<p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Many people say music is their escape. Well poetry is my escape. It was my way to escape from the cage I was in at seventeen. Most seventeen-year-olds are chasing</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>females or preparing for the big game. I was preparing for prison. I am not suggesting this is something to brag about but it's my truth. While stuck in a cell with nothing inside of me but anger pain loss and betrayal I needed to escape and release. It came in the form of writing.&nbsp;I wrote these poems to articulate my story about my successes and failures---some that could have been avoided and others that couldn't. But that's life. You live and you learn.&nbsp;My escape through writing gave me peace and made me sane in insanity.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Now you may be wondering why you should read this book. Well if you were</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>ever dealt a lousy hand or ever dealt one to yourself I believe you'll honestly be</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>able to feel my heart beating through these pages. These pages share real experiences and the battles that some of us face.&nbsp;Being alive and well to write about this proves that we can get through even the unthinkable. Poems The Soul Speaks&nbsp;is not just a book title but it's also a state of indecisiveness</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>that I lived in when these poems were written. It stands for someone standing</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>at a crossroads deciding which way to go. I genuinely believe I am who I am and not who others think I am. I dare you to find your release on these pages. I am you and you are me when The Soul Speaks!</span></p>