but you must understand
we are a resilient people
our strength has to be revered
because who could survive
what we have
yes,
what we have
survived
is in reverence of strength
by a resilient people
that you must know
in order
to understand
Spirit
The Reason I Prose Poetically
if I spoke
as a matter of fact
if I wrote
plainly
would you hear me,
could you listen with an open mind?
oh, and what platform,
what platform indeed
would there be for me to have
therefore I write the yearning of intellect
and the beat of emotion
then call it, poetry
because
if you absorb it as art
your mind may open
and you will indeed
hear me
see me
know me
and follow my stanzas
as a call for action
empowerment
courage
enlightenment
identity
love
investigation
wonder
balance
and peace
I Am
I am
creation-
light
life
love
balanced
knowing
understanding
wise
I am
created-
able
willing
resilient
persistent
ambitious
inspired
imaginative
I am
creative-
thinking
gifted
talented
diverse
intuitive
innovative
passionate
I am
creator-
constructive
productive
proactive
architect
potter
artist
inventive
but, I am
destroyed-
pushed on
pushed out
pressed on
pressed down
kicked on
stepped on
stood on
trekked on
down looked
looked past
spat on
cut down
broken down
crushed up
built on
used up
cut out
counted out
then, I am
forgotten
forsaken
yet, I am
forgiving?
and yet still,
I Am
Incited
I wonder
how you all would live
when the protections,
have run their course
being overrun
by the stepped and stomped on
when the catch up happens
when the rebels, rebel
as catharsis,
transitions into a mobile purge
when the desire for sovereignty
and the expectation of liberty
collide like protons
creating anarchy
in the uprising
of the long sufferers
when downtrodden
rise up
when revolt
becomes revolution!
when your illusion of peace and comfort
combusts into the chaos of rebellion
and melancholy,
rains down on the privileged
as the affluent life, dampened
in the lower muddy trenches-
the meek,
have stomped and stepped through
for generations
finally erecting from those depths
with vengeance
claiming their light on the surface
you can not keep lying to people
believing you will always get away with it
while keeping them in a place
beneath you
you can not keep killing people
believing they will always be civil,
about their losses
because to them,
law and order
has been lawless disorder
oppressive and forceful in their tactics
having the authority to fatally quell
but what happens when they say,
enough
with increasingly less,
and less words
because they have been incited
for far too long
You, be You, with Us
individualism
keeps us all enslaved
being individualistic
grants a compass of liberation to your self
as an individual
serving as the many parts of a whole
not the only part,
of one whole
connection, community, and the collective
is what makes,
and keeps,
us all
as one
Harambee(come together)
Ashe(let it be so)
Oda Keke- (to be upside down and walking in darkness)
an African proverb states,
“they don’t know,
that they don’t know,
that they don’t know.”
and that’s why I ain’t mad atcha
that’s why I don’t hate you,
it’s why I don’t hate myself
That’s why I don’t blame you
it’s why I don’t blame myself
because blind ignorance was both our pilots
flying us to a land of unknowns
where the conditions of survival
were preordained and beyond our control
and so we conformed-
a survival instinct, as to feel like we were in the know
as a result, believing that we know
that there is nothing which we do not know
and that there are no more,
or far less,
unknowns
but if you wish to come from out of
your blanket of blind ignorance
and know
then the first steps of wisdom
is admitting what you don’t know
and that, you do not know
because once you know
you can not un-know
and therefore you can no longer,
be kept warm under the blanket-
of blind ignorance
you may feel colder
the more you grow
but then you will create for yourself
fashioning your own warmth
and blanket of truth
that was there for you,
me,
and us all
since the very beginning
Ashe(let it be so)