Pistols & Prayers by Ise Lyfe
Book Review by: Ccep J. Dew
There are no words in the dictionary to adequately describe twenty-something year-old Oakland, California-native Ise Lyfe. Even the description given on the back cover of his latest paper release Pistols & Prayers: a collection of poems / prayers / journal entries / rhymes and anecdotes, which calls him “a gifted writer […] an educator and activist”, barely touches on the impact this young man leaves on everything and everyone he comes into contact with. Indeed, he has that Midas touch. But, with the ability to turn turmoil into gold comes a price and Pistols & Prayers offers the world a glimpse into the mind and heart of a master craftsman.
After waiting patiently since the release date, I was able to purchase a copy of the book directly from Ise while he was on a business trip to San Diego, where he used multimedia presentation and live performance to present the question, “Is Everybody Stupid?” When asked how things had been going for him, he responded that the book was on the bestseller’s list for Amazon.com. When the presentation ended, he handed me a signed copy, we said our good nights, and, the very next morning, I turned off my alarm clock and began to read.
What I love most about Pistols & Prayers is that it breathes “Ise”. Anyone who has ever met him can see what an anomaly he is, even without prior knowledge of his background or art. What strikes me about the various pieces is the consistency in tone and how the writer is capable of painting a portrait by simply… writing. There are no fancy fonts, big words to “sound deep”, clipart to arouse emotions or apologies. Simply put, this is not a book written for you; it is a collection of personal thoughts that the writer has been courageous enough to share with you.
“We are the space between God and the Ancestors. Fill it up. -“∞”
For eXample, take the piece “My Grandmother died today”, a biographic journey through the writer’s adolescent discovery that not only is he Black, but his White grandmother, his “best friend”, may or may not be racist. Between the pages of the piece, we are moved to recall how, as children, we recognized differences between “races”, but never truly put words or apply discrimination to those differences. As the writer grows up, his awareness of his mixed background and the fact that his grandmother was born “to a family of poor Irish immigrant farmers” adds new dimensions to how he begins to shape his ideas of the world at large, as well as himself. Sadly, he finds out that love is not always strong enough to dismiss generations of discriminatory thought.
One of my favorite pieces in the book is “God Fell from the Sky One Day”, a story about how God “fell from the sky and took the form of a man. Now a ‘he’, he searches for clothing and found a pair of jeans and a snazzy shirt.” So, God, who adopts the name “Phillip” after the people ironically eXclaim, “Oh my God! What is your name?”, does his work on Earth, eXperiencing the typical things that we all do: facing challenges, falling in love, helping the community, and trying to remain faithful to his purpose. For some reason, I find great enjoyment in the passage that reads:
God looked past them into the eyes of his love, but she turned a way.
The store clerk yelled at God: “Who do you think you are!?”
Phillip wanted to say, “Muthafucka I’m GOD”
But that probably wouldn’t have been very Godly.
He said, “You slept with my wife.”
He replied, “You married my soul mate.”
-“Grey Area”
The second section of the book is comprised of selected pieces from Ise’s albums spreadtheWORD and PRINCE COMETH. As someone who is already familiar with is lyrical work, I enjoyed that I could now see the words to songs I had heard and recited many times before.
Pistols & Prayers opens up a window into the soul of Ise Lyfe that few of us have been blessed to see. It also creates questions as to his personal life, thoughts, and feelings, while invoking emotions and thoughts in oneself that otherwise would remain untapped into. I just wish that it was a thicker volume or I had eXhibited the patience to read a little a day because I am left eager to learn so much more about him, as well as about myself…
***For more on Ise Lyfe, visit: www.iselyfe.com
