ManicWorld Magazine

These identity stanzas are a potent elixir or trigger words that awaken the spirit. Words help guide hands as simplified blueprints. Words shape the cathedral’s architecture from the shadows, guiding every curve and column, even though they vanish once the structure stands.
Alternatively, it can dismantle the human condition. 
This poem is beyond prayerful (personal conversation with a Higher Power); as it is unapologetic (open forum).
This piece takes the readers on a literary pathway to truth. Yes, the truth about humble beginnings is packaged in wordplay.
Bethany Camille James writes in a rich spiritual tone—original, raw, and richly hers. Her themes span the full map of the human experience, each one offering a window into her ever-evolving identity. 
Finally, these identity-drenched stanzas act as polished two-way mirrors showing both poets’ collaborative becoming.They invite all who engage with their work to taste the richness, weight, and wonder of becoming fully—and unapologetically —human.

“The human condition in pliable words.” ~ CP

What carries the through line in this piece is faith. As collaborators we come from such different backgrounds, places and with certainty our own identity. However, through family and community roots we find that faith influences our words more than I anticipated. 

I personally don’t go to church, no; my prayer is with pen and paper to the gods of the page. Words are the pulpit and I will not fear blending silence and ethereality. That being said, I’m surrounded by it. My home County, Durham, is home to one of the oldest cathedrals in the world. It is hard not to be awed and stimulated in equal measure to that which built it, peoples hands; peoples faith. In something better despite the muck. In something more in spite of always having less (more and more these days). 

What I think this poem speaks to the most is people’s ability to understand each other regardless of any real or imagined barrier created by identity or faith and the politics of it.

Being you is important; most of us get that.

If you don’t, well…
Maybe you just don’t
know who you are.

“The really important thing to be was yourself, just as hard as you could.”

(Sir Terry Pratchett, Good Omens)