It was the perfect way to top a retirement homecoming for Nehemiah Dixon.
He started writing poems as a 15-year-old teenager looking to move from Kinston for economic advance. Forty years later, Dixon has returned to his hometown with a published book of every poem he’s written since then.
He called “Poetry of the Heart” a compilation of his life experiences, which he is clearly ready to share with others.
“There’s a poem about everything in that book; every feeling a man has from love to hate is in that book,” Dixon, 59, said. “I just always wanted to express the conditions that existed in my surroundings, and my best way was through poetic application.”
The poet moved to Washington, D.C. as a teen, starting with man-on-the-street readings. After he said he won second place at a poetry show, he went on to read at many poetic events in the city — from Howard University to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, both in D.C.
“I had quite a following as a poet,” Dixon said. “I just could have written (the book) in journalistic writing, but it wouldn’t have had the same drama to it. Poetry is just a way of life for me.”
After Dixon decided it was time to share his gift with the world, he connected with a publishing company last year. The book was recently released.
“I wanted to publish years ago, but I just never took time to do it,” said Dixon, who noted he was unsure of whether or not people would accept him as author. “I was never stationary long enough to take time out to publish a book.”
Dixon said he traveled from Miami, Fla. to Canada along the east coast the past 40 years. He graduated from Armstrong High School in D.C. and earned an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration from Malcolm King College in Harlem, N.Y.
He has two daughters, a son and six grandchildren living in Maryland. His wife, Valerie Dixon, passed away in 2002.
Dixon spent his working life driving taxis in D.C. and doing custodial work in New York’s Harlem Hospital, but he never stopped writing and reciting.
“I’ve done everything that I just about wanted to do,” Dixon said. “At this age, there’s nowhere like home. I’m retired now. … I just want to be home because I find peace and tranquility here; this is my resting stage.”
Not having been home a month, he said Kinston has fallen apart.
“I feel like the city is dying; I feel like the people are letting it die,” he said. “There needs to be some type of industry in Kinston. That’s why when people graduate they leave; there is no economy here to get employment.
“That’s why I left. I didn’t want to leave home, (but) I had to leave to survive.”
He said some of the overgrown shrubbery in old communities and flood damages are upsetting.
“I love Kinston, and it breaks my heart to see the condition that it’s in right now,” said Dixon, who played recreation sports at Holloway Center as a child.
He added there is no refuge for the city’s youth like there used to be, leaving them to surrender to dark activities.
“I feel that the drugs overwhelms Kinston, too,” said Dixon. “I see so many young people that are strung out. Kinston, when I was growing up, was a haven. It was a special place to grow up. That magic is kind of lost right now.”
He wrote a poem about how drugs have destroyed youth, hoping it would deter them from using substances.
“Every poem in there is written at a different year or decade,” said Dixon, who knows most of the poems by memory. “I wrote ‘Happiness’ when I was 15, I wrote ‘I Want To Thank You Jesus’ when I was 28, I wrote ‘It Ain’t No Joke When you Messin’ With Dope’ when I was 50.”
His book is advertised online and can be purchased at Amazon.com in its beginning stages. Dixon is set for a book review in Las Vegas next month. While it’s out there floating around, he hopes someone will find inspiration in any of the poems in “Poetry of the Heart.”
In the meantime, Dixon himself would like for it to become a best seller.
“I know that anything can happen,” he said. “I just feel like poets are like philosophers, they express the conditions that exists in the community, and that’s what I felt like doing in my book.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
BREAKOUT BOX
Meet Me Monday:
Name: Nehemiah Dixon
Age: 49
Fun Fact: Once had a desire to become a music artist.