Guest Post from Author Jeffrey Bolden

The name? Jeffrey Bolden. Since Katrina, I’ve been known as Boosie, named after the currently incarcerated rapper, Lil’ Boosie. After a couple of months of running through McComb, MS committing whatever crimes there was to commit and getting into trouble in which I still can’t speak on, the name Bad Azz came quickly afterward. The nicknames stuck with me, even after discovering my talent for writing. What started out as rapping and poetry soon bloomed into a rose of talent that came in the form of writing novels. I almost pulished my first novel at the ripe age of eighteen, but at the time with my mind still scarred from the scenery of the chaotic times of Katrina, I found out I wasn’t ready to become an author.

Book Of Soul, came three years after Smokin’ Hydrophonic, the first book I ever published, and showcases the dark times I experienced throughout my time at a university I’m now banned from to the freedom of finally realizing who I was destined to become, embracing the W Chromosone encoded in my DNA. You ever heard of Jay Rock? From Hood Tales To The Cover Of XXL? This is my version of poetry, prose, and short stories of the insanity. Follow me home as I give you a mere glimpse into what was going on in my mind while writing Book Of Soul from my soul.

1. Never B PeaCe

Inspired by 2Pac’s song, “Never Be Peace”

The taste of her lips was still apparent to the young Aztec warrior as he stood on the roof of the dilapidated project building. He envisioned the stout, young woman with short jet black hair and deep, dark eyes standing on her tip-toes and he remembered that was one of the few instances where he knew love under the bright moonlight. He remembered how soft her body was under her clothes, and a tear rarely cried had fallen on his face. He shook out of his daydream and his eyes lowered in determination. His mission was evident now, and failure had become something that could not be foreseen.

This short story is a study on gang violence that occurs everyday in Southern California, and the monsters the gang members become, reasoning for werewolves, vampires, and other demons of the occult. I wrote this a year after I spent the summer in Compton, CA, and as you can see, I was still effected by what I saw there. Even though I can’t exactly speak on what all goes on down there, I will say this. Don’t go if you not from there or don’t have family there. I had fun, but there’s no denying the mentality that is spreading rapidly throughout the young men and women is scary. I love the people down there, and I see a lot of intelligence and love in their eyes. I wrote this for the ghetto youth of Southern California just to show them the monsters they are becoming and how possible it is for us to change.

2. Boy Meets Girl

Dedicated To A Love I Should Have Never Lost

“Her description: A Harvard girl Born and raised on the West side of Chicago Half-black, half-Puerto Rican She is the symbol for everything that is beautiful…..”

Looking back at who I was when I wrote this, my long hair, my beating heart, I was a young man who was still in love. I wrote this in Compton, CA months after breaking up with a serious girlfriend at the time, and I was just damaged. Smoking weed everyday, running the streets of Compton everyday, in constant danger, but oblivious to it all with only one person constantly making an appearance on my mind. This poem is one of my most beautiful pieces and I can honestly say one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known was the inspiration behind this. That’s why it’s called Boy Meets Girl, because if a man had met a woman, we would be married right now, but that’s my past. I can’t change it, but I can fall in love every time I read it again. And I do read it over and over again.

3. Smile On Her Face

Dedicated To My Reoccurring Muse

“The fireworks shine behind the eyes of the poet who didn’t know it Who’s in love with a girl but afraid to show it because he feels she’ll ignore it Just one of the many random clichés she makes me think about…. I think she’s like a goddess or something”

This is honestly one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever penned. I never told anybody this, but this was the moment when I realized who my soul was meant for. I actually had dreamed the story that was told in the poem and everything else just flowed around it. It was a moment of honesty and in retrospection that felt better than sex. I even had to smoke a cigar afterwards. When my fingers typed the last “face” I felt my soul spill into the iPod I wrote this poem in and enter history as the first time my soul fully admitted it was in love.

4. Dedication To An Angel

Dedicated To Wayne Wells

“When we reach our hands and touch the sky Feel the wind blow, you’re there When we wish we could just spread our wings Fly with our angels in the air”

I wrote this poem directly after the passing of Wayne Wells, the reason why I got to spend one last year at the university I am currently banned from. That’s really all I have to say about that. I wish I never had a reason to write this one to be truthful. I’ve probably read this poem like ten times.

5. Lust For Life

Obviously got the title from Drake’s “So Far Gone”

“I want to reach out but something tells me to hold back The sight of you tells me to walk toward you, but something deep inside of me tells me to wait Something reminds me of the heartbreak I have felt before, the

rejection, the pain Yet my lust for life hungers for you My curiousity for the what could be shines above my head like a

trillion watt lightbulb”

Really, this was inspired by the same girl that inspired “Boy Meets Girl”. I was going through my own trials and I was talking to her everyday, afraid of exposing too much to her, not sure of how she would take it. I wasn’t ready for her love. Simply a bad time living in Portsmouth, VA after getting kicked out of the last university I was attending. I was just going through too much to deserve her love.

6. Take Off Your Cool

“I like to picture you naked before I speak, not because I want to ride your curves with my eyes Not to lick my lips at the sight of your thighs or make my heart beat a little faster at the sight of your rise Love, I…..picture you naked because I want to see past the lies into the naked truth I want to see the insecurities your clothes hide much like I’d hope you’d like to see mine”

I love this poem. This was written in my “I want to be spoken word artist” phase. I still wish I had a place where i could showcase my abilities, but this poem is what it was and what is like to be someone who I am attracted to having a conversation with me. No ladies, that is not an exaggeration, but as I said before there has to be an amazing chemistry in order to fully experience me in my truest form. This was written in Portsmouth, VA and mastered in Cumberland Gap. I mean that was me and Skittles who had like seven females at a table with us. (Takes Breath) memories. I don’t have no worries. That’s my silly side, I’m not dark all the time. I have fun too. And I definitely had fun with this.

7. An Unfathomable Love

“I saw you in my dreams today Not the type of dreams that inspire hidden truths hidden by your inner psyche I always knew my feelings, But the denial of the truth was so much easier than the accepting of the lie”

I remember that day in Harrogate, TN where I discovered I may have feelings for one of my best friends. It was weird because I was going through a poetic slump and I don’t have a lot of those mind you, but I digress. After smoking a blunt, I was chilling out just thinking about her, and as I thought of her, I remembered days it was just me and her smoking blunts, smoking blacks, chilling in the sun, just doing what kids do, and it was at that moment, I realized I was most comfortable with her. She’s a normal person too, just beautiful in every single way possible. I recently had a daydream where she gave birth to my daughter and I gave her my last name, and the thought didn’t scare. What do you think that means? See, I told you. Not dark all the time.

8. Black Thoughts

”I’m a real dark person on the inside. Always have been. Always have been that little boy sitting in the darkest corner, drawing women whom later I would fall in love and men who I would aspire to be. But as I grew older I learned how to hide the intensity of the darkness in my heart behind a smile, and I’ve come to realize that the more beautiful the smile, the deeper the pain with my smile shining a path for many to follow, the darkness will always take the lead as I shed invisible tears unseen by the world. “

And here I was telling you, I’m not all dark, and I give you “Black Thoughts.” I wrote this in Cumberland Gap, TN, the brightest, most beautiful place in Tennessee besides My Home In Her Heart, and honestly, this was a release for me, a moment where I was truly honest with myself and who I am, and right after writing this, I didn’t feel the need to feign happiness and think everything was going to be okay all the time. After writing this, a lot of repressed memories came back, and I remembered that life wasn’t always good and wasn’t always fair, but I also learned that if I was strong enough to overcome, I’m strong to overcome my largest obstacle which is my own darkness. There is a reason why this prose nears the end of the book because I was coming to an end of one journey and ready to explore another.

9. Prose And Cons

”The cool. The calm. The collected. The poised. Is all a facade.”

Well this was written in the same place as “Black Thoughts,” and as you can see, after the discovery of who I was, I discovered who I truly am. A poet. An author. An artist. I learned after writing this that I hide all of my greatest secrets with written word, and as a Scorpio, a being known to keep things hidden from the outside world, I fully expose myself through intricately written words. With every I write, I bear my soul. I am most honest within my prose.

10. The W Chromosone

”A lot of people distinguish themselves on the basis on whether or not they have either a Y chromosome or two X’s. I’ve often heard the statement no matter what I am, I’m a man first. You can interchange that if you like. Me, I’m different. We’re different.”

This was a prose dedicated to writers. I wrote this to explain not only my growth into a writer, but how I discovered myself as a writer. I wrote this in Gulfport, MS, and this was when I knew I was going to end Book Of Soul with this because it’s always good to end with the beginning. I decided to take you on a journey that covered almost my entire life into that one moment where I discovered me, and I swear after that moment, I can promise, I’ve never felt more content in my entire life.

And that’s that, the tip of the iceberg, Book Of Soul, now available for purchase. But if you want to check out some of my other stuff, things you won’t find in the book, let me direct you to some links. First link is my social medias you know i.e Twitter, FaceBook (where I have some gems in my notes section), Instagram (So you can put the face to the words)

Twitter: indigochild87

Facebook: Boosie Badd or Jeffrey Bolden

Instagram: sonofdestiny

And of course, Book Of Soul. Love it, review it, hate it, just know I only promise to give you me, the real me. Jeff B.