Excellence Unveiled
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“Excellence Unveiled” will be written out here in full — the poem as it was performed at the Lifting Stripes Initiative Scholarships and Awards Gala, 2025.
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Read through Marie-Paul’s original poems and get a glimpse of her powerful work.
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“Excellence Unveiled” will be written out here in full — the poem as it was performed at the Lifting Stripes Initiative Scholarships and Awards Gala, 2025.
Effervescent
A captured essence
Stuck in a bottle
Sent off to sea
I question everyday
When will it be returned to me?
I was once effervescent
When youth dripped off me
Like gold so rare
It could have been sold
But dared not be
It was too precious
It kept me free
Then my freedom was taken,
Stripped away from me
I became a shell of what I used to be
I became still
I became recluse
I had become everything I never wanted to be,
But if only then I knew
Now I sit alone
Staring longingly outside my window
Reminiscing my youth
I am not living it
As I had always promised I would
I promised myself that nothing would ever change me
I would remain curious and carefree
Adventurous and wild
Tamed by no wind
Docile by no mile
But suddenly life changed
Responsibilities came
Ones I could not control
Others I bothered not to
Who else would take on the roles I was taught to?
The more I sit back and think
The more it hurts
I worked and worked and worked
Taking no time to discover myself
To find out who I was
To find out what I did best
I left no room for effervescence
So, when I sit alone and ask
When will it be returned to me,
I have realised, it is simply up to me
Do I want my life to be evergreen?
Do I want it to drip with gold?
With incomparable experiences new and old?
Yes, yes, yes
I want to feel free again
I want to feel alive
I want to be able to dance like the winged beings in the sky
I want to restore my effervescence
Although it never left
I believed it was taken,
but I was the one that had let it drown.
Full text coming soon.
“Reclaiming Our Wings” will live on this page in full — as performed at the Hidden Gems Unveiling, 2025.
Full text coming soon.
‘In the face of’ will be written out here in full — as written for the Rhophys Couture International Women’s Day feature.
Full text coming soon.
“Afro Pick” will be written out here in full — as performed at the inaugural Excel in Style Community Day, 2025.
Full text coming soon.
“We are their prayers (Psalm 23)” will be written out here in full — as featured in Volume 2, Issue 2 of the Afrovescence Visual and Poetry Collection, 2026.
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