Varion Howard scribbles the verses that pop into his head on anything he can find. Inside the southwest Houston house he's remodeling, you'll find words written in pencil on the dry wall.
The phrase, "I must be a fly," is etched into a wood beam of a door frame. As he points it out, the 30-something poet spontaneously recites one of his poems with Shakespearean flair.
"I never know where the creative process will take me," he said.
By day, Howard, who holds a master's degree in counseling from Prairie View A&M University, is a district at-risk liaison for Galena Park Independent School District. On weekends and days off, he's touring the country as Se7en the Poet, a stage name that was given to him in college.
He performs at concerts, churches and theaters around the country and is part of the "I Got People Inside My Head" comedy tour with Nephew Tommy of the "Steve Harvey Morning Show." The tour comes to Houston on Oct. 18.
Howard's poems carry messages of hope, faith and empowerment on issues from motherhood to surviving breast cancer. He's the author of the self-help book for women, "More Than a Rib," with Rickie Chaffold, and he continues to host his long-running Poetry Lounge at Sugarhill Bar & Lounge in Third Ward on Sunday nights.
Raised in Houston's Sunnyside area, Howard was an aspiring rapper who looked up to LL Cool J, Jay-Z, Ice Cube and KRS-One.
"I was the kid at the end of the school lunch table giving a concert," said Howard, who attended Worthing High School. He tried his hand at freestyle rap, in which lyrics are improvised, and eventually mastered the art. It helped him to create prose easily for the stage.
"It was all a game at first," he said. "I was just playing at it, then the raps turned into poetry. My lyrics were always complex, and people started calling me a poet."
Howard sold CDs of his spoken-word poems out of the trunk of his car.
Although he's lost count of the number of poems he's written over the years, he keeps them in a journal neatly tucked away for his 13-year-old son, Varion Howard II.
It was Majic 102 radio personality and midday host Kandi Eastman who first asked Howard to write a poem about breast cancer, shortly after her own diagnosis with the disease.
"He came up with something really beautiful that talked about how he felt about it and also encouraged women to get screenings and mamographies," Eastman said.
"He's so passionate and real, and regardless of the subject, he's able to touch you in many ways."
The poem was a new direction for Howard. "It used to be that anger was my muse," he said. "I wrote poems from anger. Now it comes from stuff I can laugh at and things that make me cry."
His mother, Prenise "Peaches" Howard-Reed, a former background vocalist for the late R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, said he's lived the poetry he writes.
"Everything he writes, he's been there and done that," said Howard-Reed, who also is a recovering drug addict. "I was a single parent and I did the best I could with him, but I tried to keep him encouraged. He proved to be all that he could be. He does it so honestly and truthfully that people receive him."
Many of his students know about his poetry, but Howard keeps those lives separate.
"At the day job, I need to be Mr. Howard. I look and dress like a counselor."
As Se7en the Poet, it's a different story.
"I'm really eclectic. I wear suits, then I'll put on my Superman Chucks with a T-shirt and a jacket. I like that duality."
Joy Sewing is an award-winning news columnist for the Houston Chronicle, reporting and opining on issues, including social justice, politics, education, health care and inequity. She can be reached at joy.sewing@houstonchronicle.com.
Article from the Houston Chronicle
Updated Aug 14, 2015 4:22 p.m.
