I first met James Munro Leaf during my time at Harvard University in 2007. James, may he forever rest in peace and power, was a phenomenal poet, playwright, educator, visionary thinker, and connector of peoples across this planet through his art and open and genial personality. A man who carried a fire within and surging drive to transform the United States and the world for the better through his passionate expression in the arts, James was also intimately aware of the burden that artistic gift sometimes itself carries. He wrestled with the vicissitudes of this life and vicissitudes in his spirit and mind, and when we connected in Currier House as fellow dorm residents, we quickly began to exchange on all manner of subjects from poetry, to shared struggles in the scholastic environment, to political critique and reflections on the energy needed for transformative global change. James’ knowledge was supremely expansive, and he could relate to all aspects of my vision, bringing references from esoteric and lesser known European revolutions and thinkers in alignment with my African, black American, and hip hop/Diasporic poetic foundations. His literary well ran very deep, and I enjoyed sharing with him on all manner of writers, especially at that time Paolo Coehlo, whose Warrior of the Light Manual had inspired me. Thinking of James, I think of Ginsberg’s Howl alongside Frostian, Shakespearean, and Classical Greek and Roman poetics simultaneously wrapped into piercing insights on our post modernity forever connected to the movements of the past. Though I would not get to see him after our time together in university, I learned that he brought his great presence of creativity and knowledge across the world with the same intensity and truth telling love that he inspired me with in the university. To his beautiful surviving family and all his great friends, particularly Jugoslav Kapetanovic, thank you for helping me to see more of the deeper picture of his beautiful soul. To Dr. Liz Goodenough, James’ mom, and the whole family, thank you for the gift of your son and for the encouragement to share this work he gave me in university after one night I stayed up late rapping in the cold Cambridge winter. Just a small opening into James’ multidimensional pen, I hope in sharing this work one can see James’ fierce kindness to me and to the world. There are many many more of his works which I hope to see someday in full publication that would give deep insight into a man supremely sensitive to the world, the lives of others, and the battles for mental, physical, and spiritual well being as he charted a path for a transformed world of sincere empathy.