Homeless Poets Inspire Local Artists COD Painters Turn Words into Pictures

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I have fallen too many times and got up

But still wasn't standing

The world was demanding a new me

But I was too busy getting high

As an eagle, not yet landing.

My eyes were bloodshot red

Sitting in a cloud of smoke.

A 40-ounce in my hand and dreaming of a fantasy world

As phony as the Pope.

I stayed planted to the ground too scared to fly,

But wasn't too scared to put that blunt

In my mouth and get high.

- Craig McKenzie, resident of Higgins House, Chicago

Art and poetry are building bridges between two groups whose paths otherwise may …