Our Picks

@Cynique  after reading about your experience missing the movie Us. You don't know how lucky you were.  I saw that movie this afternoon and is was the sorriest film I can recall seeing on the little or big screen. 
 
We went to see it last night, and the 9 p.m. show was sold out -- in suburban Tampa no less!  We went this afternoon instead.  It was simply boring.  I almost walked out.  The only thing that stopped me was the belief that the film could not possibly be so bad to the end. surely  something was going to happen.  The reveal was obvious, totally underwhelming, and poorly executed.
 
Lupito's fine acting could not make up for an ridiculously implausible story.  The movie was so bad it is not even worth describing other than to say it wouldn't even be worth watching for free. 
 
I did not read a review before seeing this film.  I'd only seen the trailer once. I went solely on the strength of Jordan Peel's last film, Get Out, which I enjoyed.
 
I just read RT's reviews 97% of the reviewers liked it while 69% of public give it 3.5 stars or better.  I gave it one star mainly because it was a professionally made film.

In thinking about poetry, we have to pay homage to those before us. Without them, how can we be? This is the very reason I wrote "Respect". "Respect" was published in my fourth book of poetry, Renaissance of the Psyche, in November 2017. I hope this poem inspires and encourages other poets. 
 
 
Respect
 
I have to give respect where respect is due
This poetry thing has never been new
The greats before us paved the way for us
To lyrically flow and make a stand for us
We have to pay homage to the present and past
Because it’s with past that our presence last
See Nikki Giovanni was an active poet
Created different platforms for others to show it
Sonya Sanchez is world renowned
The love of language created beautiful sound
Edgar Allan Poe, the father of detective stories
The Raven was where he got his glory
Maya Angelou said “Still I Rise.”
Phenomenal Woman with her Eyes on the Prize
William Ernest Henley was a delectable soul
Master of his fate and captain of his soul
Amiri Baraka fought for the rights of his own
Poet, playwright, and very well-known
Sam Walter Foss wrote The House by the Side of the Road
Listening to that poem will never get old
Etheridge Knight did Poems from Prison
And this is where his name had risen
Gwendolyn Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize
highly influential and very wise
See these are the greats who we must acknowledge
And this right here is why we pay homage

Sacrifice is relative.  Anything you give up what robs you of what has meaning in your life is a sacrifice.