Interview + “Love Poem” Performance by Carvens Lissaint0

The other day, I stumbled across this interview and spoken word performance by NYC-native and award-winning poet, Carvens Lissaint, entitled “Love Poem.” Carvens, who is a member of the collective group of poets and musicians known as The Strivers Row, wrote this piece for his then-girlfriend. “The poem still lived in me [even though we parted ways]. It was a strong gratitude there, like ‘Thank you, for teaching me how to love,’” he notes in the interview below.

After watching his performance, it’s understandable why this piece still lives within him and possibly his ex-girlfriend. From the moment he started “Love Poem,” I was at a lost for words. The passion in his voice and the poem itself evokes an indescribable emotion that makes you reaffirm your belief in true love or awaken your heart if you never believed in it.

Check out the full poem and the video footage below.

So…When I first met you, I thought God was playing tricks on me. I didn’t want my retinas to deceive me anymore, so I prayed that night. I told God, “Stop letting your angels loose, Man. You’re disturbing my sleep with so much light.” The feeling was overwhelming. I wanted to jump into your hug like a foster child meeting his real parents for the first time. The first time you told me you loved me, it was like you took a nap in my chest and started making snow angels in my heart. 

So I sent an incident report to the galaxy last night. And I told the galaxy that God must have sent an eviction notice to the stars, so the stars moved to your eyes to find a better home. You flourished, like the intergalactic rose in your last name. You dig your hands in the orbit of my spirit. A soothing mystical woman whispering secrets to the moon standing in outer space. Your mind is out of this world. I want to create sandstorms with you on other planets. Hold tsunamis in the lifelines we cut on the sunset so nature can take its course. Each night we pray on those 5,000 comets playing hide-and-go-seek in the air. You’re brilliant enough to make my skin sing when we lock pinkies and make promises like second grade secrets. 

Power in your speech when we have tornado conversations. There’s an earthquake in heaven every time you breathe. There are flames gleaming out of your pores. You are a walking light bulb. A moving idea. A rotating universe in my gut called Inspiration. Your smile, your smile, makes the sun want to light itself on fire, you blink, blink like your eyelids are clapping to the sight of the Big Dipper in my retinas, deep, deep craters pounded on the side of your face. I never knew a dimple had so much depth. You sound of a whistling cloud, when you think, believe me when I tell you those moments of silence are as loud as the Big Bang, is as grand as evolution, as serious as laughter, as strong as your aura that blasts off like the Apollo 9. 

My lady, My lady…sometimes I want to bleach my skin in the Milky Way to prove to you that I blush when you are near. And when we part, I want to put a smoldering asteroid in my mouth, blow my face into a solar flare, make you come to my funeral just so you can hug me tighter than Orion’s belt. It’s amazing how you nailed your laughter onto a space ship. You, extraterrestrial of a Queen, basking in the glory of a scorpion zodiac sign. I’m here. And I’m still complaining to the universe, I’m still trying to figure out how those constellations can have picnics in your pupils, how an alien traced the solar system onto my skin with her fingertips last night. 

Last night, I convinced myself that I wanted to major in linguistics…so I can tell you I love you in every language known to mankind. But you’re not mine anymore, you’re not mine anymore and I’m okay with that. As long as God keeps moving in your life, as long as you find a King and he treats you like a Queen.

I just want to tell you, I want to collect your bones for good luck. I am a better man because of you. I know how to love myself because of you. I know how to love my friends because of you. I know how to love my mother because of you. You have taught me what it means to live. I am walking, I am walking, walking, walking, walking like a King. I am walking like a King, because of you.