A lot of ideas were collected when I first started The Ronin Poetz. Some of these ideas were muted for time, especially when it comes to the ‘traitor’ fiasco at the end of the poem. There was much more to that story that I was able to present when I turned the poem into a play, though the subplot did not climax with the fight between the main character, Maa Kheru, and the ‘traitor’ as it did in my head. The fight was supposed to leave Maa Kheru more physically and emotionally exhausted than his battle with Tag. Maa Kheru was supposed to be comatose. ‘Ancestral’ spirits were to revive him.
The larger ideas that did not fit into The Ronin Poetz story started to blossom for the other three epic poems. The ideas were not concrete.
One very abstract idea did come to the forefront. It was titled What the Ego Said, and How the Id Replied. I have the first five poems scripted for this title. The idea was so abstract and so personal I didn’t believe anyone but I could connect with it. I still jumped into this venture, despite the unshakable feeling that there was no way I could make this idea fly.
I came to a halt one night when I was at the movies. I was watching Romeo Must Die. It was the year 2000. Needless to say, my mind drifted away from what was on the screen. It’s not like a movie was playing (I apologize to the spirit of Aaliyah). But the first lines to the second epic poem came to me, then a whole poem. I cursed the fact that I didn’t have a pen and pad. I had to make myself stop thinking. That was easy. I just started watching the movie again (sorry Isaiah Washington).
When I got home I started writing down the lines I remembered, and I started fleshing out a plot. The new character’s name was Kahm Noiz. Translation: Black (Kam) Zion (Noiz, backwards). This was not a sequel to The Ronin Poetz. None of my epic poems will be sequels, but new adventures, new commentary on Black struggles. The focus of Kahm’s adventures, from where I was starting with the first poem written, would become Act III of a 3 act presentation. Figures. Same thing happened with The Ronin Poetz.
The entire third act is where I wanted the second epic poem to begin. But there was too much backstory to explain. I tried to explain the backstory in a poetic prologue. I ended up writing the first two acts. So much for a quick sum up.
I also had plans to turn the second epic poem into a one-man show. The Ronin Poetz, at 154 pages, was too long to act out. The second epic poem was scheduled to be shorter.
However … the second epic poem is over 300 pages.
That idea is nixed. The fight sequences are multi-character battles. And the love sequences would be too awkward for a one-man show … publicly.
