Life Power Soul: A Compilation of Poetry and Spoken Word

Poetry should challenge you to think about your life and meditate on your past and future. It should incite you to feel the author's pains and joys. It should invite you to see things through another's eyes. When necessary, it should inspire you to change the way you think, how you feel, and what you see. In other words, poetry should dare you to grow.

Life Power Soul takes a straightforward view of life and relationships and has something for everyone; simple poems that illicit vivid imagery, hard-hitting poems that motivate thought, and spoken word poems that please the mind's palate.

This book fuses traditional poetry with spoken word and the musical influences of R&B and Hip Hop to create a free-flowing conversation between author and reader. If you enjoy poetry, whether it be traditional verse or free verse; if you enjoy sincere and direct commentary, whether it be spoken word or rap; if you enjoy the smooth melodies and lyrics of a good, soulful song; this book combines it all into a medley of poems designed to give voice to your Life, infuse Power, and add Soul and inspiration through repetition and melody. Dare yourself to grow!

Junious Ward, known as Jay to his friends, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1975. He moved to a small town in North Carolina at age 5 and then to a suburb of Washington, D.C. as a young adult. Having the moral institution and colorful background that comes along with southern living combined with the fast pace and bright lights of the "big city" served to sharpen his unique outlook on life and people. Jay has been writing poetry for about 22 years. His talent for poetry became apparent in the 5th grade when he wrote a poem for a school project about the Statue of Liberty which was later published in small booklet made available to students and parents. He later auditioned that same poem as a rap song for a local radio station, which sparked a never-ending affair with poetry and music. As a teen, he would alternate writing poems with writing rap songs and R&B songs. Even at an early age, Jay was inspired to write words that spoke to the heart of a matter in a way that infused rhythm and melody. He would rap anywhere there was a willing audience, including talent shows and school dances. During his matriculation at Elizabeth City State University he was afforded the opportunity to perform on the local radio station and join an impromptu session at a local jazz concert. Some time after moving to Laurel, Maryland, he joined a poetry group in the DC Metro area along with several other published poets. This helped to sharpen his skills and reinvigorate a devotion to poetry that had waned with the anxieties of adult life. Just as his favorite poet, Langston Hughes, had fused his love of jazz and blues with traditional verse, Jay fused rap and spoken word with traditional verse to create poems that he felt were simple, powerful and pleasant. Junious Ward is a Project Manager for a telecommunications company and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Tracey. They are enjoying the challenges of