A Prince’s Welcome

To remix a bit of warmed-over lightning
from the immortal good advice of one
Mr. James Brown—Now is the time
to jump back and kiss yourself,
and become best first mate
to your own extraordinary soul.
The Spiritually Roaring 20s have begun.
Pens uncapped, paintbrushes rhythmically swishing,
bodies in unison rocking the boogie-woogie,
voices raised from heaps of ash-cake
into the fresh air and newness of day—
souls are gathering
as if being conducted by the baton wizardry
of Mister Electric Boogaloo himself, Walt Whitman,
as if supple gospel notes harmonizing
in a choir comprised of Nina Simone
ten times over—
Now is the time
to heed the soul’s bright
and true and feral callings,
and to trust in the seeing-eye guides
of in-visioned sources, claims and trailers
that flash cinemagical previews ala Intuition.
How to do this?
Perhaps, you can start by jumping back
and kissing yourself,
while remembering the soft pearly wisdom
of that Little Prince who once came to visit—
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,
it is only with the heart that one can see rightly.”
Welcome to the book that is your life.
Feel free to write outide the margins, read between the lines,
and turn the pages
to see what comes next.