FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
BY:
Naudia E. Brown
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Original poems
 Me without you
 The pain of the generation
 Problem
 Something like no other
 What happens
 I fell in love
 Broken hearted angel
 I got the sunshine
 Beautiful brown eyes
 Diverse nation
 Published work
 A summer love poem: Nikki Giovanni
 The rose that grew from the concrete: Tupac Shakur
 A dream deferred: Langston Hughes
 I cry: Tupac Shakur
 Phenomenal woman: Maya Angelou
1. Analysis 2. Biography
Intro
Hey! I’m Naudia and this is my book. I wrote my
original poems when I was going through some
stuff. I use poetry as an outlet to express my
feelings at different times. I hope you enjoy the
book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me Without You
Me living in a world without you is like an ocean without salt
Like a bird without wings
Me without you causes pain to my soul
I loved you and you said you loved me
Were you lying to me the whole time just to get what you wanted?
Did you ever really care?
I don’t think you really care about me without you
Me without you is me without life
Me without you is Mickey without Minnie
Donald without Daisy
I loved you but did you love me
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
My memory strays to a brighter sunny day
When you held me and called me sweetheart
You lied when you said you loved me
But I’d rather go on living your lies than living without you
This is me without you
Mickey without Minnie
Pocahontas without John Smith
A queen without her king
Nala without Simba
Me without you
The pain of the generation
The pain of my generation
Thotties and squallies
Wanting real men
But don’t understand that the real men don’t want them
All they do is twerk
They don’t even work
They can’t cook
They can’t clean
They will only have real men in their dreams
These wanna be thugs
Out here with their pants down to their ankles
Their Jordans representing shackles
The real men and women don’t want these mental slaves
They don’t want statistics
They want original hard working men and women who
understand what it takes to be real and not programmed robots
made of steel
The struggle of my generation pains my heart and soul
Seeing these young men and women who could have made
something of themselves
Struggling to do good
Putting shame upon their families
The ones who fought for their freedom
Such a shame
This generation
They should stop procreating and find something better to do
Like taking care of their kids instead of spending money all on
shoes and weed
That right there is greed
Your kids need diapers and food but they can’t get is because
you’re stupid
What did you learn today from this young girl writing to you?
The answer is don’t be stupid
How am I so young but have more sense than you?
Shame upon my generation
Problem
There’s a problem here
You all don’t know who the real Chicago rappers are
You know about Chief keef, Spenzo and Kanye
But what about Common, Taylor and Lupe
I don’t think y’all remember what it was like
For rappers not to rap about doing drugs and getting money
Common tells you a message about growing up in the city of wind
where we at
Lupe tells you not to degrade yourself
Don’t be an idiot just listen
Taylor just like his big brother lifts you up when you are down
You’re kings and queens without crowns
Y’all out here acting like clowns
That’s why every other day there’s another man down
We can save chi town
Just put the gun down
If you put the gun down we can solve the problem that we have
Our city won’t be labeled bad
All the mothers won’t be sad from the loss of the sons and daughters
that they had
So now do you see the problem here that developed over the past
couple of years?
Do you see the problem here?
What Happens
What happens to a child in pain?
A child scorn
A child killed by years of pain
She cries when it rains
She cries in her sleep
She drowns out the world
She hides behind her hoodie
She puts on a brave face
To show the world she’s ok but she’s not
Her name is Naudia
Naudia is the girl in the pink hoodie
The one with the bookbag
The one with her headphones on
The short one with the dark lenses
What happened to Naudia
No one but Naudia knows
What happens to a child in pain?
I fell in love
I stopped falling in love with other people
I fell in love with myself
I won’t break my own heart
Falling in love with myself’
The best thing I’ve ever done
Falling in love with other people
Led to nothing but broken hearts
And wasted tears
Those wasted tears led to headaches and dehydration
That was my lesson learned
Falling in love with myself
A dream I made come true
Some may call me conceited
Some may say I’m narcissistic
I might be
But how? Is it because I love myself
It’s Naudi’s world
The rest of y’all just live in it
I fell in love with the idea that I am queen
I fell in love with not having a broken heart
I fell in love with myself
My beauty
My flaws
My strengths
My weaknesses
I fell in love with me
All of me loves all of me
Not all of you
Broken Hearted Angel
Broken hearted angel
The one whose wings are broken
She can’t fly
She fell from the sky
She sits in a fiery pit
Becoming an angel of darkness
She frowns upon the surface
For they have betrayed her
Broken her emotionally
Physically
And mentally
Crying silently
Screams of pain
Thoughts of harming those who have harmed her
Slowly dying
The pain in her chest increasing
Broken hearted angel
Sunshine
Thawed out earth
Warmth of my soul
Sounds of playing children
Time for ice in Cherry’s bowl
Time for baseball
No more frozen hearts
No more frozen souls
I got the sunshine
Time to wear shorts and tank tops
Weather for snapbacks
Got the sunshine
My hair getting lighter
My skin getting darker
Running these streets
Wreaking havoc with my twin
I’ll be at the pool
Even though I can’t swim
Sitting outside doing absolutely nothing
Watching the clouds to pass time
Listening to crickets chirp
Watching the fireflies
Kisses under shady trees
Listening to buzzing bees
Feeling the warmth of the sun
Running around having fun
I been waiting on this time
Finally
I got the sunshine
Beautiful brown eyes
Look into my eyes
Tell me what you see
I gaze into my eyes
I see what you don’t see
Look into these beautiful brown eyes
You see a soul pained by lies
A little girl that cries
On the outside is a mask
Covering my pain
You look at me when it rains
You see tears rolling down my cheeks
These beautiful brown eyes cry for weeks
Without end
My beautiful brown eyes
Searching for a treasured friend
But that person has not been found
My eyes have been drowned
In these tears
The sky is crying
I’m crying with it
Tears from my beautiful brown eyes
Real eyes
These eyes
Even if you think I don’t cry
My beautiful brown eyes
Diverse nation
Diverse nation
The world is a rainbow
Yellow,black,white,brown and red
To be together is why blood was shed
We fought to be united
To be a diverse nation
People from every land
From every walk of life
Diverse nation
People of pigment
People with no pigment
Laughing as one
A diverse nation
Hands intertwined
Together as a whole
The world like gumbo stored in a bowl
Diverse nation
The world is a rainbow
Yellow, black white brown and red
To be together is why blood was shed
A Summer Love Poem: Nikki Giovanni
Clouds float by on a summer sky
I hop scotch over to you
Rainbows arch from ground to gold
I climb over to you
Thunder grumbles, lightning tumbles
And I bounce over to you
Sun beams back and catches me
Smiling over at you
The rose that grew from the concrete: Tupac Shakur
Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it’s dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.
Tupac Shakur
RIP Tupac Amaru Shakur
A dream deferred: Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes
RIP Langston Hughes
Sometimes when I'm alone
I Cry,
Cause I am on my own.
The tears I cry are bitter and warm.
They flow with life but take no form
I Cry because my heart is torn.
I find it difficult to carry on.
If I had an ear to confide in,
I would cry among my treasured friend,
but who do you know that stops that long,
to help another carry on.
The world moves fast and it would rather pass by.
Then to stop and see what makes one cry,
so painful and sad.
And sometimes...
I Cry
and no one cares about why.
Tupac Shakur
RIP Tupac Amaru Shakur
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
RIP Maya Angelou
Analysis
Phenomenal woman: She means that just because she is
a woman doesn’t mean that she is inferior. She is
powerful in her own way. I chose this poem because
Maya Angelou was an inspiration for me.
I cry: He means that he has a problem and no one is
there to help him slay his demons. I chose this poem
because I feel the same way sometimes.
A dream deferred: He means that dreams can end in a lot
of ways. There are good and bad dreams it all depends
on you. I chose this because I have troubles with my
dreams.
The rose that grew from the concrete: He means that
beauty can flourish from anything. You can make good
happen from even the most horrible things. I chose this
because I sometimes feel like my happiness is a rose that
grew from concrete.
Summer love poem: She means that summer love is
beautiful. Love is sweet and warm. I chose this poem
because I thought it was really cute and sweet.
Biography of Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur was born in New York in 1976. He was
born under the name Lesane Parish Crooks until his
mother changed it. He was a rapper, a poet and an
activist. He was shot and killed in Las Vegas, Nevada on
September 13, 1996. He was apart of a label run by
Shug Knight , the label was called Death Row.