Category Archives: Soul

Buddah Desmond’s New Poetry Collection, Coming Up From the Downside: Finding Joy in Our Song, is Out Now!

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The celebration continues! Happy to announce that my latest poetry collection, Coming Up From the Downside: Finding Joy in Our Song, is out now!

Coming Up From the Downside is about adversity, healing, resilience, and faith. It’s about overcoming pain, loss, depression, health issues, and heartbreak to get to real love and the joy that sustains us through it all. It’s the third and final book in what I’m calling “The Home Within” trilogy, which was preceded by 2020’s From The Inside Out: A Poetry Collection and 2023’s Everything I Miss(ed) At Home.

The vast majority of the poems in this book were written in the thick of the pandemic. One of the bleakest periods that completely changed my life, and the lives of so many others. It was a season that kept giving lesson after lesson after lesson in the midst of getting up from the downside.

Coming Up From the Downside was published by Liquid Cat Publishing. The cover was designed Black Author Brand. Extremely grateful to my publisher’s team and the Black Author Brand team for their love, support, encouragement, guidance, and great work throughout this process!

And thank you so much for all who’ve supported me along the way. Words aren’t enough to express my gratitude.

Coming Up From the Downside: Finding Joy in Our Song is available for purchase at Amazon. Get into it!

Much Love + Many Blessings! ~ Buddah Desmond

Buddah Desmond’s Poetry featured in SOUL Issue Ten

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Excited to announce that six of my poems were recently published in the literary magazine, SOUL Issue Ten. The poems featured in SOUL are entitled, “We Are Art,” “So Rich,” “Everything But…,” “Cold In The Afterglow (It Ain’t Love),” “Lingering,” and “Masters Of The Fire.” 

SOUL (Say on Universal Languages) was created by writer, poet, editor, and journalist Candis Johnson. So many dope, talented writers and creatives are featured in this issue of SOUL, so be sure to check it out.

Much gratitude and praise to Candis for creating this platform and affording us the opportunity to share our gifts with the world. 

To purchase your copy of SOUL Issue Ten, please go to: www.lulu.com/spotlight/freedomwryter21.

Buddah Desmond, A Featured Poet on Vocal Expressions for National Poetry Month 2023

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I’m happy to announce that I’m a featured poet during Nation Poetry Month 2023 on author Dee Lawrence’s blog Vocal Expressions. The feature includes an interview and two poems, “The Words We Used To Say” and “BLACK NATION.” 

Much gratitude and appreciation to Dee Lawrence for providing this opportunity, along with a platform for highlighting poets during one of our favorite months of the year. To learn more about Dee Lawrence, go to Vocal Expressions or check her out on IG.

Buddah Desmond’s Latest Book, Everything I Miss(ed) At Home, Out Now!

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It’s with immense joy and pride that I announce my latest project, Everything I Miss(ed) At Home, is available for purchase! Nearly 4 years in the making, this project delves into the meaning of home. Those place(s) we call home… Those places we create… Places we find (or don’t find) within our families, friends, communities, within our intimate relationships, and most importantly, within ourselves. 

Most of the poetry in Everything I Miss(ed) At Home was written prior to the pandemic. The time leading into the pandemic was a major period of transition and transformation, I noticed, for myself and a number of my friends and family. If we only knew what was coming in 2020 and the years thereafter… It was a period ripe with trials and tribulations, yet rich with blessings, lessons, and opportunities for change and growth. “Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now,” as Maya Angelou said.

Everything I Miss(ed) At Home was published by Liquid Cat Publishing. It’s always a pleasure to work with people that share a deep love for and commitment to poetry, along with providing opportunities and platforms for unique voices to shine. Much love and gratitude to Jakob, Olivia, and the Liquid Cat Publishing team!

And much love and gratitude to YOU for your support along the way! And if you’re so moved to check out my latest project, it’s available for purchase at Liquid Cat Books and on Amazon. Let’s take it to #1! 

“For indie authors / poets, your support goes A LONG WAY!!!! Buy our books. Read our books. Review our books. Talk about our books. Share our books. Gift our books. Repeat these steps as often as possible!” ~ @buddahdesmond.

New Book, From The Inside: A Poetry Collection, Out Now!

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I’m happy to announce my new book, From The Inside Out: A Poetry Collection, is out now! After sitting on this project for a few years, I finally decided to get over myself and hit the button.

About The Book

From The Inside Out: A Poetry Collection examines the power of love and its impact on our lives. When combined with action, commitment, faith, hope, persistence, and pride, love can transform our relationships, our communities, our world, and each of us. We can find “Glory” when we “lose [ourselves] in the beauty and wonder of life and love.”

As these poems illustrate, this journey may require a little work, a little discovery, and some growing pains…. For love is an inside job. And we love from the inside out.

From The Inside Out is available for purchase at Amazon. Tell a friend, then another friend, and then another friend.

Much gratitude for your support. Peace, Love, and Many Blessings!

Buddah Desmond – Feature Friday Poet on No Line Left Behind

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Elated to report that I was recently the Feature Friday poet on TehilaYah Ysrayl’s No Line Left Behind site. The feature includes an interview, and one of my latest poem’s entitled, “Home.” A snippet of the poem is below:

Much gratitude to TehilaYah for featuring me, and for providing a platform to highlight and support poets near and far. To learn more about TehilaYah, go to No Line Left Behind or check her out on IG.

Photos / graphics courtesy of TehilaYah Ysrayl. 

Black Magic

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Image courtesy of http://beautifulbrownies.tumblr.com/

Image courtesy of http://beautifulbrownies.tumblr.com/

Blackness in full view
Open and vast
Varied and rich
Not hidden in the cloak of
your lies and shame
Blackness doesn’t need your acceptance
or validation
It just is
As it is
And my, what our blackness is!
Full-bodied power
A vivid cultural mosaic
Intricately woven
Connecting our past, present, and future.

My experiences are too often judged, rarely understood
If I let you tell it –
my story simply wouldn’t be
My existence – my truth –
buried, annihilated
At the other extreme, you’ve tried to tell
my story as if you know me better
than I know myself
Praise to the gods that there never is and there never will be
a substitute for the real thing.

My story – our story –
more hype than virtual reality
Afro-futuristic dreams—
we live them every day
Casting spells before you
can comprehend
#blackgirlmagic
#blackboymagic
Rocking it like no other before, during
or after.

Forever an enigma
Keep ‘em guessing, as Mom always says
And just when they think they’ve figured
you out – flip that shit!

My blackness is unapologetic
Will not turn down
for your comfort
It’s everlasting
Just like the storied journey passed down
from my ancestors
Label it haughty or narcissistic
It’s simply self-love
Black love and BLACK PRIDE.

The strength and resilience
of my blackness is unbreakable
as the blood I share with my brothas and sistas
Forever catching our fires like Sonia
Yielding the fire within
Bringing beauty and beyond to the world
And making history every day
Now, that’s BLACK MAGIC!

© 2016 BuddahDesmond

Spirit Women

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Sisters In Spirit_synthiasaintjamesImage courtesy of Synthia SAINT JAMES.


Spirit women,
Singing songs for the world,
Baring gifts for our hearts and souls;
Moving nations,
Changing minds,
Fueling enough power to shift our place in time.

Spirit women,
Rich with love, wisdom, and experience;
Exposing your scars,
Standing in strength,
Encouraging forgiveness,
And enlightening minds on the importance of letting go—
     so our souls can be free.

Spirit women,
Natural humanitarians;
We’re grateful for you and your gifts.
We’ve found blessings in your blessings,
And relish in the deep connections we share with you.

Spirit women—
When we honor you we honor ourselves
     And our collective beauty.

Spirit women—
We celebrate you eternally.

© 2013 BuddahDesmond

Gil Scott-Heron, More than the Godfather of Hip-Hop

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Image courtesy of The Second Act site.
Tell me/Who’ll pay reparations on my soul?/Who’ll pay reparations/‘Cause I don’t dig segregation/but I can’t get integration/I got to take it to the United Nations/Someone to help me away from this nation/Tell me/Who’ll pay reparations on my soul? ~ Gil Scott-Heron, “Who‘ll Pay Reparations For My Soul?,” Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970)
Gil Scott-Heron, famed author, poet, and musician, would’ve turned 64 on April 1, 2013.  I discovered his works when I was a teenager.  Scott-Heron opened my eyes (and ears) to new ways of combining powerful, revolutionary words with jazz, blues, and soul music.  A self-described “Blues-ologist,” Scott-Heron’s artistry carried on in the African American literary and musical traditions that preceded him.  

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

Scott-Heron’s legacy is often reduced to him being the Godfather of Hip-Hop/Rap, but there is so much more to him and his literary and musical contributions than that.  His work, ever culturally, socially, and politically conscious, served as honest, thought-provoking reflections of the times.  In one of the most astute profiles of Gil Scott-Heron,”The Devil and Gil Scott-Heron,” Mark Anthony Neal says,

For all of our memories of Scott-Heron’s political impact, his music covered a full gamut of experiences. A track like “Lady Day and Coltrane” paid tribute to Black musical traditions, while songs like “A Very Precious Time” and “Your Daddy Loves You” found Scott-Heron thinking about issues of intimacy. Well before proto-Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer would be recovered by scholar and critics, Scott-Heron set Toomer’s Cane to music. Even as young activists make the connection between Black life and environmental racism, Scott-Heron offered his take on the plaintive “We Almost Lost Detroit.”  

His work represented for his/our people.  It evoked the sentiments and oft-underrepresented (or unheard) perspectives of his/our people.  And like Stevie Wonder (one of his idols), Marvin Gaye, and Donny Hathaway, Scott-Heron’s work proved that you could still reach the people the with music of substance and contemporary relevance.

So here’s to you Gil Scott-Heron! The revolution goes on! 

Discography (studio albums):
Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970), Pieces of a Man (1971), Free Will (1972), Winter in America (1974), The First Minute of a New Day (1975), From South Africa to South Carolina (1976), It’s Your World (1976), Bridges (1977), Secrets (1978), 1980 (1980), Real Eyes (1980), Reflections (1981), Moving Target (1982), Spirits (1994), I’m New Here (2010)

Bibliography:
The Vulture (1970), Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970), The Nigger Factory (1972), So Far, So Good (1990), Now and Then: The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Holiday (2012)