<p><strong>Paradise by Luis Valdes</strong></p>
<p>The Scars of my soul bleed every time when my heart pumps blood.<br />
Love, I did not know that word growing up.<br />
The baggage of my past shackle my mind with PTSD<br />
The bond between a mother and a son is sacred<br />
My mother was kill by her boyfriend when I was 10 years old.<br />
Bricks and stones did broke her bones but her words not saying goodbye forever hurt me.</p>
<p>Cold, the scene of her body has void my childhood was no longer.<br />
Two years later, I had no choice but to grow up<br />
I was living with my uncle who was physically and verbally abusive.<br />
I, almost fell for his traps finding peace in the afterlife.</p>
<p>My father who was my bestfriend and my first teacher.<br />
Life lessons you provide me as long as I could remember.<br />
Go to sleep hungry,<br />
I use to spend my last dollar to feed you your favorite soup.<br />
The only lesson that you did not taught me was to embrace your death at 16 years old. Cancer got the best of you as you no longer could continue to fight the good fight.</p>
<p>I refuse to live for the dead and become a zombie.<br />
I was born as God’s Child but Devil’s raise.<br />
I embrace God Sins, the voice of the forgotten.<br />
Out of darkness I created the lighthouse that my inner child wish to see.<br />
The gateway, as I walk through hell to introduce my demons to heaven.</p>
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<p>Luis Valdes believes that he was born with a purpose, that purpose being a light out of the dark tunnel that many people cannot find their own way out of. At 26 years old, he has overcome a lifetime’s worth of obstacles. Currently he host a creative writing workshop and works with drug addicts and convicts to express themselves in the arts of storytelling and performing spoken word.</p>
<p>He was born in Harlem, New York . His mother was originally from the Dominican Republic. He was the fourth of her five children. She was murdered at the age of 33 by her boyfriend and it was Luis and his older brother who found her in the back of her car. His father was an illegal immigrant who came to this country after being released from prison in Cuba during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. He worked in New Jersey as a welder, but later became a wealthy drug dealer in New York City. By the time Luis was 17, his father, who he considered very wise and his best friend, died of Lung Cancer. Luis says that his father was his first teacher who taught him many life lessons. Still, Luis managed to graduate from High School and begin college while working and taking care of himself.</p>
<p>However, an injury to his feet that resulted from jumping out of a three story window while being chased by police when he was 15, finally slowed him down to the point where he couldn’t work and it was more and more difficult to walk. He was introduced to a Priest who helped him get the surgery that he desperately needed and gave him a place to live and thus get his life back on track.</p>
<p>Today, Luis is enrolled as a full-time student at Suffolk County Community College majoring in General Studies with an emphasis in Political Science. He works full-time for Independent Support Service as a Direct Care Support Staff assisting adults with Autism. He was recently given a handsome raise as a result of his performance as a top staff member.</p>
<p>His passion is poetry and he says that he expresses himself by performing spoken words at Open Mics and poetry readings. He has also performed and competed at Madison Square Garden and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. This is especially significant because Luis is a stutterer, another of the obstacles which he has not allowed to hold him back.</p>
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