Telepath

Telepath explores the unnamed in Black American experience, an aspect of being that often goes unacknowledged, an area either ignored or taken for granted, in the realm of so-called extra/sensory perception. When such experience is an integral part of life, it is not seen as a separate or even extra ability. Much of mainstream media and reportage separates this capability by confining perception to that which is measurable, or observed by external others. This realm of experience and understanding, unrecognized by the overculture, misunderstood and maligned by the mainstream, is the realm that Telepath's poems inhabit. Telepath explores life experiences from the perspective of those who retain, accept and have integrated this named mindskill: reading others' thoughts and empathy. While this is called telepathy, it touches on, and perhaps includes the readily named, identified and overtly experienced senses. Our named senses number more than five and include certain personal internalities and specificities, like feeling pressure or balance. When we consider touch, one could say something feels smooth or hard, but what is name for the feeling of gravity on one's body or lack of it: gravity. When we enter water there are feelings that are more than wet and other than temperature that we experience. So Telepath examines the limitations of using and having information, that such a capability is not enough. Knowing that someone intends to harm or kill you is only useful in preventing their actions if you can perceive these at a distance. Telepathy is a communication and not a prediction, an insight.