We recently connected with Patrick (poet1deep) Harris and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Patrick (Poet1Deep), thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I actually have a regular job. Two of them to be exact. In my primary role I’ve worked as a barber in the Orlando area for 20 plus years. My secondary role is as a warehouseman. Then I get to do poetry after all of that lol. Everyday when I get to my first job at the warehouse I envision what its gonna be like for me when the day comes that I can put all of my time and energy into creating. It’s gonna happen for me, i know it is. I think about it while I’m working, when I clock out and drive to the barbershop, while I’m cutting hair, on the ride home, while I walk the dog, pretty much all my waking hours I spend romanticizing the idea of being a full time , financially stable creative. The only part of being a creative that i don’t like is not being able to do it more.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! My name is Patrick Harris. I am a spoken word poet based in the Orlando area. I perform under the name Poet1Deep. This February will mark 8 yrs since I began my poetry journey after transitioning over to spoken word from making rap music.

My music career began in the late 90’s early 2000’s and ended around the time of the economy crash in 2008. After a period of several years of being a frustrated artist having no way to express himself, i began writing poetry again( I wrote as a young child). And in February of 2017 I stepped onto stage for the first time as a spoken word poet. And its been up ever since!

I don’t have a particular style that I write from. I write what i experience. I write what I observe. I write what I believe. And I tell my truth. I’ve been described as a provocative poet who speaks from the heart, sometimes aggressive, sometimes controversial in my stance on certain topics. But im always myself. I write for myself and whoever my poems may touch along the way. I don’t believe it’s for me to definitively say what sets me apart from other poets as much as I believe it’s up to the listeners to make that distinction. I am who and what i am right now. Later on I might be something else because we’re all evolving; but right now this is me and my poetry is a reflection of my current state of being. I’m proud of myself for learning to accept these truths about myself while working to be a better version of myself at the same time. And I’m most thankful to God for blessing me with this gift of words.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part has been the public receiving my work. They say that your supposed to have a poem for every room you enter. Meaning you should have a poem ready whether it be a school function, a church event, a presidential inauguration, a family reunion or whatever. Im working on that. But for right now I have the poems for the rooms that I do walk into. Maybe that’s enough. Maybe I’m not supposed to walk in every room. I guess time will tell wont it?

People coming up to to me excited, energized or with tears in their eyes and telling me I did a great job or this poem moved me to tears etc has been the most gratifying thing so far. It means they listened. And i believe every poet just
want to be heard. I know that to be true for me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. But I understand the value and importance of having a presence on it. In comparison to some others my following may appear relatively small. And im fine with that because my followers are a devoted group and they have shown me that they love the person(Patrick) beyond the poetry of Poet1Deep. And I love them back. My advice would definitely be to put yourself out there in front of people doing whatever it is that you do. People will decide on their own if what you say moves them to the point that they want to follow you along on your journey. Your job is to get in front of them and deliver. The rest takes care of itself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @poet1deep
• Facebook: One-Deep

Image Credits

@arjunbalaphotos

@cassandracarolinephoto