Little Time Capsule: An Anthology of Unearthed Poetry

I m just searching for myself in a little time capsule that remodels itself with each spring that passes by, and I know I m buried with questions that outnumber the answers, but I can t find myself the further I dig. Devonte. My first poetry collection Little Time Capsule captures the most self-reflecting and introspective poetic moments of my young adulthood. In weeding through my old journals and napkin scribbles and online posts to gather enough material for this book, I put together a compilation that I m hoping will make people smile and want to re-read over and over again. Within these pages are twenty-three unique poems delving into everything from my father s sudden passing to my struggles accepting myself as an LGBT youth and much more. I began writing in the eighth grade after our teacher asked my class to create a poem using our vocabulary words for that week. No one volunteered to read his to the class, so I did mine and got a good reaction. I never forgot how it felt the first time I strung words together to create what sounded like music in my head. I like cleverness and flashiness to poetry. I like writing in different styles. I love the challenge of wowing an audience and giving myself something cool to read later on. The poetry in Little Time Capsule was written over a span of nearly 10 years, roughly from 2003 to 2013 with the earliest poem being It, my personal favorite out of this bunch and the latest being Crystal Compass, which best depicts my state of mine before I decided to publish. I narrowed down the list of chosen poems from 139 to just 23. That was hard to do considering some of my poems stuck with me for years before I no longer felt comfortable reciting them. My beliefs tend to change over time as I mature, so something I said when I was 15 may turn out to be something I cringe at when I m 23. I feel it was best to publish these precious poems before I grew any further, hence the title of this book. I ve placed these poems in a time capsule for me to unearth later in life, for me to look back on and maybe share with future loved ones and the world. Here s a little about me: I was born in Chicago in 1989 to parents Claudette and Avery but spent my coming of age years in Meridian, MS. I love maintaining long term friendships and spending time with my beloved grandmother Lee who helped put me through college. Devonte is the recipient of the Winifred Farrar Award for English and also the Earl Love Guyton Scholarship which is awarded for showing promise in the field of communication (demonstrated) through a portfolio. In 2007 he won first place in the Meridian Community College Literary Review for poetry with the poem Twisting My Tongue in Pig-Latin and earned his bachelor s degree in communication from Mississippi State University in 2012.