Michael Robinson’s poem collection in his book From Chains to Freedom depicts genuine and authentic lived experiences of many black males in the United States. These poems are timely reminders of how far we have to go in our fight for equity and justice for Black people. He has been writing for a long while. Many admire Michael’s courage, voice and determination to tell his story and open other’s eyes and minds. I love his poem “Moving on with Life.”

After the murder of George Floyd, many of us who have been fighting for justice and equity for many years, want to ensure this is not just a moment of reckoning for racial justice in the United States, but that the momentum continues and becomes a movement. That is my prayer and hope after I read Michael’s book. These poems are great reminders of how we should keep fighting and never give up. Thank you Michael for this five star poem collection to hold us accountable and urge us to be responsible allies and advocates for many who are voiceless.

Michael Robinson’s book From Chains to Freedom can be ordered directly from the author. Please email Michael at mjrobinson@rollins.edu to ask him about a copy!

Dusty Dusk

These days
I often melt into
the arms of chairs
and I find myself
gripping the banister
as I head down the stairs
and I prefer
to have guests
visit my thoughts
rather than actually
having them here
and I am selfish
with moments and often
search under furniture
to see if happier times
like my long lost dog
might be hiding
somewhere
and I was going
to keep these
dark musings
to myself
but after
careful, tearful
consideration
decided
to share

Jaded Journey

I move
through a dusty
cluttered room
to a paint-peeled door
that leads to a driveway
with weeds
punching through
where I get in
my old jalopy Ford
with its tattered seats
and start the elderly engine
which clears its metallic throat
and then I drive aimless
through the rain
on an errant errand
and distracted
by the rubbish
of redundancy
I briefly forget
that my to-do list
will one day
be all checked off
and come to
a bitter end

Low Profile

There is a lot
I could, should,
or would do
if I was brave
and bold
and outgoing
like cliff or
social climbers
but I tend to stick
close to home-base
rather than step outside
and chase
elusive opportunities
disguised as
attainable goals
most nights I stay in
and count wolves
in sheep’s clothing
and I never cease
to be amazed that
all my ambition
amounts to nothing more
than pillow fluffing

Flip Side

By day
I am that guy
who you assume
is alright because
he is gregarious
and seems like
he really could
care less
and by night
I am the
phantom gentleman
who carries himself
like a Casanova castaway
who kissed the world
and made it cry
sadly smiling
with an overbite
on a defunct
online dating site
a lonely non-smoker
who often asks
the darkness
if it would
like a light

Ivan Jenson is a fine artist, novelist and popular contemporary poet. His artwork was featured in Art in America, Art News, and Interview Magazine and has sold at auction at Christie’s. Ivan was commissioned by Absolut Vodka to make a painting titled Absolut Jenson for the brand’s national ad campaign. His Absolut paintings are in the collection of the Spiritmusuem, the museum of spirits in Stockholm, Sweden.  

Jenson’s painting of the “Marlboro Man” was collected by the Philip Morris corporation. Ivan was commissioned to paint the final portrait of the late Malcolm Forbes.  Ivan has written two novels, Dead Artist and Seeing Soriah, both of which illustrate the creative and often dramatic lives of artists. Jenson’s poetry is widely published (with over 600 poems published in the US, UK and Europe) in a variety of literary media. A book of Ivan Jenson’s poetry was recently published by Hen House Press titled Media Child and Other Poems, which can be acquired on Amazon. Two novels by Ivan Jenson entitled, Marketing Mia and Erotic Rights have been published hardcover. 

Under the Sky

Sky observes daily

Below it.

Many walkers

Looking around do not

Know about the gateway to man-made heaven.

It should not be a poem every time to

Talk about sky, rain and the sun.

Cracks on my ceiling

Climbs down to my spine

I search coherence in my papers

Grasses are gentle

Thorns sometimes pain the eye

Without pricking the finger.

Most of the time it is the beating heart

Afraid of the vastness above the clouds.

Homeless World

Homeless still people live

No lights are lit to turn off

No sheets and high held pillows

To wipe the tears.

No time to set an alarm for the morning

No morning to rest for the day.

How to live without staring at the ceiling?

Makes me wonder about the stars

 Sky of vast blanket can rain

Can cause the unwanted pour

Still life is carried

To sail like the every other leaf

Swept by the rain water.

Title: One Man’s Deep Words
Adapted from a book by Chimezie Ihekuna (Mr. Ben)
Screenwriter: Robert Sacchi

Genre: Drama

For reviews, production consideration and other publicity, please contact us through the email addresses below:

– mrbenisreal@gmail.com

– rsacchi@rsacchi.20m.com

Mr. Griffins, six feet tall, handsome but frowning, always in a suit, middle-aged Euro-American Philosophy lecturer at the University of Maryland, was good at what he loved doing most: lecturing all levels of philosophy students. He was so knowledgeable in the subject that most students saw him as the best of all philosophy lecturers at the Department of Philosophy. However, ‘Professor’, as he was popularly called, was plagued with a challenge. He was tired of following the “by the books” tradition. Professor looked forward to a time when Philosophy would pay back the dues he had paid to it – to come up with ideologies that would stand the test of time.

Charles and Kelvin were freshmen at the university studying Philosophy. From their first to their final years, they have been under the tutelage of Mr. Griffins but realized his displeasure despite his teaching proficiency. This got his students unhappy with him. It soon got to the point that one of his students, Adam, during an hour-long lecture, amplified Griffin’s innate desire by asking: “Mr. Know It All, when will you come up with your own ideologies?!” This stirred a wind of change that affected his personality completely.

Inspired by Adam and Sandra, his wife of twenty years, and encouraged by his students and friends Charles and Kelvin, Mr. Griffins wrote the most thought-provoking, national and international bestselling, philosophy-based book the university has ever recorded in its history – One Man’s Deep Words. He was awarded the university award for “Most Outstanding Lecturer of all Time.” Along with being a highly regarded philosophy text, his book influenced other departments of the university in many ways.

After writing a thesis based on his bestseller, he was awarded a Doctorate Degree in Philosophy. Three years later, he retired and wrote full time. With his name poised over every nook and cranny of Maryland and different prizes to his credit, Dr. Griffins has now written four great works, which have been reviewed in the Washington Post, Seattle Times, New York Times, ABC, Fox and a host of other major media outlets. He has been interviewed on podcasts and radio programs and in magazines by most media outfits in the United States and some in Canada.

Synopsis, Plot, and Summary of David Copperfield

         Charles Dickens, the critical realist and social satirist of the Victorian era depicted childhood memorabilia recollections in David Copperfield through the rhetoric of fictional biographer David Copperfield. Contemporary British polemical social critique and satirist George Orwell, said, “Among the British writers there is no better than Dickens in depicting childhood.”11 year old Dickens worked in a shoe polish factory as an apprentice and later a scanty legacy enabled him to attend school since his father was released from debtors parole. David’s widowed mother Ms. Clara was seduced by the affair of Mr. Murdstone, the cold hearted or stone hearted wine merchant and entrepreneur or proprietor of the firm Murdstone and Grinby. Blunderstone Rookery had to be forsaken ever since David’s being harassed by didactic dogmatism of the step parentage.

Downcast destiny of David Copperfield, leading to vulnerable exploitation among the insalubrity Victorian industrial pollution. Mysteries of childhood labour thus deteriorates the physical, mental, emotional and psychological health of David. He doesn’t have a sustainable living standard. Lack of love and affection were prevalent universalized themes of Victorian Literature. Miracles of the Industrial Revolution ironically provided malice and malevolence in the factory lives. Descriptions of Salem House portray the inevitable tyranny of deplorable and despondent educational institutions in Victorian England.  “Scraps of old copy-books and exercises litter the dirty floor. There is a strange unwholesome smell upon the room, like a mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air and rotten books” Mr. Creakle, the headmaster and owner of Salem House, although profits from this enterprise but remains lackadaisical of improvement or pragmatism.

Shabbily clothed languishing lethargic master Mr. Mell and subsequently the unwelcoming embarrassment faced by David (“Take care of him. He bites”) criticizes the ethics of pedagogy and pedagogue. At the age of sixteen, Dickens began working as the apprentice for a law firm in London. The London Museum library attracted him overwhelmingly and he was privileged to learn short hand. By 1828 Dickens was endowed the Courts of Common reporter.

Soon he forsakes the legal profession to devote to the passion of journalism featuring reportage pertaining to parliamentary affairs. The legacy and fortune of David Copperfield was embellished by the association of guardian angel, Miss Betsey Trotwood, the eccentric widow with a quick mind and independent spirit (the comic precursor of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations). Mr. Wickfield and his daughter Miss Wickfield together encouraged David’s pursuits of attaining higher education. And the Canterbury Micawber family and the seashore Yarmouth Pegotty household occasionally enabled David Copperfield to idyllic settings for recreations and holiday destinations. Twists of broken hearted incidents highlight significance of parting with Emily (Emily was really naïve  in bigotry and class prejudices or economic discrimination); “good as his word” and “very good looking” James Steerforth eloped with Emily sardonically. Elopement with Emily couldn’t satisfy the incest of obsessive infatuation.

Furthermore, James Steerforth blandishing accomplished wooed of Dora Spenlow, David’s first wife. Micawber family was always broken into some financial crisis or other. Mr. Micawber satirizes the biographical allegory of Charles Dickens’ father John Dickens. John Dickens was incompetent with money and piled up tremendous debts throughout his life. When Dickens was twelve his father was arrested and taken custody in debtors’ prison of London New Gate. Whistling, childish naivety of Mr. Micawber’s witticism found resentment and indignation at “put lemon –peel into the kettle, sugar in the snuff tray, attempted to pour boiling water out of a candlestick”.

Nonetheless the melancholia and manic depression from burden of bankruptcy, enraged due to involvement with schemes of Uriah Heep squandering wealth whimsically mutated dramatically ever since Agnes’ aroma perfumed in this anticipation. He admires Agnes more than a daughter and indebted to her in benevolent spirits as elicited explicitly in the manifestation. Micawber proclaims to David in this passage: “Wickfield”, said Mr. Micawber now turning bright red. “My dear Copperfield, she is the only starry spot in a miserable existence. My respect of that young lady, my admiration or her character, my devotion to her for her love and truth, and goodness!…”

More next month!