Conciseness conveys clarity
Rhetoric’s rambling, reckless
In its intentional illusion of illumination
A decadent denouement of deception
Newborn narratives negated by
Obfuscation, oligarchical ornery
Feeding feral falsehoods
Masses masticating mold
Truth towers toward terror
An answer appears among aggregations
Conciseness can convey clarity
But babbling bades brilliance
A poem by Cedrick Garrison
Cedrick Garrison is an up-and-coming writer from the Midwest, residing in a small northeastern Nebraskan town named Osmond. He has been a passionate writer for a long time, writing short stories focusing on horror, fantasy, thrillers, and everything in between, and even dabbling in poetry and screenplays.
Above is his first poem that he has authorized for me to publish in his name, with many more set to come. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for several years, and he has a very interesting worldview, mirroring my own, which might be part of the reason we are such good friends. He doesn’t share the political views of the locals of his town, which for the most part are very conservative and “backwoods”. Instead, he loves to articulate his displeasure with capitalism and the issues accompanied by it. By his own definition, he is a libertarian socialist and his ultimate goal is to have equality for all, with no race, gender, or sexuality excluded in that definition.
What caught me most off guard about him was how well-spoken he was, due to his lack of higher education in his area, but that was before I learned that he was homeschooled by a former English teacher who taught at a college level in Eastern Asia. I had a chance to interview him over a video call, and below is a brief excerpt from our conversation:
Q: What do you attribute your inspiration to if you had to say just one thing?
A: I gotta go with my mama. She taught me so much man, it’s hard to think where I’d be without her. I know for sure I wouldn’t be like the way I am today, yknow what I mean? Probably be shoveling cow s**t to death if not for writing I think, and she really was the one who started me on all this.
It’s clear to me that Garrison is a man very focused on his family and his love for writing. When asked where he wants to go from here, he responded by saying he wanted to move to either coast and just try and make a living from writing, which I respect a large amount. Garrison is currently working on putting together a collection of short stories and poetry to self-publish, and he tells me that he’s shooting for the summertime of next year when it will be released. Until then, I will keep a steadfast documentation of his work on hand.
