(Associated Press photo of Louis C. Taylor) “The whole world knows I’m innocent.” --Louis C. Taylor In what way does overturning an apparent wrongful conviction after an individual has served some 42 years in prison, without allowing the one so convicted to seek corrective redress, an act of justice? That is a question which many who have been following the case of 59-year-old Louis Cuen Taylor for years, and which others just learning about it, are asking after his recent release from the Arizona State Prison system. Taylor’s freedom came with the condition that he plead “no contest” to charges that he set fire to the historic Pioneer Hotel in Tucson, Arizona, on December 19, 1970. The blaze took the lives of 28 people (the number was first reported as 29 until investigators realized they had counted one victi...

                           (digital art graphic courtesy of Bright Skylark Literary Productions) One of the greatest triumphs of the human spirit is the ability to exercise gratitude in the face of grievous adversity. Cultivation of a sense of gratitude under any conditions is advantageous in general because it tames impulses toward delusion-inducing arrogance, soul-numbing indifference, and corruptive malice. During this National Poetry Month 2013 , I have found myself considering all the reasons I am grateful for the presence of poetry in my life and in this world. Among those reasons is the fact that there was a time, in years not so long ago, when I struggled inside a kind of “dark night of the soul”––one that in many ways appeared to reflect an eclipse of the world’s collective soul–– and it was the voices of living poets that called to me from unknown distances and took it upon themselves through th...

                        (graphic courtesy of  Global March for Peace and Unity  on Facebook) “A vision of humanity as a unified force for peace had come alive in the form of millions of living breathing souls and an ideal of international democracy had been realized on a small but unprecedented scale.  History was not only made––history was tremendously honored.” – from The American Poet Who Went Home Again (Aberjhani) During this Easter Holy Week 2013, I find myself thinking about the challenges that Peace faces in our world and wonder why humanity seems to insist more on its destruction than its empowerment. From the recent murder of a 13-month-old baby in Brunswick, Georgia (allegedly by a 15-year-old boy), to the nearly two dozen wars (plus two dozen more conflicts of a similar nature) currently devouring human sanity from sunrise to sunrise, the suicidal lust for the annihilation of life on every...

                   The ever-popular LL Cool J on the March 2013 cover of ESSENCE Magazine . “What I’m sowing today, I be reaping tomorrow So here’s some joyful bars, to replace your sorrow.” --LL Cool J (from Old School New School ) It was very difficult not to laugh when reading Robbie Ettelson’s satirical rant, “Being Positive is for Chumps,” in last week’s online Acclaim Magazine , against celebrity rappers for their inspiration-oriented tweets. In fact, I’ll admit it. Even though the sarcastic tirade was based in large part on a quote from The River of Winged Dreams , the subtitle of the piece almost sent me rolling on the floor: “If Robbie of Unkut comes across one more inspirational tweet from a rapper he's going to vomit rainbows.” At the same time, I smiled at the realization that the quotes which apparently have threatened to turn Robbie’s tummy inside out were often, for the rappers who shared them, not ju...