Today I was reading some articles by Zig Ziglar one of the most renown inspirational speakers and I came across this piece. I think this is something definitely everybody should read/know.

"You were born with unlimited potential and endowed with the seeds of greatness.You have inside of you what it takes to achieve any goal or dream you desire. Most everyone uses less than 5% of their potential. You must decide what it is you really want. Focus on it so clearly and make it your purpose. Then work on it hard enough and long enough. It will happen.You also have to work on things that are goal achieving instead of stress relieving. Feed your mind with good stuff every day. Become an expert in your field"

Some weeks ago I was reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and she talked about the same thing, on how we have unlimited power in us to achieve approximately anything we want. I too do believe that if we can just stop looking at ourselves as persons with limited resources and instead tame that unlimited possibility we have in us, then we can achieve anything we set our minds on. I guess the difference between achievers and failures is that achievers give it their all while failures treat every opportunity as an option.

I guess I needed that quick in the butt too. Now time to go make use my unlimited potential in writing lol. Cheers.
©g!o.inked

Okay I'll start with answering a question I'm always asked; "why doth my writing always emboss sadness?" Well here is the plain truth, Jim Morrison once said, "Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they are wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it." Truth is I don't take pleasure in pain, it's just that I adore diversity and since modern age poetry and writing is about love and heartbreaks, what makes me me if I dwell in that same circle? So I took the path of a wake up call, that path that people are assuming doesn't exist when daily we do know it is there. For example some of my previous poems talk about society pressure upon those who can blend in, we assume we are not killing them that they are the ones killing themselves and nobody wants to talk about them, so I wrote it. In this next poem called Cinderella and Prince Something talks about two leukemia victims who are teenagers and their last minute love.At first I really didn't want to share this piece with the world but then for the support of fight against all sorts of cancer, I have to...I hope you enjoy it or...you enjoy it....

Cinderella and Prince Something
The minute finger was echoing in her dark hope
Reminding her she was one of them at the bus stop
The ride of her lifetime assured of no return
Shivering in the arms of pain under her blanket
At fourteen, terminated and to be erased

She closed her eyes, counted her departing dreams
Every girl was usually rescued by her knight
Her mom found her dad and her sister, a boyfriend
She guessed her knight must’ve gotten lazy to armor up
At fourteen, she had never kissed a boy

She heard a mild, nervous yet a beautiful voice
She didn’t open her eyes for she knew it was a trance
With dashing hopes she hoped it was her chance
To be rescued and for once feel an embrace of a boy
At fourteenth count she opened her eyes to a beauty

He was sixteen with blue eyes that outstood his bland skin
With a frozen smile he told her she was beautiful
Strangest word from a stranger yet familiar from the family
I see Horoscope lied when it said cancers can’t love each other
At fourteen, she finally felt she belonged to this world

She became a Cinderella and he was prince something
He took her to two dates and a masquerade party
While others were clothed as monsters and princesses
They went as two leukemia patients with no deceit
At sixteen minutes to midnight she finally had her first kiss

After her first kiss she never heard again from him
She got angry when she thought she wasn’t cute in bald
Or maybe her lips had a savor of blood she had puked
Or maybe it was midnight and she outgrew her shoes
At fourteen, she had sixteen minutes of love

An ocean once serene turned to a sad song
The only tune she knew ended before her first dance
Others hated life while to them life was a riddle
It was something in his smile that gave her strength
It was his smile that made her live fourteen minutes longer

Her silence bled regrets of joy she robbed her family
She was worried of watching them troubled by her
So she asked for one last sunset to kiss her goodbye
So she asked for one last sunset to kiss her welcome
Fourteen and sixteen dead but with beating hearts

Four minutes away still your tongues reading this
Three minutes away she smiled hopelessly
Two minutes away she hugged her family
A minute away she hugged her prince’s absence
No minute away she found him waiting for her

He said to me, “You leave while we wait.”
She said to me, “You live while we fade.”
©g!o.inked

Most of us fail to be what we want to be because we don't have that one person who believes in us. We are surrounded by family and friends who thinks we aren't good enough or keeps on reminded how we tried and failed or maybe even reminds us of what we used to be instead of reminding us where are going. These kinds of people are nothing but poison to your thoughts and the more you give them your ear, the further you draw yourself away from where you want to be. Don't be the block in other people's path to bring something to the world. Be the reason others rise to greatness. Remember when you help someone to get up, you are basically not helping them but cushioning yourself in case you fall tomorrow. Everybody needs somebody to believe in them if they are to achieve their dreams. So when you hear a friend says he/she wants to do something...as long as it is good, instead of reminding them how the industry is competitive or maybe how he/she does not have the required skills or maybe how the economy is not on their side...believe in them even if you see no reason to believe in them. Even a fire requires a spark first for it to ignite. It is not the skills that we have at the beginning of the journey that determines the end of the journey, but the passion we have before we make the first step. And if we can keep that passion alive, then the skills will come as we need them and when we need them. Everybody needs somebody to believe in them. It maybe a child from a poor background who wants to be an astronaut, a junkie who desires to be drug clean, a harlot who wants to have a happy family, a friend who wants to start a business, a brother/sister who wants to be big in life, a patient in grave conditions who wants to be well, a broken heart who yearns to find true love...everybody needs somebody to believe in them. Great is the faith that we have for ourselves but greatest is the faith we have for others. So stop reminding others of can't(s) and past falls and keep them focused to where they want to be.

 When I started my writing or let's say when I fell in love with literature, I had no expertise totally in this field and to me it was like going to a battlefield with a passion to win but with no armor or spear. I was venturing into a field where people have been studying for years unlike me. Before I took my first step into this I recall I had read only one novel in my life and I did that when I was like seven years old. In high school, literature was never my favorite subject and as a matter of fact I never liked poetry totally. My first poem that I wrote called Sing My Little Nightingale, I wrote it from just studying a poem's structure but not reading. So I am basically a perfect example of you don't need skills to begin a journey, all you need is passion and people to believe in you. It feels amazing when you believe in yourself but it is ten-times more amazing when you find someone who believes in you. Nowadays people read my poetry and stories and other writings and they tell me how great I am...it feels nice yeah but each time I remember those who believed in me when I started the journey. To the furthest I have come, I owe it to my dad who always had a way of having me around books. My best friend Soph aka Gabby Dans who always believes in every step I make plus always seeing the best in me and her sister Mercy who fell in love with my writing before even reading anything yet lol. Hannah who after reading my diary one day suggested that I should write a book and pressured me in my poetry during my first days. My half-brother Fred Harrison for one silly comment he said that my writing will take me places. My homeboy Teddy, the only person who has always encouraged me and saw me as a genius always even when I was not. Tania Jayme, my really good friend who gave me the first resources and a strong kick in the butt to be serious with my writing, she always saw my writing posted in horizon even I had no hopes. A lot of people can now enjoy and live from my words because of these amazing people among others who believed in me when I doubted myself.

We all need somebody to believe in us and on our behalf and not to forget we too need to be that person who believes in others too no matter the situation..
©g!o.inked

So today i want to to talk about my role models, those that i always look up to as an example and my trend-setters. Well i have been thinking about them and what makes them special to add them to my list or what make me think i want to be like them. It's rather absurd that most of them of them were either drug addicts, are dead or people term them as nuts but i love them.

So first, what do i look for in a role model? See, basically role models are people that we want to be like but as for me, they are people who were somehow like me but i want to be either bigger or better than them so that's why somehow you'll find them as people that society really never appreciated them that much...but i love them because, it is from them that i have learned how to deal with certain stuff and people and life in general, 'cause i say "if he could manage to rise above that problem why can't i?"

So without further a due, let me get  to them...

1. Marilyn Monroe

Yes, Norma Jeane Mortenson, widely known as Marilyn Monroe. Okay right now i know she is a figure that a lot of girls and dudes look up to and worship, plus statics show that she is the celebrity figure that has gained the most fame after her death than when she was alive. Her merchandise have surpassed E. Presley's and M. Jackson's and even The Beatles. 50 years after her death and her fan base keeps grown more and more each and everyday. I must say i am proud of her, i'd want my legacy to live on like that, i'd rather be famous after my death than when i'm alive, because after you die you become a god among men. So what makes Norma Jeane a tick? Well looking at her personal life growing up, she went through some evil stuff like being stuffed into a bag by her own mother, moving from one foster home to another, sexual assaults and torture among others and despite all these she held her dream in her heart that one day she'd grow into a big star. Even after her breakthrough, trouble did not seem to have abandoned her. Most of her relationships were a wreck and when you follow her story well you'll notice she was the girl screaming in the Cinderella dress. Despite the fame and everything, she just wanted to be normal but she could never match the patch....the misunderstood type. Basically that's the type of person that i am too. Despite always being the adored, i still feel like i never belong plus my life is always full of drama and that which everybody want to poke there nose in and not to forget my past, i grew up around some really harsh environment. I love her in the fact despite all the drama she managed to rise and sit with presidents and made herself a brand that people will forever remember. I don't wish to sit among kings and queens but i do hope that my work will some day be the voice to the ones always shut out. Like Norma once said, "Behind the make up and behind the smile, i am just a girl who wishes for the world"...so to shut the speculations, i hope you understand that i love her not just because she is a Gemini, but for many reasons.
R.I.P Monroe, i wish you could see how much we love you now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe

2. Eminem

Yeah, this is the part that everybody always goes "What the heck?" and i answer, "you heard me right." Marshal Bruce Mathers III is my second role model. We pretty much all know the background of Marshal. Growing in the black neighborhood, growing up without a dad and his relationship with his mom plus being one of the first white rappers emerging into rap industry. I am not going to go into so much details of his life but we all know him and either love or hate Marshal from his rebel attitude and from him i have come to learn that the society always wants to create you into whoever it wants, thus making a lot of people afraid to stand up and stand out. Everybody is made to believe that speaking your mind is being imperfect and thus if you speak what you think, you are not good. Well most call Marshall a bad influence but i have never heard it anywhere stated that Hailie his daughter, is smoking pot or not going to school, that makes him somebody that can foster a good child then...i speak my mind a lot and i am basically not harmed by it, for i know that when i bottle all that stuff up in me, i'll either end up retarded or dead by 25. From Marshall i have learned that, do whatever you love, go for your dreams at the end of the day not everybody will approve your path. From him i learned that, the pains that people cause me, i can them use as the stones to build myself with, after all being different does not make you a victim but special. "I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it."

3 David
I am talking about David from the Old Testament for those who know what bible is :') ...I understand to some people he is just a make up story just like superman and stuff, but when the only book you get to read as a child looking for a better tomorrow is bible, then you'll believe that he is real. To me not only is he real, but also my hero. From what aspects though? Well i am a Christian and all those who are like me know that the only thing that makes you special is your faith in God. David growing up, he was the last born in his family and the one that was considered the only thing he could do better is sing and look over the flock of his father. Pretty much if you look at my family i am not well built and strong like my brother neither am i all that smart like my sisters, in fact i used to be one of those considered weak in primary school. Nobody believed David could face Goliath and deliver Philistines in the hands of Israelis, but he had faith that nothing could stop the power that was living in him and with just a sling and a stone, he brought Philistines to their knees. I love that, if i can just have even a drop of that faith whenever i face any challenge in life...i am sure nothing can bring me down. David too rose from nothing to a name that we all know will reign forever. I too want to have that sort of faith that you live each and everyday knowing there's someone you can rely on.

4. My Dad
Well nobody fits this part better than my dad since he is one person i have witnessed life from him first hand. From a distance when you look at him, all you'll see is just an ordinary person, an ordinary dad but i am who i am today because of him. I never grew up with my mother and as we all know how most fathers would be, all reckless and stuff, my daddy never for once forgot that he had kids to look after and he would sacrifice all he had just so that he can see my brother and i happy. From him i have known how to be a better parent someday when i have my kids...at least i'll know how to raise them. From his big heart i have learned how to feel what people go through and never to overlook anyone. From his struggle i now can persevere through the fire (that is a facetious statement, don't try to pour hot coal on me)...and the list is long but you can google Four-to-Nine Steps and read more about him from that poem i poem i wrote. 
 
So there they are, like i said my role models are either dead or considered bad influence; at least my dad doesn't fit in both categories. My role models don't influence my career path as in the case i see among most people...no, mine influence how i handle my life. So don't confuse my mentors and role models. My mentors guide me on how to better myself in different areas of my life and my skills but not my whole life, the likes of Joel Osteen, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Niccolo Machiavelli among others...

My role models though, are people who set the standard for me and i try to live above it.... 

Next i'll discuss about my mentors. Cheers.

© g!o.inked  

The poem below is written from a child's point of view. A child crying for his tomorrow.

I mop the hope of tomorrows from my eyes

Slowly vanishing into the broken arms of tonight

As I try to satisfy the hunger of my thoughts with why(s)

What tomorrow do we promise the unborn?

You are so blinded to raise trees till you forget to raise us kids

My parents teach me to dread my neighbors as a substitute of loving them

Orders of the day have become follow tattoos and overlook taboos

As you leave footsteps at doors instead of leaving them on our hearts

Love has become of nothing but a game of trophies

Losing a phone is a catastrophe while losing virginity is just an incidence

Our friends have more faith in us than our own families

You walk down the aisle for the profits of divorce instead of love

I see you every Sunday morning nursing hangovers instead of fellowship

Then later set your hopes in gold and when it fails you blame God

Please whisper in my sleep to me who are my role models

You tell me to make me wishes instead of make prayers

You spend every night enjoying the humorous Hollywood stars

But never for once have I seen you enjoy the glamor of sky and its stars

All you teach me is make money from the poor and leave ‘em in bare bellies

Racism is no longer a subject of skin pigment but class

You say you are happy and living the life at its best

While all I see are zombies playing humans; a party of dead ghosts

I look to the sky and it rains down on my velvet suit

The drops of rain tinted in red with tears of the unborn terrified to be born

This is the era where Government rights come first and citizens’ come last

In bookshops bibles cost more than story books

Where emotions pollute environment more than automobiles

They pledge us freedom then inject into us micro-chips to control us

You feed me on genetically modified meals then call me fat

Why do you say you are fighting for peace, when fighting itself is a war?

Why are you looking to the sky for aliens instead of help?

We are all nothing but a leaking hour hand

And before midnight we’ll all be hymns of ghosts

Yes I hear you all say You Only Live Once

But at least leave crumbles for me and the unborn child.

© G!ovanni