Review of "The Last Exit"

Review of “The Last Exit”

Insightful, provocative, and driven are words that come to mind when reading the book, “The Last Exit.” “The Last Exit” is a book of poems by up and coming self published writer Terrance Davis. Davis has uses his poetry to portray the ills of society, life’s struggles and frustrations through the eyes of our generation.

Upon reading “The Last Exit”, each poem gives an in-depth look into the life of the author, his joys, fears, pain and observations of the world around him. The book is categorized by section as to lead the reader on a journey. One of the more provocative poems focuses on the plight of a young woman who has been used and abused. She uses her body as a way to purge herself of the hurt she has had in her life. Here is an excerpt from Labor Pains:

“…..And she rocks her abdomen from left to right/not because of the life inside/not because of the life shell let die/not because that child will be dead by next weekend/but all because she realizes her womb is a graveyard full of semen/a womb full of unscattered cremated ashes/ a gravesite that's full of bastards/ cuz they done built her up smacked her back down to a low level and wrote her off on their taxes….”

Davis uses his words to captivate the reader, as I read this book, I could envision the characters described in each poem, including the author as he creates prose about himself.

Each poem has a sense of strength, courage and even some humor. This book is powerful, captivating and one of the best works of poetry I have read. I don’t usually do book reviews but I felt the need to celebrate this brilliant work of art.

Spring Approaches

Spring is finally approaching. The days are getting longer, the weather is warmer, and of course the dogs are coming out of their cages. Warm weather seems to unleash all kinds of perverts, degenerates and nut jobs. As women begin to peel of a few layers of winter clothing, the crazies come out even more. There are men who will try to pick up a woman after begging her for money. Once after serving food at a soup kitchen one of the men tried to get my attention and "pick me up". Are you kidding me??? Men if you don't have a pot to piss in, worry about getting yourself together and not spitting game to women. After serving you food at a soup kitchen do you honestly think I would give you the time of day? Where are we going to go, what are we going to do together? Do they plan on taking their dates to the soup kitchen for a candlelit dinner? This is not to sound shallow or conceited. This is directed not just to men who are down on their luck but men who are fugly, or live in their mother's basements and expect to land a woman who runs her own business.These men are probably very nice, and decent but the fact is you need to be able to handle your own business before attempting to pick up a woman. I suppose if the only sex in on their minds then they have no concerns whether or not they can do anything for a woman, but it still just seems illogical. I think this is the beginning of an article, men who date (or at least attempt ) to date women way out of their league. Maybe this is something to study so that I can understand it. Do they honestly think they have a shot? Are they under the illusion that they are better than they really are?

Wake Me Up

It seems as though there are not enough hours in the day. Between work, working out, writing articles for small publications, community service, church, and hanging out with friends, I barely have enough time for sleep. This was something I used to be able the manage. Over the months few months, almost a year however, all I've been doing is sleeping! I've had bad sleep habits from college that I've been trying to break but it just doesn't seem to work. By the time I get home from work in the afternoon, all I want to do is watch the idiot box till I fall asleep. I know I'm not lazy, and I refuse to believe that its age ( I'm still a PYT). I even intended to post the article on kids in jail, but I barely have the time to write this post! I'd rather post the article once I've done some research and make it extensive, meaningful and well thought out as this is a subject I'm very passionate about.
Does this happen to everyone at this age, or am I just playing catch up on the sleep I didn't get a while ago? I am determined to break out of this habit. Life is passing me by while I'm asleep and I would hate to look back at my 20s and think I did nothing with my time but work, and go home, that's something for my 60s, pre-retirement. Hopefully as the weather warms up I can get back to my old self. We'll see how it turns out. Until then those of you who know me, if you want to hang out, please wake me up! Don't let me sleep through life!

Day 40 Figure it Out

This is the final entry on The Purpose Driven Life. It has taken me a long time to complete these 40 days. Some of the questions asked of me were repetitive and annoying while most were so thought provoking, it take me a while to figure out my answers. The final question asks when i am going to write my purpose statement.
The purpose statement is based on what I have learned for the book and how I am going to apply what I know now to the rest of my life. I realize that my purpose statement is going to take me weeks or probably months to write, finish, and fine tune. I will say that I have learned a bit about myself in reading this book. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I knew I wanted to help people but didn't know how. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be part of my career or something I did on the side. I realize now what my purpose is (or at least I have an idea of what it is). I am going to use the talents that God gave me to reach out to kids in the criminal justice system. While I do not plan on making this my career, I do want to devote a significant amount of time to it. If all goes well, and this is really my purpose, I should be able to do so within the next couple of months.
The funny thing is I've never been one to be bothered with children. To me they were always someone else's headache. Even a a teenager myself, I thought that the things my peers said and did made no sense and were sometimes, straight ignorant. They did and said things that perpetuated a stereotype of not just young minority teens but teens in general. Although I tried to fit in, and act the way they did, it never was me, and my true self would show every time. This made me the nerd, and the outcast. I realize I was just mature for my age. This was probably my purpose the entire time. To use what I know and my passion for continued knowledge to teach but not in a traditional form. I want them to see there is more than basketball and rapping. Being intelligent isn't corny. I am going to start with kids who many have given up on......

Figure out what your purpose is and act on it. It isn't about how much many you want to make or cars you own, but what you do to make a small difference in someone's life.

Day 38 and 39

I've decided to skip Day 38 as I feel this is not relevant to me. However Day 39 asks how what I will do to stay on track with my life's purpose. While the chapter gives 4 ways to do so, I choose to keep my self in check by going over what I do. In other words, whatever work I do should have something to do with my life's purpose, and if not I need to evaluate why I am doing it.
Tomorrow's entry will be the last for my look at The Purpose Driven Life. After that there will be many secular articles, but some will relate to my new found purpose. I think the first article will be based on the criminal justice system and children...why are we spending so much more money on prisons than schools? Why would we rather throw them in prison than prevent it from the start through education? That's later this week. Stay tuned...

Day 37 Share

This entry comes quite late as I had some time to reflect on recent events. The question for the day asks who I am to share my personal story with. After I read this chapter, I wasn't sure who I was supposed to share my story with, or if I even had one at all. When I think of sharing stories of life, I think of people who go from living on the streets to becoming CEO's of multimillion dollar corporations through hard work, faith and perseverance. People who have stories that can be examples of rags to riches or going from darkness to light, are people that go from one extreme to another. They often write books on their lives or have movies made about them. My life hasn't been on either side of those extremes, but somewhere in the middle. I didn't think anyone would be able to benefit from anything I had to tell them.

Days after reading this chapter, as part of a leadership program I am enrolled in, I along with my classmates made a visit to a county jail/prison. We toured the facilities and heard from several speakers on programs to help current inmates and ex-convicts become productive members of society. Our visit to the jail also included speakers (I will discuss in another post- entitled Babies in Jail: The Plight of Young, Troubled Youth).

After the tour and speakers, we were told that we would also visit a nearby detention center for youth offenders, and be given the opportunity to speak with them. As we were informed of this, a feeling of apprehension came over me. I had no idea what to say to these kids. I had no idea what to expect of the living conditions, and I honestly did not want to go. As we drove to the detention center, the feeling of apprehension grew.

When we arrived at the detention center we were greeted with friendly administrators, that proved to really care about the children. We were then given a tour of the facility. As we had our tour, we could see the children in the television room. I didn't expect them to be happy and cheerful, after all they were in a detention center. What I didn't expect what to see them look so lost and hopeless. The more the tour continued, the more I wanted out. After our tour we finally were able to speak with the kids. As everyone sat down to speak with them, I walked towards the end of the dining hall with my head down, trying to avoid what was in front of me. One of my classmates called me over to sit with her and the kids she was in conversation with.

At first, I just sat and listened. I listened to their likes and dislikes, what they liked to do for fun, and their hopes for the future. While they seemed to enjoy our conversations, one kid bothered me. As he spoke of his hopes for the future, he let out a sad sigh; it was almost as if he didn't believe in his own dreams. We then left the center and want back to our daily routines, but the visit bothered me as much then as it does now. It was after this visit that I realized who I had to share my story with . While I have never been to prison or even jail, I realize that with he temper I had as a teen, one wrong turn could have landed me there. I won't go into my life story now, as it wasn't meant for you, but for them.

God really does work in mysterious ways. I originally had no interest in the program that led me to the detention center. In fact, I only went out of spite, because someone told me I could never be a leader and didn't want me in the program. I decided to prove them wrong and piss them off. I realize now what I am meant to do. Maybe I won't be able to volunteer at this particular center, or any other, but I know now that I am meant to do something with kids in the criminal justice system. While I thought about becoming a mentor to at risk youth, I have now decided to focus my time and attention particularly to kids that have been through the system. They need to know that regardless of what they've done people haven't given up on them.

Day 36: Why Bother?

Day 36 asks what fear has kept you from telling people about God. It took me a few seconds to think about this. The fact is, no one wants to be preached to. So many people have been preached to and in a way that its almost like forcing religion down people's throats. I don't know anyone who responds positively to that kind of teaching (if you want to call it that). I personally hate it. I can't stand visiting a church and the second I get in they want to make me a member. I had a recent experience where they asked me twice to go up to the altar. I've had instances when I've felt like I was being stalked. Its a major turn off! I refuse to be one of those people. I believe things should happen naturally. If I happen to get into a conversation about religion then I am happy to tell people about God (or at least what I know thus far). Everyone is not meant to be at the corner with a bible, yelling at people to be saved or burn in hell. While I understand that these are major extremes, these extremists make everyone who believes in God seem like extremists as well.

Faults and Weaknesses

Day 35: Am I limiting God's power in my life by trying to hide my weaknesses? What do I need to be honest about in order to help others?

Ok, so I had to take a few minutes to take a hard look at myself and admit to my weaknesses. Some are superficial and physical like the fact that I am not good at any sports, at all. Others are real weaknesses in my personality and I am not sure where the come from. I decided to do what the book says and be open and admit to some of them at least.
1. I have a bad temper, I have no idea why I have limited patience. I am mostly aggravated by other people's stupidity; what most people will let roll off their backs I sometimes harbor.
2. I can't do math...at all. I 've learned to live with it, that's why we have calculators.
3. I attempt to plan every detail of my life. I have to know the beginning and end to something, it might be why I'm so afraid of water, it just seems endless.
4. I am indecisive. I am always afraid of making the wrong decision and ask others to make my decisions for me... usually these are not major decisions.
5. My biggest flaw: I am afraid of failure. I think that if I try something and fail I'll look like an idiot and people will think less of me, mostly I will think less of myself. Yes I know failure is not trying at all but I can't seem to wrap my head around that concept. I have however learned to take more risks.
6. I am not the most open person on the planet. I am very independent almost to a flaw. Yes I'll tell you my opinion on something in a heartbeat but very few people get to know me. I am a private person and I don't like too many people in my life, space, face because I think they may use it against me. Yes I have a wall, and I LIKE IT!
Then again if I was that closed I wouldn't be telling the cyberworld all of this would I?

So there you have it, my flaws and weaknesses. You may look at my list and laugh or think I'm weird and need a shrink but I don't care. I'm just being real about me, you might want to try it and come back to planet earth.

Now as for how this posed be used to help others, I have no idea. If this helps you then great, let me know.

Day 34

Am I usually concerned about being served or serving others?

What kind of question is this? If your'e a good person you like to help others in any way that you can, that doesn't mean that a Christian does not or would like to be helped, taken care of, or served as well. Its about treating others as you want them to treat you. However you don't do things for other people in the hopes of getting something in return.

Day 33 Act Right

Question of the day:Which of the six characteristics of real servants offers the greatest challenges to me?

Before I can answer this question, I suppose I have to explain what these 6 characteristics are. They are as follows:
1. Make yourself available
2. Pay attention to the needs of others
3. Do the best with what you have
4. Do every task with equal dedication
5. Be faithful
6. Maintain a low profile

I just want to quickly address number 6. I can not stand when people do something for others and feel the need to boast about it. It just shows that they are not trying to help others but help themselves to the praise of others and recognition. Stop it! Do things for people because you care not because you want an award. Its one thing to tell other people what you do to get them to join you, its another to boast about how much you donated to a cause.

Enough with my rant, now to answer the question, my biggest challenge is doing the best with what I have. If I can't do something well, I don't feel like doing it at all. It frustrates me, but I try anyway and I suppose that's all that matters. I can't be good at everything, so even though I 've never done something before, if it'll help someone else I'll try it. Just hope it isn't a hot mess.

Day 32

Short and simple: I need to explore my talents and gifts. I 'm going to take some classes to figure out what I like and what I'm interested in. Once I do that, I can know what I can do in church. Period.

Day 31 Gifted

Once again we go into the redundancy of this book. Its time I tap into my gifts and talents and figure out how to use them for good....I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Day 30 Gifts and Heart

Ten days left, hopefully I can keep up the momentum. I know that this weekend is a loss but after that I can keep posting. Day 30 discusses gifts and heart. God gave everyone different gifts to be used and not wasted. He also gives us interests. The question is what am I interested in and good at? I have many interests but i don't see how any of them can be of any use. I like to travel but there is no way I'm going to be a missionary. Lying on the beach can't help save anyone and neither can reading a book. These are my interests. On the other hand I have always had an interests in politics, current events, doing some kind of good for my community. Maybe I'll run for office......
Back to reality, my first step is figuring out what else I like to do. I've decided to do more volunteer work. For at least a month I will volunteer one day every week at a local soup kitchen. If I'm bored, I'll try something like building houses for Habitat.... who knows....

Day 29

Its been quite some time since my last entry, but I'm back. The holidays have caused major delays in writing. Anyway, back to Day 29. It asks what is keeping me from service. The answer is simple. I have NO IDEA, what I'm supposed to be doing. I've tried different things, but in the end I get bored. The time has come to take some time to evaluate what I like to do and how I can use that in service. Maybe I'll do something at a soup kitchen or write a newsletter for a church. I don't know yet. If anyone has ideas (even though no one is even reading) let me know.