Benicia poet Bobby Richardson with Maya Angelou. (Photo courtesy of Bobby Richardson)

I first started writing poetry for the same reason people write or keep journals. Growing up in Alabama as a kid in a family of 12, I went without a lot. I subsequently began to write my feelings down on paper, and voila, a poet was born and my first poem of many to come was documented.
I graduated from high school and left my home town on my own with my last hundred bucks via Greyhound Bus. I became a published poet immediately thereafter with my poem called “American Dream (Nightmare).” You can find it in The Benicia First Tuesday Poetry Group book titled,“Sign of the Times” in your local book store or the Library of Congress Archives or website.
At this time I had the ultimate experience that any poet could dream of. I met and became friends with America’s poet laureate, under President Bill Clinton, Maya Angelou. I would ask Miss Angelou for advice on what to write about and how to illustrate my feelings on paper. I’ll never forget what Miss Angelou said to me when she said to write with your heart and write about that which makes you happy, upset and angry.
She went on to tell me to write about racism, discrimination, prejudices and inequality, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Needless to say I took her advice to heart, literally and figuratively.
Nowadays, I write poetry largely because of the inequalities I see in today’s society. And trust me, there is no shortage of material simply because the human race is filled with disdain for their fellow man, and even Mother Earth, itself. But poetry alone cannot and will not solve humanities ills. Beauty, romance, love, caring– these are what we stay alive for and what I also aspire to write about…to paraphrase Dead Poets Society pretty much says it all.
“We do it to express things in a way that’s hard to say using ordinary language.”
We write poetry to release what we cannot say but write. Like me, I write about what my mind can’t fathom when it comes to human depravity. Some say music is their way of escape, but for me it is poetry.
Poetry is a grown man crying. Poetry is putting on paper what you cannot say. Poets to me are messengers telling the world about the state of humanity And nowadays, I think they are needed more than ever.
Poetry is partially what any sort of art is; a dialogue between the artist and its followers. Also, poetry for me is a way to let people know that there are things we should stop and hesitate about and correct. That reality, truth, passion, love, anger and jealousy are only subjective.
If I were president I would make poetry a government department or cabinet answering only to Congress and the president. They would write, talk and pass laws about myriad things. They would question and doubt everything and everyone, themselves first and foremost. Their poems would be edicts, presented to the populace once a year on the month of April. Not so as to dictate to people and force them to agree with us, or like us or our edicts or poems and opinions or works, but to give government a soul and a heart, something I think all governments lack in abundancy today.

Bobby Richardson is a member of Benicia’s First Tuesday Poetry Group

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