A Farrell poet wants the world to see things through his eyes, if just for a moment.

"My clothes may not match, I may have only one sock on, but does that take away from what I know?" asked Charles Bender of Farrell. "I want to make people aware, to give them a different perspective. I want people not to look down at me, but to look at me as an equal."

Bender and his collection of poetry, "Details without instructions," will be presented at 10 a.m. Saturday at Premiere Hotel in Hermitage as part of a book event by the Rivers of Living Water Outreach Ministry. The event is open to the public.

Bender drew from his life experiences in the Shenango Valley and living on the streets of Sacramento when he was younger.

One poem, "The power of one man black," perfectly describes who he is, Bender said.

"The power of one man black/Fears and frustrations bring tears and separations/All Americans say black," he recited.

The poem describes the desire to spread knowledge and to take pride in oneself, and is one of many poems in the collection.

"I want to put something back," Bender said, "through art, poetry, whatever."

Bender said he wanted to show youth in the area there is another way to get by in life. He was homeless for a time when he was 17, and said he was able to turn a very dark time in his life into a very positive experience.

"I took that and made it into something positive," he said. "I just wanted to survive. I learned a lot of things about life."

The word "black" as Bender uses it does not carry the same connotation many people attach to the word, he said.

"Black is used in the poem as a slang. I heard people saying, 'Wassup, black?' like they would say 'wassup dog?' and I thought, I can use that."

The poem was written, he said, as part of a desire to teach people not to judge the people they see on the street.

"When I wrote that poem, I wanted people to know that what they see on the outside is not necessarily what it's like on the inside. To talk to me and to get to know me is a different perspective. When you are dealing with the homeless and the people we call bums, remember that they have a life. Something happened to put them there. If you don't ask, you will always assume."

Bender said he has no set goals for his book as of yet.

"I want to leave something for my son, and if, now or later, the book can help him or anyone else, I've done my job."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com