Gift of gab

Letters, syllables, pronunciation, enunciation — rhythm and breath control, even charisma. All of them grafted together, make up for what we all know to be something special, something different. But do you really speak this way? Do you really write as if you were talking and looking over your shoulder? Better yet who do you write for? That is an honest, unanswered, and implicated question for most artists. In which, we all are — regardless of how vague yet subtle, or complex yet overt we actually are.

For me: is the ghetto lonely child, wondering when’s mom coming from either of her jobs or school, so they can eat and go to football practice; or is it that I am writing for the lonely suburban child, who feels as if he is truly adopted yet knows both his mother and father has equally large families, but they tend to be physically absent. And ever so gentle with their emotional ambiguity and ill-willed delivery of “you know I love you?” But it shouldn’t change anyone’s idea, even my own regardless of my true or current residency because the spirit of both children actually reside within me.

I have lived both lives, and seen the dramatic effects of what most tend to dismiss as a charity case or something that doesn’t make for a story.

But as an artist, to speak or shoot straight from the hip, who do you do this for? And do you really speak in this standard tone or dialect?

To speak as you write, is a beautiful thing and I do my best to do so. On both sides of the spectrum; no matter what environment, sometimes the filters are necessary and other times, hey — let the f bombs fall where they may. But, if the brain is a computer and most words and their definitions register, it solidifies hope that the reader or listener has much more broad understanding of what you are attempting to say. Only if, they too, speak and write in the same tone or language, as yourself. But to be lost in translation, even in your native country and tongue is a hell of a thing — and yes, certainly a confusing look of an intense gaze, can be just as confusing as a statement, sounding as if it’s a damn question.

Seeking mastery in language or to be any type of linguist, I do not envy you; however, I do understand and respect what you do. Though to the general mass population; how do you differentiate intelligence, does it come down to how well one speaks or their sentence structure and enunciation? Some things flow, naturally, and others just so happen to be an absolute clusterphuk — you and I both know this to be a fact of life. And it’s an actual historical fact, which needs no true reference yet and still someone out in the free world will deny it.

Since birth, our only true goal is to constantly evolve and better ourselves, no matter what any social media image of a perfect life or Napoleon Hill type guru ‘unlocking your mind and chakras’ tries to sell you.

But there’s this sort ethical flaw and I call it ethical because it describes, I think, a defect in what most cannot truly fathom within themselves. So they look externally, and critique externally though it’s reflective to how they actually feel — on the inside — it’s a majority projection, in a sense. That’s not to suggest that those who are self-autonomous with their speech, are projecting their insecurities and chasing something that doesn’t exist solely to impress an invisible majority. No, not at all. But what I’m saying is that, in all that you do, especially helplessly stringing along letters to make words and sounds and any logical sense — is it for show and tell — or is it apart of who you are?

There was a man who roamed this earth for quite some time, one of the most talked about people all across the land. And snobby people would say he didn’t have a full grasp of the English language because of his mispronunciation of the words he was using or use of words incorrectly and I got to thinking. To be truly educated or enlightened, are you to articulate yourself in way that everyone understands or just a chosen few? Let that sizzle in your spirit one time.

And that’s not all, as time changes, which it does, times change but the error of our ways will remain the same. Ignorance isn’t always seen as illiteracy or lacking in knowledge, sometimes all it requires is for one person to say something slightly intelligent but phrased differently and it gets the ball rolling. But because of colonial rule, accents, differing levels of perspective/perception, and interpretation — your idea of truth and wisdom, even self-help is different than mine.

So I’m going to ask you again; do you really write like this? And who do you write for? Because to the degree or tone that I wish to speak in, it is impossible for me to do so. So I use synonymous alternatives, a little something I picked up as a kid, reading the dictionary — plus I have an ailment that makes certain things difficult for me. But what can you do, roll over and die or pick up the gun and shoot back?

A lot of my teachers do not appear on stamps, and I refuse to bow out to my own inability to pronounce a word, or have the world cast petty judgement because of it, when I practiced over and over; so I write just as speak, and speak as I write. And if the twelve year old me could see this, the story of Googliata would be finished. And I just might develop my first ever short story here, which came to me as child but doing it as an adult… should be even more fun.

Well, at least I hope so. I ain’t going through puberty anymore, pimples and riding the cheese [school bus] early in morning wasn’t cool, at all! And in that timeframe from my school days, it had my mind for a loop, let me grab the almighty pen and get busy…