TERENCE DEMIEN Harris
POET | WRITER | SPEAKER
Born the eldest son of Mr. Elliot Arnold and Ms. Pamela Serene Harris on the East side of Detroit, Michigan, Terence Demien Harris, commonly addressed as “T. Harris” is a poet whose ability to weave words together in such a fashion as to elicit emotions from his listening audience with very minimal effort makes him, in the assessment of many who’ve heard his poetry, the greatest poet to ever put ink to paper.
Terence’s vision is to become the face of this beautiful and ancient art form by marketing and popularizing it to audiences who otherwise found it dull and not deserving of any real attentiveness. No one who has heard him once has ever not been excited to hear him twice. Inspired by many accomplished men, one of whom being Tyler Perry, who was able to take the traditional stage play and make that art his own and built a swelling media empire from it, Terence endeavors to achieve similar success, but with the foundation being poetry instead.'
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Another inspiration of his is Mr. Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records. What Terence took from him was Mr. Gordy’s ability to assemble a seasoned and competitive team of creative individuals whose values aligned with his thinking and talent that helped to give life to the term “Hitsville” for which the company had been known because of its streak of countless songs that would top the charts. Mr. Gordy taught Terence the importance of forging the right partnerships and never permitting race, gender, or religious beliefs to be the determining factor in choosing who to delegate task to. In the words of Mr. Gordy- words that are engrained in the business fabric of Terence- “In some cases the best person (for the job) is white. Sometimes the best person is a woman……………I just want to win!” This is a range of vision echoed by Mr. Gordy, that Terence has adopted as his own.
NELSON MANDELA SAID IT BEST
“I don’t care if the cat is black or white (female or male), can it catch mice?”
Terence doesn’t concern himself with color, beliefs, or gender. All he concerns himself with is can they do the job he hired them to do? And where there is a capable, professional, and reliable person, there is Terence ready to employ them.
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Auto magnate, Henry Ford, has also served as a heavy influence on Terence as well. Reading books about his life and watching multiple documentaries which led him to frequent visits to Ford’s old residences and tours of his factories, and even moved Terence to accept a job offer from Henry Ford hospital in 2022 just to be able to say he walked the same halls as this great inventor, has taught Terence the importance of believing in and betting on self.
Mr. Ford believed in himself so much so that even after multiple failed companies he refused to wallow in doubt and and was willing to lose all by accepting investment money from the Dodge brothers (John and Horace) which would require that he turned over all his machinery if he could not yield a return on their investment money. Not only did Mr. Ford succeed, but Ford still stands along side GM and Chrysler as one of the three pillars of the auto industry.
Dodge, though they were more financially established at the time when they gave Ford the loan, would later be acquired by Chrysler while Ford was still able to maintain his independence while all the other car companies were forced to merge with other brands. Ford would eventually brand the Ford name in health care (Henry Ford hospital), sports (Detroit Lions), and the auto industry (Ford Motor Company), and history (The Henry Ford museum).
Ford’s life taught Terence that your vision should never include just you, be willing to take risk, never be intimidated by those who you perceive to have leverage, own what you create, and to never demand of a person that which you don’t demand from self. Henry Ford said, “When a man makes up his mind to work, there’s no limit to what he can do.” And Terence’s mind if made up. He’s creating a legacy that will outlive even himself.
Terence gathered the emotional, mental, and sexual abuse he suffered and culminated it into his beautiful writings that inspires and captivates the hearts of men, women, and young adults alike. The many loses he took prior to arriving at this point pales in comparison to the great gain of knowing he will soon speak to a multitude of people in a language that Terence speaks all too well: POETRY.
There’s no other poet in this lifetime whose passion, delivery, work ethic, showmanship, and foresight matches that of Terence. There are thousands of poets who has come before him and many more will come after him. The difference being this: they write poetry, Terence writes life.
In ending, a few years ago Terence was driving on the Edsel B Ford freeway (94) heading West from Port Huron to Detroit with his wife. They saw an older white gentleman walking alongside the grassy shoulder. His wife asked him after seeing the man, “Is there a path down there?” Terence looked and said, “No, it look like he’s creating his own.”
Terence Demien Harris, too, is creating his own path. What Berry Gordy is to music, what Tyler Perry is to the stage play, and what Henry Ford is to the automobile industry, so is Terence Demien Harris to poetry. He is everything poetry is.
He is a visionary who doesn’t look for opportunities. He creates them!
