Wake Me Up: On the Road to Freedom

Poems and Quotes by Isaac Kinzambi

There are books of poetry that ask us to admire the language, and there are books that ask us to listen. Isaac Kinzambi's Wake Me Up: On the Road to Freedom does something more. It asks us to bear witness, to recognize the humanity behind the headlines, and to understand that freedom is not merely a destination but a journey of the spirit.

Kinzambi writes from the lived experience of displacement, separation, uncertainty, and the stubborn determination to survive. His poetry carries the unmistakable voice of a man who has known what it means to leave a homeland without knowing when, or whether, he will find another place to call home. Yet this is not simply a collection about suffering. It is a testament to the extraordinary resilience of hope.

In poems such as "Show Me the Cold," the reader encounters the harsh realities of homelessness during a Maine winter, while "My Version of the American Dream" challenges our comfortable assumptions about what people seek when they come to America. For Kinzambi, the dream is not wealth or privilege. It is the opportunity to live, to think, to write, to belong. In "We Are Asylum Seekers," he reminds us that those forced to flee are not abandoning something in pursuit of riches. They are searching for the fundamental human right to live without fear.

What makes this collection particularly compelling is Kinzambi's refusal to surrender his identity or his compassion. His African heritage, spiritual convictions, ancestral memory, and emerging American experience meet on these pages, sometimes in sorrow, sometimes in celebration, always in conversation. His language has its own rhythms and unexpected turns, reflecting a mind moving between cultures, histories, and ways of understanding the world. He is not interested in polishing away the evidence of his journey. His voice is unmistakably his own.

There is also a generosity of spirit throughout these poems. Even after hardship, Kinzambi writes of gratitude, kindness, community, and the obligation to extend a hand to others. In "Power to Witness," he understands that surviving is not enough if we cannot also speak for those whose voices remain unheard.

Perhaps the most moving contradiction comes early in the collection, in a poem titled "I Am Not the Poet." Yet page after page proves otherwise. Isaac Kinzambi is indeed a poet, not because he claims the title, but because he has taken the raw material of human experience and transformed it into something that can reach another human heart.

"Wake Me Up is more than a collection of poems. It is a declaration that exile cannot silence identity, hardship cannot extinguish hope, and the human spirit, given even the smallest opening, will find a way to sing."

This is an important, deeply personal, and ultimately uplifting book. It deserves to be read not only for the story it tells, but for the questions it asks of us as neighbors, as Americans, and as fellow travelers through an uncertain world.

Isaac Kinzambi has traveled a long road toward freedom. In these pages, he invites us to walk a little of that road beside him. We would do well to accept the invitation.

You can find Isaac on Facebook and his book is available on Amazon now.

TikTok: @isaac.kinzambi — shares inspirational and motivational content
LinkedIn: isaac-kinzambi-b65083249 — professional profile and career history LinkedIn.
YouTube: isaackinzambi1836 — videos and talks

Isaac Kinzambi

Isaac Kinzambi

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What's the Buzz? About the Author
Eleanor Cade Busby: Unpublished, Unfiltered, and Unrepentant

Eleanor Cade Busby is an unpublished award-winning writer, photographer, blogger, and chronic user of the Oxford comma. She simply adores writing about herself in the third person, and therefore considers this bio a personal highlight of her literary career.

Writing from Midcoast Maine, where the air is salty, the coffee is strong, and the opinions come with footnotes.

A preacher’s kid who made it her mission to lovingly obliterate every single stereotype about “the minister’s daughter,” Busby grew up all over New England collecting stories, theater programs, and at least three kinds of student loan debt. She attended Goddard College, the Rhode Island Conservatory of Music, and the School of Life—majoring in everything she could wedge into her skull without a crowbar.

She has had her own office (with an actual door!) and a red stapler that was not to be touched, thank you very much. She has worked in social services for decades, won both national and local awards, and was recently named a co-recipient of the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award—along with one million of her closest friends—for being loud in the best way possible.

Busby has directed more plays than she can count, acted in more than she should probably admit, and written a few too—including some that were performed on purpose. She’s done everything in theater except hang the lights, because she has a strict “no ladders” clause in her personal safety policy.

Her work has appeared in publications ranging from earnest local weeklies to CRACKED magazine, which pretty much sums up her range. She believes if it isn’t funny or relevant, it probably belongs in a compost heap, not her blog.

Eleanor lives in Midcoast Maine with a cat who believes in early-morning blood sacrifice (hers), and she writes "What's the Buzz?" to chronicle what’s happening, what might be happening, and what absolutely should be happening, according to her and no one else.

Suggestions for topics and comments are always welcome at eleanorcadebusby@hotmail.com