But soft enough to still allow
a place in her heart for you,
Take her by the hand.
And if you’re not man enough
To lead her through the darkness yet,
At least be brave enough
to not let her stand in it alone.
Appreciate her flaws.
Because, sometimes, the same reasons
why the world tells her
She’s not good enough…
Are the same reasons she may appreciate you
For loving her anyway.
If you have a woman
Who’s woman enough to lie in an empty bed
for the rest of her life
Because she refuses to lie
next to a man who loves her body
More than her mind,
And she gives you the pleasure of having her
however you please:
Make love to her like the world is on fire.
Like every argument you ever had
will be forgotten.
Like the cure for her insecurities
Is your fingertips
Playing piano with the parts of her body
That she has yet to fall in love with
To the point where the gates
of her own personal heaven
Have no choice but to pour
onto the bedroom comforter.
Comfort her with your presence.
Drown yourself in her sea of serenity.
Because the more often she comes,
The less likely she’ll go elsewhere.
The only thing worse than a woman
Who is too scared to love
Is the man
Who is too scared to love her back.
June 1, 2016
This book was the hardest one yet to write, hard because I finally had to sit down and think about one subject. I pride myself in having a lot to say. I pride myself even more on my diversity and freedom. So when you put me in a box, when I put me in a box, my first reaction is to escape. Unfortunately, sometimes when you’re running, it isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes you can be running from yourself, from your purpose, from what you were put here to do.
And for the last year, that’s what I’ve been doing.
There has been a lot of pressure on me since Dear Woman, and most of it has been self-inflicted. I never expected that book to sell as much as it did, to reach as many people as it did, or to be as influential as it was to women. I wrote that book in eighteen hours, three days before it was released. All I had was a notepad full of topics, my heart, and God. It subsequently singlehandedly changed my life. It put me in a place where I realized that my purpose was to be a voice to speak to women—of honesty, encouragement, support, and hope. In the process, I realized that my work has truly only just begun. Dear Woman did a lot of good for both me and the world. It gave me freedom; it gave the people who read it validation, insight, and a little humor. Another thing I realized it did was that it raised some women’s bar. It changed what they stood for, who they stood for. It let them know that they weren’t crazy. It also let them know that they might need to evaluate some of the relationships they were in. What it didn’t do enough of was tell enough people how to do that.
Around Their Hearts
Made with bricks from other men.
And I see men like me
on the other side of these walls.
Trying to get in.
And the only thing that’s stopping us is them.
Is him.
And he isn’t even here.
But he left you this wall,
So guys like me can’t make it over to catch the tears.
Because they still fall.
Because it’s been over a year
and he still hasn’t called.
And you don’t know if you miss love, or him.
All you’ll know is that right now,
you could use a friend.
But the same wall that protects you from him
Keeps me out too.
Meanwhile you’re on the other side.
And you can’t remember
that last time that you made love,
Or cried.
All you know is that this wall
is what protects you from the demons.
From the liars
Who take a perfectly good woman
and set her soul on fire,
Then leave for no reason.
A woman with a wall up must learn amnesia,
Or buy a ladder
If she ever hopes to be rescued.
Because no matter how much he could love you,
He can never let you.
So, the next time you look at your wall,
See what it’s made of.
You’ll realize that the whole thing was made up.
A woman
Is
