Thanks to all of your support in helping us to keep the writing communities we serve engaged. Hopefully we can continue to encourage more people to submit to our contest. This season's Poetry Contest was very challenging and every submission was much appreciated. The judges spent well over a week analyzing and scoring the poems. We are excited to share with our readers the winning poems and some background on the winning writers.
Tied for 3rd place in the contest is Queen "Najwa" Johnson:
My name is Queen Najwa Johnson (Najwa) for short and some know me as "Mama Jay". I am 31 years old and get to share this life journey with my husband and our six children. I love to create whether it be a poem, a song or a visual. At an early age my imagination was grand (I'm a Sagittarius), thankfully I had a mother who allowed me to express it and pushed me to never give up on that. She passed when I was 8, and I went thru a series of traumatic events that led to depression, anxiety and eventually got me diagnosed as bipolar and put on medication at the age of 16. Through the years I have used poetry, music and art as a source of healing and no longer needing to be dependent on medication. For me that is what drives me to write and create the way I do because I know it more than just words, it can be food for the mind and soul. Aside from creating, I love helping people, making people laugh and experiencing life -the good and the bad.
Here is Queen "Najwa" Johnson's poem:
Emotions hit like crashing waves
The type to send a soul to it's grave
I've tried swimming up and out of my thoughts
But the harder I try the more I get caught
In this sea of depression, this place of rage
In the ocean where the lost succumb to their pain
My greatest fear is that alone I'll die here
And never see the ocean while it's calm and clear
So I grasp for air and swim a bit harder
Hoping my effort can get me farther
I have to keep going and make it to the shore
So I hold on tighter like I've never have before
The fight is not over and I am not yet dead
Although at my weakness, I know victory is ahead
In a fit of rage I am not who I wish to be
I am like the storm that comes to knock over the tree
I am all of the bad experiences combined in one
The fire that burns , the heat of the sun
In a fit of rage I hate the decisions I make
Yet somehow I'm consumed and it seems so in place
Nothing is precious, Nothing worth keeping
My heart pumps adrenaline and my anger keeps seeking
Somewhere or someone for my rage to grab
There's nothing present , so I look to the past
Why I don’t know it's painful there
Perhaps to question my fears or take on the dare
Of not really caring what can happens to me
I've already been there, it's the future I can't see
No hope for tomorrow, no pennies in a well
Just the depth of sorrow and the burning of hell
My desires have forgotten their place in my heart
Only lingering in the places where it's dark
Maybe, It's not rage it's something much deeper
Rage is the cause of not being a believer
In hope, in change, in love not even light
Rage is the reason we seem to loose sight
Maybe if I open up and become fully aware
I'll my realize rage is just anger and fear.
Follow Queen "Najwa" Johnson on instagram and support her writing endeavors. If you know of any writers looking to grow and get better, please connect them with I Am Root LLC or the Rooted Minds Blog, we'd love to be apart of their success stories.