lost Boy To A Found Man

Opposable

Thinking

Abandoned And I Wasn’t Alone

Lunatic

Learning

What Is Afrika To Me?

[Untitled]

Someone Help This Small Black Boy

Odyssey

Strife

Written

The Glitter

Persuade

Sorrow Is Subjective

Society Made Him Violent

Family

Myself

I Have Been Locked Up For Years Now

For No Money

Dying Is Easy

We Obsolete

We Single

[We Endangered]

Peace Is For Her Feminine Mind

Possible

Colorful

My Afrika

Conversazione

Maturity Is A War Torn Crossing

Assassination

Found

Notorious

Kerosene

Songs

Defalcation

Confession O A Cold Heart Desmond

Chains

Hope

Watch Me

Teachings

Massacre

THE PASSAGE

Nikki Giovanni

Submerge Into Consciousness

Monday

Tranquility

Wednesday

Growing

Thursday

In Poetry

Friday

My Language

I Am

Your Nectar Is Tasteful

Subtle Intimacy

Life\Love/Poetry

My Struggles

Lazy Hours After Midnight

You Are Timeless

Letter To Daisy Blu

Meditating

My Soul Is Musical

I Have Been Locked Up For Years Now

Vengeance

I Have A Man For You

A FOUND MAN

The Calm Before The Storm

Power

[Untitled]

Just Some Words

My Body

Conflict

Infatuated Moments

World

Mesmerized By Moments

Woman Is Still A Woman

The Cross

Sunshine

I Have Been Locked For Years Now

My Sweet Girl

Sensual

Creatures

LION

Forestry

Unity

You And Us

Ethos Of A Black Man And White Woman

I And The Self Makes A Man

Knowing Sometimes Separates

To You

Our Words/Our Children

Superman Is

The Wolf Is Thinking

Beliefs

Talk To Me

I Have Been Locked Up For Years Now

Afrika/America

Your Beauty Is Angelic

My Rose Is Black

Anybody

Reflective Surface

For Me

Crisis

Poetically Created By God

Welcome To Consciousness

Maroons

Novelty

Preface

How did this book, A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN, come to be? There was always a sense in my youth that I would die before my time. I have always been drawn to history and in 1995, I tried my hand at rhyming with stanzas. This was born out of my giving up rapping. Growing up I was always under the impression that intelligent people wrote and read poetry. I didn’t particularly fall in love with it at the time I began writing it. In fact I felt it limited me with its de, da, … de, de, da pattern where only the last words of a stanza rhymed and so I left it alone. Looking at other writing styles I found the art of writing prose. Everything that I read about prose showed it to be too mundane and boring for my taste. I liked the structure of it, it reminded me of a sort of free verse in speech writing and so I decided to spice my prose up. I discovered recently that I actually write lyrical prose, carving emotional pictures with a provocative sense of poetry. My first piece of lyrical prose was RETROSPECTION. I felt my writing was improving and from that (with the discovery of the Harlem Renaissance) I again tried my hand at the authorship of poetry. November 26th 2006 I wrote the poem A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN. By that time I had accumulated a decent stack of writings. A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN (the poem) I found it to be a culmination of my life experiences up until that point. I believed then, as I believe now, A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN, is sort of a mature look back on my experiences and the feelings they invoked. This struck me as a midway point between my stepping into the ocean of my manhood from the shallow pond of my boyhood. The title of the poem came to symbolize DESI as a young child who could not find himself outside of violence. For years I thought of presenting a better me to people. I saw within A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN a lyrical love of a grown man who discovered himself in a state of peace. I made up my mind that it would be the name of my first book. My confidence in actually writing the book did not take hold until the beginning of 2008. Kadina Edmond (December 26th 1978-February 6th 2023) my belated, beloved, beautiful baby sister asked me in a letter one day: Wouldn’t it be something if I opened a book and your name was in it? In many ways this book is about relationships I want with my people, Kadina, Terry, Melissa, Jasmin, Apryl and our mother. My authorship of poetry is as an individual and someone who is a small part of a culture. As I developed a voice in my poetry, somehow, it rooted itself into my self-esteem. The LOST BOY section of my book, for the most part, is arranged with poems and lyrical prose I wrote when I was between the ages of 19 and 24 (KEROSENE, FAMILY, MYSELF, HOPE, and VENGEANCE to name a few). The purpose of this arrangement is not only to show the bending of my ideas about life, love, and poetry but cleverly to show the improvement of my writing ability. My first pieces of literature are marked with the dates they were written. Kathleen is giving editorial assistance felt this gives more meaning to the LOST BOY section. I agree. My style weaves its way through the PASSAGE and FOUND MAN sections and I believe breathe new life into the authorship of my book. I believe it is special that I can include some of my first poems and pieces of prose. In my opinion a first book by me does the reader a disservice if these writings are not included exactly as they were written in my youth. They are unblemished by edits and not tainted by changing the way they were written to fit what I know now about style and structure. My thoughts are also chiseled into the stone of history - unchanged. Now that they are solidified in time as they were jotted down, they must be read in that same manner. I think it would be difficult for me to try and convey feelings that were felt by a younger me when how I felt then has long since been diluted by life. I wanted every feature of A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN to magnify that title. Only the reader can affirm that I reached my goal. This book is not about my life but a gathering of perspectives that are locked in the beautiful time of me writing them. It is interesting that the arrangement became autobiographical and that aspect is unintentional. Over the years I found that I was experiencing intellectual violence. Strange that others died for this intelligent humanity, so that I would have the benefit of coming into the consciousness of it and wow, now how I accept what I rejected in my youth. Overcoming this rejection can be read in each and every piece offered to the reader. Of any lyrical prowess that may be recognized, I must give a nod to Brad Jordan (Scarface), O’Shea Jackson, Sr. (Ice Cube) and Mohandas Dewese (Kool Moe Dee). My undying appreciation will always extend to TONY BROWN’S JOURNAL.

Acknowledgments

I don’t know who to acknowledge for this vision of my life coming to fruition. I appreciate myself for keeping it alive. It may amount to nothing but a symbol that a boy who could not read until age 15, wrote and presented a book of his poetry. There have been some undaunting encouragements for my pursuit of writing. I must acknowledge Cleveland Mike. I guess experiencing the frustration of not being able to receive help in getting A LOST BOY TO A FOUND MAN to settle on a firm foundation is a process of growth. They say no one cares about someone else’s dream until it makes them rich. Despite some shoe-away responses I received from my people, I still hold dear that my poetry is poured into the caste of love for us. I must acknowledge I have to send out a fuck you or two for those helping me to remember that above all GOD is the only door I need opened. Honey Blu thanks for the diss. Mama I love you with every ounce of my being. I must acknowledge Archway Publishing although some of the handling on the production of this book I question. I do understand it is a business not a friendship. Thank you to Jeff Slone for keeping me focused on the business aspect of this personal journey. Thanks to Aimee Ref for her friendly disposition and seeming to understand my passion for writing. Thanks to Faye Lewis, my concierge. I send heartfelt appreciation to the staff of Archway Publishing who I do not know but who are working behind the scenes. I love the cover design. Big ups to your ability to give substance to the title of my book. It is humbly adored. So many of my poems that follow are dedicated to people. I guess I write in my ancestral spirit. While I mention family and historical figures by name, special thanks must go out to a Black man named Judge. Judge sat me down at a table on a penitentiary yard every Saturday for two years, and improved my reading ability. Judge had me read books like Destruction of Black Civilization, and Natural Psychology and Human Transformation. Benjamin Nyabere you are acknowledged with Welcome To Consciousness. My brotha we are still in this struggle for Black children. Daudi my teacher of language and my introduction to Cheikh Anta Diop. Each piece within this book is a labor of love and my defiance to the ignorance of my people about ourselves. No knowledge can be gained if it is not given away, and yet those who do not have it, must not reject it. Just the same, those who have it, must not hide it. I have to acknowledge Illana Hemphill who seemed more enthusiastic about the publishing of A LOST BOY BOY TO A FOUND MAN than I was at times. Thank you for that. It kept me grounded. What up Kat? This is why I asked for your last name, my friend. I must give my appreciation to the specific place of Leimert Park. Akeela thank you for being impressed with my writing. I am still waiting for