The Palace of Versailles | A Poetic Disaster

Poet's Discourse

When I first thought of publishing my own poetry, I almost immediately laughed it off. "I am no Maya Angelou," I told myself, "I am no Martin Luther King." As a black woman with enough stereotypes to suffocate off of, the last thing I wanted to add to my title was "poet." It seemed reserved as a suburban odor, not a lower class minority's honor.

But the more poetry I read, the more fascinated I became with expressing the words of others using my own voice. I took to performing poems in the confines of my bedroom where I knew I'd be safe from all judgement and self conscious criticisms. I would belt out Shakespearean plays, snap through jazz conversations, preach through slam poetry, and more.

Then one day came where I stayed up through the night, penning out my thoughts and forcing rhymes where rhymes shouldn't be. It was a terrible first poem; I made sure to shred it just as quickly as a wrote it. But after toying with different methods, I finally published a poem to the internet's poetry central platform, AllPoetry.com.

The amount of support and advice I received was tremendous and incredibly inspiring. I proceeded to publish another, and yet another as the poet called "Versailles." With this name, I wanted to capitalize on how many illusions I had fallen for and fallen from. I made it a point to publish poetry based on my convictions and my voice rather than what I wanted other people to see me as. 

I am no Maya Angelou, I am no Edgar Allen Poe, but I am a black woman with way too much time on her hands. I've decided to transplant my poetry here to save money in all honesty. I hope you enjoy the following works.