Ryan Hopkins | July 5, 2024
Poetic is first and foremost a father of two sons who are the most important part of his life. “Everything I do is for them and to provide a better life for them” said Poetic. I was born in Spain and moved to the U.S when I was five. I moved around a lot growing up all up and down the east coast from VA, Fl, SC, but mainly grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. I have also lived in Hawaii but currently reside in North Carolina.
I started writing poetry and music when I was 13 years old. Poetry and music became a way for me to escape and express my feelings and emotions through words. I remember I would stay up all night just writing and filling up notebooks with verses and poems.
My inspiration for poetry is Tupac Shakur. Not only was he my favourite artist growing up but I read his poetry book “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” when I was young and that ignited my love for poetry. I also used to watch Def Poetry Jam and fell in love with writing poetry and songs to express my feelings and thoughts. I love the fact that you can’t go wrong with poems. Meaning it’s an expression of the soul and each artist has a unique story to tell hence I don’t really have a particular category to my poems however, I would categorize my poems as verses that rhyme.
Poetry is an art of expression! It’s the freedom to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas through words. There’s no limit to the creativity one can express through words and every poem is unique and has the power to inspire hence the access to social media and digital evolution has given artists a greater platform to be heard and grow their audience.
One of my favourite poems written by myself is “The Message”. I feel like it sends a message of change and makes one think deeply of the words it translates and has a replay value that one can go back and listen multiple times and learn from it.
My thought process behind choosing the type of poems to recite for events depends on the time and place or might just depend on my mood. I might recite an older poem I had written or might pick a more recent project. Although each poem is different, I try to give my audience a message of change and hope. I want to leave the audience with something to think about that touches the mind and hearts of everyone while sharing my personal story at the same time.
With any creative/writer comes stressful moments which may cause creative/writers block. How do you handle writers block?
When I have writers block I might move on to another poem or song I’m working on and then come back to the previous one at a later stage. That doesn’t always work though, so there are times when you just have to let your mind rest and regroup on a different day.
Some of my future aspirations include writing a book which has actually been a goal of mine for a long time! I hope I can inspire the audience through my words and inspire others to express themselves through words and poetry. I also plan to release my poems as a digital project that the audience can listen to. I actually have the name of the poetry “album” but that is something you will have to stay tuned for! Aside from poetry, I am currently releasing one song a week on all streaming platforms.
Your audience can connect with me through the following:
Instagram: _iamthejuan_
Facebook: Poetic Juan
TikTok: _iamthejuan
YouTube: @PoeticJuan
Email: poeticjuan@gmail.com