About Marina

Who exactly is Marina?

That’s a tough question to answer (lol) because it really depends on the day! I can be complicated yet simple, funny and serious, methodical and all over the darn place, it depends! I’m a Virgo, a true Virgo! So I have all the characteristics and traits of a Virgo!

Ok, let’s narrow it down. Who is Marina the Poet?

Ah. Marina the poet is the evolution of a little girl that discovered she could write a darn good poem at a very tender age (I don’t remember exactly how tender), but for whatever reasons didn’t start writing seriously until she was in her mid-thirties. I remember being introduced to Robert Frost in high school and his poetry resonating with my spirit. I can still recite parts of “ Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening.” Fast forward to today, I don’t consider myself just a poet, but a writer. I write poems, but that is not all I write. I don’t want to box myself in as just a poet.

What else have you written?

I’ve written short stories, although it’s been a while since I’ve written one, songs, and I’m currently birthing a novel I’ve been carrying for the past fifteen years or so.

Tell us about the novel?

It’s called Listening To The Silence, and it’s been an interesting process because some of it has paralleled my life as scary as that is! But it’s about a man that comes home one day and finds his wife of nine almost ten years has left him and their two children. What follows is his coming to terms with the fact that he never really knew her at all. You know, he lived with her, had children with her, but didn’t know her.

Is that the part that reflects your life, the not knowing?

Yeah, sort of, except I believe you do know. People truly show you who they are. The question is are you willing to face what they’re revealing or do you ignore what’s right in front of your eyes and in your heart. Come to terms with what you know deep down inside, you feel me?

Sounds interesting. So tell us about If I Decide To Fly!

This book is actually a reincarnation of a previous work. I self-published a book back in ninety something called N Celebration of U Black Man, and some of the poems in this book were in that one. The book did well, but it was an amateur effort, meaning I needed to upgrade it. Briefly, N Celebration of U Black Man came about as a result of my dear friend Vicki, who is an ordained minister, asking me to write a poem celebrating African American men for meditation in church one particular Sunday. She was frustrated because she couldn’t find anything, so she asked me to pen one. At the time we were both working for IBM, and she left a message on my voicemail asking me to consider writing this poem. In her voicemail, she said the word “celebrate”, and I like to say God took over from there, and the rest, as we say, is history.

Why did you decide to change the title?

Because the work has evolved, I have evolved, we have evolved, black men have evolved.

Explain?

Some of the pieces in N Celebration of U Black Man don’t reflect the message I want to put in the Universe at this point and time. At that time they were appropriate, but now they would not serve the same purpose. So much has changed since the conception of N Celebration of U Black Man and I want to reflect that change in my work.

Can you give us an example?

Sure. In the first place, I think the energy is ripe for black men to take this message into their Spirits, and for me that is the most critical part. Some of the poems in the previous book had a different feel to them; more angry and of a victim mentality, and like I said, those poems served a purpose and spoke to those that needed to hear them. But now, the energy is heading in a different direction, requiring black men to take responsibility for their actions. I am still celebrating them, just with a different vibe.

What will you say to those who will challenge your position about whether all black men deserve to be celebrated?

I’d invite them to look in the mirror and have a conversation with themselves about the last time they did something to disappoint someone or themselves if they have a problem with it. When this message was fed into my spirit, I wasn’t told to discriminate, I was simply told to put it out there. I won’t defend my purpose, position or beliefs. I am grateful there were people in my life who believed in me when I showed up in ways that weren’t that pretty, for lack of a better way to say it! But let me be clear, I believe people should be held accountable for their actions, don’t get me wrong. Hell, I’ve had my share of disappointments where black men are concerned, trust me, and I could be the first one to try to justify why some of them don’t deserve to be uplifted, praised and affirmed (lol), but I believe this message is bigger than me, you or any one person.

What legacy would you like to leave behind?