My name is Eddie Storm and I'm a writer. I'm a poet. I've been writing since age 13 and this is about the age when I started to become totally obsessed with music. Over the years I found myself obsessed with the huge variety of genres of music and many different particular artists. My first musical hero was Jim Morrison. He died in his addiction many years before I was born. I was 14 years old when Kurt Cobain died. I was 15 when Jerry Garcia died. Over the years many many more unbelievably talented musicians have died young as the result of substance abuse. One of the shining stars of the hip hop industry to recently pass away was the one and only Juice Wrld.

He was an amazing talent. I loved how multifaceted he was as a singer and how brave of a musician he was regarding the different genres he would blend together. I have never seen anyone freestyle like him. He wasn't afraid to collaborate with a wide range of musicians in the studio and on stage. His music to most people would be considered rap or hip hop but it clearly transcended those two genres. His lyrics were direct and to the point. Burn, burn, burn. He was a modern day soul singer and did not mind airing his darkest secrets and failures through his lyrics. He was a poet. He was also a kind hearted tolerant human being. He was a force for good. I get emotional thinking that the world lost such a great soul so young.

Bob Dylan is another poet. It turns out that just like Mr. Higgins, Mr. Zimmerman is also a remarkable human being and ass force for good. I was a kid who started to appreciate his music at a very young age of 17. I saw him live for the first time at the age of 17 in Tinley Park, Illinois . Between the age of 17 and 40 I saw him live in concert almost 50 times on his never ending tour. Mr. Dylan has challenged himself time and time again to incorporate different types of sound into his studio albums and into his live performances. When he was very young he was considered a folk musician then he moved on to loud electric rock then country rock then gospel then bluesy gritty rock and blues then swinging country music then serious minded Grammy winning albums like Time out of Mind that discussed very heavy things like the loss of health, love, dreams, and much more. Today at the age of 80 he recently released one of the best albums of his career and has been touring ever since playing some of the best shows of his career.

When I listen to the music of Jarad Anthony Higgins I can hear the same sense of joy and courage that to marked Dylan as a performer and songwriter. Sadly we will never know what else the young man could have done with his career because of his problems with addiction. There are millions of us in America and around the world who suffer from the disease of addiction. Many of us never even have the chance to get any help or treatment. I am one of those people who suffers from the disease of addiction. Some of the most inspirational people in my life have also been some of the people who have had the most self-destructive habits. One of these was my mother, a person that I have spent 28 years of my life missing dearly. She seemed to handle situations with ease in life that would leave other people completely stumped and at a standstill. She did it with grace. She did it with speed and precision. She did it with class and compassion. She somehow completed all of these amazing things in life and halfvdrunk. I found this hilarious! Everyone else could barely get the task done and here came my mom drunk as a skunk to take charge. My mother was the only person that I wanted to talk to when going through a tough time with something. She was great at making people laugh as well. My mom did these things with total ease while others really bombed. She seemed to have an unfair competitive advantage in life. I used this to my advantage like any smart kid would. Losing her a month before my sixteenth birthday was tough, but luckily she has already instilled a pretty realistic “theory of everything” in me. I understood that life was not fair and it never would be but that everything was still ok. Accept it and get ahead of it as fast as possible. Have as much fun as you can doing it, see, life is simple. . She was not an artist of any kind by this I mean she was not a painter nor a photographer nor a poet nor a professional comedian, I guess I would say that instead the world was canvas and she herself was the art. She was the type of person that rarely shows up in photos but when they do they seem to be popping out of the photograph. Do you know these type of people? The way she moved the way she talked the way she inspired it was masterful, one of God's many many masterpieces. You are not perfect, and by a long shot my friend but I promise you are a masterpiece. If you haven’t realized that you are a masterpiece well that is ok, you just have to hit the books a little harder You know what my mother’s job was? She taught kids with severe behavioral disorders. The type of kids who will knife a teacher in the back at age 14. No one knifed my mother. She was their defender, the told them they had the right to be themselves and that those who didn’t want our attention were not worth it anyway. This takes love. She showed love, they have it right back even harder. Love wins. Love can live forever but we do not live forever.

I am so sick of losing not only family but close friends to the disease of addiction. In 2022 I lost two friends both under the age of 30 to senseless overdoses. I can no longer count the number of people I have known over the past 10 years who have suffered a death in some way related to addiction.

One of my favorite songs by juice wrld is THE LIGHT. About a month ago I opened an Instagram account for the first time to start to promote my poems and flash fiction . Every little thing I write is for all of you like Juice Wrld who struggle through each day with addiction. Each day your memory keeps me brave and keeps me writing on. The light is with me, the light is with you, the light is millions of souls bright and don't you ever forget that. Keep the good fight for freedom burning through your sharing my people. When it's dark outside you're always the light.

-Eddie Storm

© Edward Storm