Russell Wardlow

thank you
for keeping me on your mind
even when your mind is too busy

thank you
for keeping me in your heart
even at times when you feel like you’re on empty

thank you
for taking me in your luggage across seas
even if none of your bags fit me

thank you
when deadlines come near thin lines
and clear lines may blur lines because crossed lines are conflicting
but you still proceed and not see me as an affliction
entangling attention, intension, and interests amidst limits

thank you
for taking me across country with you
across the world with you, even answering calls, emails and even daring to request a visit

thank you
for bearing my intensity genuinely
reciprocating authenticity and not the scorn of indifference

thank you
for having a life and making me a part of it
embracing my artistic revisions of being submerged in the trenches

thank you
for knowing I’m not much for the Hollow-days
but caring enough to inquire through each New Year to Christmas

thank you
for trusting me with the truth
and not capitulating to fears of letdowns unintended

thank you
for being a critic just as I am a critic
but having a heart big enough to help and overcome being a cynic

thank you
for helping to continue how I value
and perceive the value of women

thank you
for including me in each transformative moment
and each transcendent monetarily invested minute

thank you
when you choose to sound off like a siren
and not damper the connection to the effect of a grimace

thank you
for pictures, not many
but being in the blind while creative, you know the power of an image

thank you
for knowing that you may never get it
because that’s why and how you get it
and keep making a difference
and continue making me different
respecting the fact and the feats that makes me different
because your heart makes all the difference
and this is why I believe we’ll make a difference

so who is my thank you to?
my Give-a-beat team/network who has all been in it with me
thanks for redefining the limits
despite the distance
knowing I had nothing to give you
but thanks for giving
a beat of grace is the reason I’m living
an unforeseen family found while in prison

it’s easy to have an opinion
hard to express it
most times more advantageous to repress it
but wiser to address it

maybe it just all depends on context,
and how you dress it
because every truth is truthfully a confession

and I prose cons,
as a con, prone to probe cons
to prove pros of my own con
and those of my own kind
not to con with prose
but to expose the pros of a con

to understand,
you’d have to adjust to the posed conscience
using the proper tense
since,
I’m primarily known as a con,

but regardless of the knowledge I tote
I can’t vote,
I can only spew or create my own quotes
uttered from fingers
acting as vibratos from an impassioned throat!

and all of my opinions would be for not
if it wasn’t for those
believing my voice could reach a lump sum
my support team is my platform
my microphone
my blow horn!

my confidence boosters
and proof that there are hearts I call a home
I write poignant prophetic painful and political poems
but it’s not just about reconciling with America’s wrongs

I can still recognize the beauty emblazoned
within ones uploading each poem and song
editing, advising, networking, affirming and
revitalizing resources
marriageable to belief in me
during my freedom divorcement

many women whose actions
resound like deep voices!
far-out hippie house music savants,
monastery masters of discernment

evolving DJ’s from the vinyl days
to the electric waves
and Jersey shores

environmentally conscious publishers
and site creator’s alike for their heart sakes
folk and indie vibes
socially conscious types
with hearts that reach inside

I would be but a voice in a sea of hungry captives
and my words just mere ad-libs
but my opinion has a platform
in people who put their time where their heart is

so whenever I get overly hopeless and dystopic
I know just where my spark is

to those who will come to know my voice
and to those that hear
and have yet to truly know my voice
I’d be voiceless
if it wasn’t for those that got to know me
by knowing my voice
and allowed it a kind of priority
believing that impact would happen
once you knew the voice

it’s an internal thing
like energy attracts, the heart pulls the strings

PS my favorite tv show the voice
and my dream is
speaking in creative streams
that capture pictures like Polaroids

so you can grasp empowerment
in place of what had only shown a void
but I couldn’t do it without my
collaborative challenging cheering confident collection
of conscious compassionate cause-compatible convoys