Hi All
It's Sunday - my favorite day of the week because I get the opportunity to feature the work of a fellow poet I admire and find talented.
It is with high celebration I share the work of poet Josh West on the Jimmy Broccoli page and website with you today.
I've been following Josh's work for months, but only within recent weeks have dug deeper into his poems. As a writer and as a person, I respect Josh. He does what few others are capable of - he makes my poems, in comparison (to his), sound like a fun day in the park. Josh is not afraid to "go there" - whether the landscape be a darkened underpass, the neighborhood few venture into, or an emotional rollercoaster without the safety belts and with nobody below manning the controls, Josh takes his audience there and he does it with brilliance and with purpose.
Josh, in his own words:
I am a poet who thrives on the chaos the world creates. Got back into poetry a year ago after a 12 year break in an attempt to stop my own self-harming ways. Music is a main part of my writing the dark chaotic frenzy the metal I listen to is what fuels my words.
Here is Josh West with "Scarred Beauty". It's intense, emotional, personal and brilliant.
Scarred Beauty:
Staring within myself, depression has won. With over a hundred scars, my body is lined. There is always a reason, I have come to find. Now I must hide the sadness my hand has done.
Sitting in a locked room, blade in one hand. Blood soaked tissues held in the other. Counting all my scars before adding another. Each one was gifted by my own hand.
In this bloodied fight, my fight for sanity. I am confronting my demons with a scarlet mist. Over the years I have sacrificed my vanity. Tattoos from blade and blood, on my body now twist.
I am a gruesome display of hatred and violence. My chosen method, painful and insidious. The image of a man just vile and hideous. But through the act I receive reflective silence.
In the cuts I answered depression's call to duty. I remain purposefully blind to the passing glance. The living portrait of a man tempting chance. Nothing more than just another scarred beauty.
- Josh West
