A couple of weeks ago, I met a talented poet Chuma Whalid Rasul, also known as Christopher Hicks. He is the founder and publisher of Pauline Publishing. This New Yorker from Brooklyn has been writing poetry for the past four years and has a self published book entitled "The Third Eye of The Butterfly". Your third eye is your mental eye which you should use to see things with a spiritual perspective. "Getting my book into the book stores wasn't an easy accomplishment, but with faith in the creator, it happened" said Chuma, who is very spiritually inclined and speaks frequently of the creator whom he refers to as Yah. As a young man, Chuma has tried many things in his life. He has tried painting, sculpting, writing short stories, computers, and playing the piano and clarinet. Chuma feels that while he was experiencing these different things, he was just searching for something that could make him happy.

He finally found his calling with poetry. "I rebamt myself. And when I rebamt myself, I wanted a new name". He told me that he changed his name because he wanted one that suited him better after his metamorphosis, not only did he want a new name, but he wanted an African name. Chuma means I am the strength, Whalid means unique in spirit, and Rasul means messenger. (call Chuma to find out what African language his name comes from) "Revolution is spiritual, not grey gun powder violence. Just black gun mouths shooting word bullets of truth murdering the enemy's hate". This is from "The Third Eye Of The Butterfly" and is an example of the style of poetry that is in Chuma's book. He talks about spiritual awareness, conspiracy, racial discrimination, substance abuse, religion, goals, joy and pains of love, and other problems that are universally faced. Some of his influences are people like Nikki Geovani, Sonia Sanchez, Langston Hughs, and Imamu Amiri Baraka. Most of the poetry in the book revolves around his strong faith in Yah, whom he believes will guide him to good fortune.

Chuma has help to nurture a diverse group of entrepreneurs who call themselves Elemental Soul emerge. The group is made up of three members, two females and Chuma, who perform a combination of song, dance, and poetry. Chuma is on a recording label called Smooth as Jazz Publishing which enables him to work on his poetry compilation CD. The CD will be a combination of song and poetry. Chuma is working on publishing his second book of poetry which is expected to be in book stores soon. "As long as I am the CEO of Pauline publishing I'm going to keep publishing books on poetry until I feel that I want to publish a book on something else". "I feel that we all have a purpose in this life. I feel that my purpose is to fulfill in my soul.