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As most of you know, I’m doing this writing and book publishing thing; and I’m having a little fun, learning along the way, and realizing a lot of things that I didn’t know. 

I recently had an opportunity to go back home to Nashville, for Nashville’s Black Gay Pride.  It was an interesting time!  I was born there, grew up and came out there, and my family all still live there with the exception of a couple of career moves by some of my siblings and their wives.

 

But Nashville folk always return to Nashville.  And hell, it’s true; many of them never leave.  And that’s interesting too, because this particular time was different.  I mean, I go home to visit the family at all the appropriate and respective holidays.  I’ve even been known to make a special occasion for one of my nieces and nephews, to their surprise.  But this time, I was going back especially and particularly on my on terms (and yeah, my own dollar – this time, lol – oh yeah, I occasionally get a little help to make sure they see me regularly or that I won’t find a way to slip out of a list of “the too many frequent visits list.”)  But this time was all about meeting new peeps, new experiences, and making some new acquaintances – all of the Nashville that I knew in the family seemed to be living other places, or weren’t around for pride at all.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that Pride is usually on the same weekend as TSU’s homecoming, and well, all of Nashville comes home for the games; but this year it was a week earlier.

Poetry from the soon to be released - Soul-full

Validated, and solidified
Vilified, and justified
Suffocated but flowing like oxygen
Take it all and leave nothing
Leave nothing but air by sides

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Got Pride?  Get some!?!

 

 

Summer is here and pride is abound at least in all the ads and events and planning.  I can remember fondly the days in Washington, DC when the “A List” (they were only A Lister’s because they were the ones out and about, proud and making things happen for the rest of us) would eagerly gear up, not just for the next party that you had to be at, but because you wanted to, when it wasn’t just about the hot boys that flocked to the city to play, but a visibility inherent in the coming together, a commitment to not being in-visible anymore.  It was about reclaiming community, reestablishing presence and yeah, celebrating it all, no matter how you chose to do that. 

 

Leo Shelton © from the recently released “RHYTHMS – Poetry and Muse” 

Wrapped in rapture Burling conjecture Circling fools Calling itself love Camouflaged in lust But splendor No less

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Leo Shelton © from the recently released “RHYTHMS – Poetry and Muse”


Strawn across your oak sleigh bed
Butt naked in your splendor
Crusted love drains what moisture is left in my body
And highlights the glow of the sun

Butt naked for the entire world to see
My brown skin reflecting off your eyes
And the desire contained in your smile
I am bare and stripped
Of energy and of me
But naked for all the world to see

Sheets dancing with my toes
Pillows arching my back
Still feeling touched when your hands lay motionless
And your eyes flicking still
Like cameras

Butt naked copper brown me
Complimenting dark chocolate
Motionless moving hearts
Saying nothing, and everything
In a simple glare stolen away

Butt naked
Butt naked
Butt naked

And free.

Leo Shelton © from the recently released “RHYTHMS – Poetry and Muse”

For many, it’s Sunday mornings that make them proud
They praise and sing and shout out loud
I’d never try to steal their thunder
But let no man put asunder
Just give me my Saturday nights!

My fellowship takes place
In life’s rat race
Where boogies are echoed true
Where boozing and sinning
And conquests and winning
Takes place outside the pews

Where booty’s shake
And people make
Promises never fulfilled
But everything you want
And everything you need
Is a negotiable deal

So, just give me my Saturday nights
And the alleyways to roam
Don’t wait up for me
Just pray for me
That I’ll find my way back home
On Sunday Mornings

Leo Shelton © from the recently released “RHYTHMS – Poetry and Muse”

Brown skin,
Of my people
Affectionately called “black”
Colors of a rainbow heritage
A culture under attack

Indians are called red
And my redbone brothers, black
But white boys are called Caucasian
Cause of the pigmentation that they lack

I’ve looked to the rainbow
And never found my color
Looked up the definition of black
But now I don’t bother

There’s darkness about my people
And all people to be sure
But my brownness don’t make me evil
And your lack of hue don’t make you pure

I am an African prince
American by birth
Don’t ever call me “black”
And try to discount my worth

I’m much more than a simple color
And my heritage meant a damn
So if you really want to identify
Exactly who I am…

Call me African-American
And skip the Uncle Sam

Call me African-American
And I have no “Uncle Sam”

Leo Shelton © from the recently released “RHYTHMS – Poetry and Muse”

My soul moves…
Through triumphants and dismays,
Touches kidz and ole people
In ways

Reaching out, it inhales
And suffocates
And loves
And dances
And moves

To music unsung
And words unspoken
With the truth and clarity of a butterfly’s swirl

My soul moves
Mountains and streams
People and things
Challenges un-seemed

With characters of own,
It’s strong
It moves…

It hugs and kisses
And salutes
And teaches and punishes
The weak,
…My soul moves

like rides of amusement
through tunnels of open road
endearing to see
more so to behold
…brother, my soul moves

at speeds you would not believe
through mountains,
round trees,
into lives
and other’s souls
you see
…my soul, it moves…

Beyond the blood bond that tied us together always, there was a kindred of spirits, more powerful than brotherhood, more sacred that best friends, who kept secrets, even lied to each other if it lifted and sustained….he was family….my family, my big brother, and the first born of a pack of five brothers, all damn good brothers! He was my brother, my mentor, my heart and my friend.

If you truly believe in flirting and where it leads, of the powerful connections it has through people and words, gestures and such…then fall in love all over again with Tim’m West and Red Dirt Publishing’s latest release. True to tone, tongue and unselfish sharing of unique, deep and sometimes painful life journeys of the heart, Tim’m doesn’t disappoint in Flirting.