One Stop Spotlight - Anthony Desmond Scott

Hello everyone, I'm Gay Cannon and I'm so excited to tell you I have joined the @onestoppoetry team.  There are exciting new projects planned for the year ahead and it's an honor to have been asked to join the team in bringing them to you. 

I will be doing occasional spotlights and for my first official one, I want to introduce you to Anthony Desmond Scott.  If it hadn't been for Anthony, you wouldn't be reading this from me, I wouldn't know about poetry online, @onestoppoetry or probably even be writing again. Anthony was my first real twitter friend. I had been looking at twitter more or less as a news feed for many months. Then @MyWordWizard started following Anthony and me at about the same time and we were finishing their prompts. Anthony is in all things curious, and even though he writes deep, sometimes dark and very intense poetry; yet, his disposition is easy going,thoroughly likable, always polite and invariably upbeat.

Anthony discovered blogsites. We both created one and the rest has been a journey in meeting new poets, reading and being read by other poets spurring both of us to read more, write more and to connect.  Because of this I am happy to interview him for the spotlight today.

Anthony, tell us about yourself.

I'm a 19 year old guy with a passion for poetry and music. I've never been the average kid. I've always felt different from just about everyone. Through the years of coming into who I am, I've experienced feeling out of place and such. But with the guidance of my Mother and the will of myself, I learned to embrace all the things I enjoy and love being a true individual.

I know your mother has been a major influence in your life. Tell us something about her.

My mother is the one person who stood by me through everything. She made me the person I am today. My mother's writing evokes her tragic childhood experiences such as sexual and verbal abuse by family members. She could've gone down a destructive path but when she had me at 18 she turned those bad experiences around for the better as a Mom and now as a strong independent woman.

When did you start writing poetry and what and who inspires your writing?

I started writing poetry when I was 16 and fell in love with it. My first complete poem was 'Self'. When I had written that, something clicked inside of me. I knew poetry was my destiny.

Frank Stanford is a big influence for my poems. I love how tragic his poetry was. Yet there was sometimes a small bit of light in the midst of all his pain. I also take inspiration from paintings and music. When it comes down to it, the core of my poetry is the good and bad of life. I express it only in ways that come naturally to me.

I know you were as thrilled as I was to find @Onestoppoetry. What has it meant for you?

I think @Onestoppoetry is amazing because there's no competition, just love. One Stop Poetry gives us so many opportunities to showcase ourselves as the best poet we can be. I appreciate this community and I feel appreciated as well. You can't beat that.

What are you aspirations for the future?

I aspire to be a prolific figure in poetry. After I've lived a long happy successful life, I hope my work will live on and continue to inspire.

I am happy to share these poems of Anthony's with you today.

sElf

I'm staring at a vacant wall full of emptiness

Wondering if I'll finally make it my own

Intimidated by the knives in my soul

Cutting incisions in my flesh

Marking their territory

While hunters tread my grounds

And shoot my guarded veins

My spirit still remains

When the seasons change

Hunters rampage across the bridge

To destroy the light that shines on me

As winter approaches and summer passes

All that's left is a lonely breeze

Hunters put down their rifles

And charge full steam ahead

As pulses of blood rush towards my head

With battle scars resulting as tears

Running out my mind

Next target lies where my memories are confined

My pupils dilate as my eyes

Awaken back to where it began

A wall covered in my deepest secrets

© 2008 Anthony Desmond Scott. All Rights Reserved.

DARE

Rats are almost an equal to men, women, & children

Remove our skin cut it from our flesh

So it falls from heights unimaginable

Shells from shots we've fired

Fill our mouths to keep from swallowing our tongues

As they gauge our eyes & roll them in a pond of lava

Rip our legs off right below the knee

So one can't see over this fake fucking mountain &

Dare to make a judgement on who's better

© 2010 Anthony Desmond Scott. All Rights Reserved.

'Normal Is No Rule'

Cheap carpet harvested my open pores

Laid to rest everynight in the Sahara

Sand flew in my eyes while I made bold attempts to sleep

I wake up with dirt in my mouth

My spit forms a mudslide

That drains through my intestines

I wish to cough up blood in the midst of

Making an over dramatic statement

In regards to the ratio of too much or not enough love

Questions/Reasons

Perfect ways to get to know the honest form of human

Which came from woman on her back

Soft spoken gentle voices tender touch

So much of what I need

I already want but cannot have

I'll stay on my back

© 2010 Anthony Desmond Scott. All Rights Reserved.

You can find Anthony on Twitter @iamEPanthony

His blogsite is http://glassstaircase.blogspot.com

Photography courtesy of creative commons wall Laura Chifirium http://www.flickr.com/photos/lchifi/231115148/

Sands- Alaskan Dude http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/4512280393