Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Happy Birthday, Tupac.

Tupac Shakur died when I was in 4th grade. I was, and still am, a true fan. He was a controversial figure in entertainment, but I really became transfixed on him as a poet. Tupac's public persona was so contradictory to the thoughts that he transcribed in his personal diary...

In public, he was a larger than life. But in private, he still identified so passionately with the underdog. On some level, I think we all do some version of that in our day-to-day lives.

So, below is a poem entitled "The Rose That Grew From Concrete." It is very illustrative of who Tupac was, and who we all are.


Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.