Maya Angelou

There are very few writers I love as much as I love this woman. Her words touch millions of people worldwide. Who among us hasn't picked up one of her works? The most famous of which is I know why the caged bird sings. Inshallah this May I will get a chance to hear her speak and hopefully meet her. She will be at the O'Shaughnessy theater- St Catherine University (St Paul). Its an evening of poetry and I already got tickets for my friend and also my beloved aunt. I can't wait to hear her live recite some of my favorite poems

Still I Rise- Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Valentine by John Fuller

The things about you I appreciate may seem indelicate:
I’d like to find you in the shower
And chase the soap for half an hour.
I’d like to have you in my power and see your eyes dilate.
I’d like to have your back to scour
And other parts to lubricate.
Sometimes I feel it is my fate
To chase you screaming up a tower
or make you cower
By asking you to differentiate Nietzsche from Schopenhauer.
I’d like to successfully guess your weight and win you at a féte.
I’d like to offer you a flower.

I like the hair upon your shoulders,
Falling like water over boulders.
I like the shoulders, too: they are essential.
Your collar-bones have great potential
(I’d like to see your particulars in folders marked Confidential).

I like your cheeks, I like your nose,
I like the way your lips disclose
The neat arrangement of your teeth
(Half above and half beneath) in rows.

I like your eyes, I like their fringes.
The way they focus on me gives me twinges.
Your upper arms drive me berserk.
I like the way your elbows work, on hinges.

I like your wrists, I like your glands,
I like the fingers on your hands.
I’d like to teach them how to count,
And certain things we might exchange,
Something familiar for something strange.
I’d like to give you just the right amount and get some change.

I like it when you tilt your neck up.
I like the way you nod and hold a teacup.

I like your legs when you unwind them.
Even in trousers I don’t mind them.
I like each softly-moulded kneecap.
I like the little crease behind them.
I’d always know, without a recap, where to find them.

I like the sculpture of your ears.
I like the way your profile disappears
Whenever you decide to turn and face me.
I’d like to cross two hemispheres and have you chase me.
I’d like to smuggle you across frontiers
Or sail with you at night into Tangiers.
I’d like you to embrace me.

I’d like to see you ironing your skirt and cancelling other dates.
I’d like to button up your shirt.
I like the way your chest inflates.
I’d like to soothe you when you’re hurt
Or frightened senseless by invertebrates.

I’d like you even if you were malign
And had a yen for sudden homicide.
I’d let you put insecticide into my wine.
I’d even like you if you were the Bride of Frankenstein
Or something ghoulish out of Mamoulian’s Jekyll and Hyde.
I’d even like you as my Julian of Norwich or Cathleen in Houlihan.
How melodramatic
If you were something muttering in attics
Like Mrs Rochester or a student of boolean mathematics.

You are the end of self-abuse.
You are the eternal feminine.
I’d like to find a good excuse
To call on you and find you in.
I’d like to put my hand beneath your chin. And see you grin.
I’d like to taste your Charlotte Russe,
I’d like to feel my lips upon your skin,
I’d like to make you reproduce.

I’d like you in my confidence.
I’d like to be your second look.
I’d like to let you try the French Defence and mate you with my rook.
I’d like to be your preference and hence
I’d like to be around when you unhook.
I’d like to be your only audience,
The final name in your appointment book, your future tense.

My book of rhymes

I luv Nas. I am by no means anything as creative as he is or MOS DEF/TALIB/BLACK ICE/TAALAM etc but I can string a few sentences together. Here are a few of these so called sentences from my book of rhymes.

Forever in turmoil

pursuant of your affection

residing in eternal

limbo awaiting

anticipating your every need

Forever yours

never my own

searching faithfully

for my love

for our love

Forever looking

hoping to find

a mirror that will

reflect the truth

of you and I

Forever mine

yours no more

alas, I have

always known

it was all for

naught.

-------------------------------------------

Hear me

and allow me to become your resounding board

allow me to strum the strings that used to be us

found between then and now

allow me then to relive the sweet sorrow

Listen to me

and allow my voice to reverb within your soul

as I beat out my agony on your drums

hoping you understand that

I am but a dancer without a soul

a writer without a scroll

an orchestra without a horn

Listen to me

as I beat out life's rhythms with my shackles

hear as the bass merges with the treble

as the blood adds to the sound

as the beats rise and fall.

Silence

as you finally hear that

all I want is to be free.

This was a piece written after reading another person's poem.

--------------------------------------------------

Do we ever cross paths in a different life

Do you recognize me then

or can I form a new identity

one which will mirror your desires

mingle with your flesh

dance with your soul

and sleep in your warmth.

---------------------------------------------------------

Like a lotus in a swamp

a beautiful friend is a find

You dry my tears with your words

and set me on my way with your charm

I love your big graceful hands

thats guide me through rain or sun

I am forever glad to have found the one

who'll be there even when I am down.

Apology to My Unborn-Bassey Ikpi

I fear that you will never sleep
that like these fingers long and too thin
to hold rings or commitments
you will inherit your mother’s insomnia

your father's restless spirit

Child, I wish I could quiet all your questions
tell you the exact number of stars in the sky
Wish I could show you where the moon goes at sunrise
I want to give you one morning worth rising for
I pray that you will close your eyes
see the world through the only thing

I have fit to pass down to you
this heart of a dreamer

But I want you stronger sooner
want you kind and brave
want you unafraid to fight
for what you believe and need
want you beautiful and free
want you nothing like your mother
this girl trembling before each new day
this girl frightened of herself

love this girl who finds the word ‘woman’

a cloak too heavy to don most days
you deserve someone who wears the moniker like banner
carries easy like sun in summer
but, child, what can I tell you of peace
when you were probably conceived in a cacophony of questions

Still, I think of you as possible
can feel the breath of God light against your skin
can hear you, softness, eyes closed laughing
real as the beating staccato against my chest

I wish that we are not too much like shadow and brick
voices thrown against walls
these hands are tired of building

I want you to like me
To know me
To know me now
In moments like this
your mother lays awake
watching, yet, another morning from the wrong side
practicing slow this breathing that will one day usher you into this world

I still fear that you will never know sleep
but I know that I need your laughter

need the gentle curve of your fingers
need your eyes locked on mine
need you here,

now

for balance

I still think you deserve more than
this threat of me as your mother
still attempting her own world of colored things
but child, just promise me that you will be, eventually
I need your possibility
like I need a night worth sleeping for

Image source

In & Out of Time

The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance...
our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out of time.
When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun
and the first tree struggled up from the forest floor
I had always loved you more.
You freed your braids...
gave your hair to the breeze.
It hummed like a hive of honey bees.
I reached in the mass for the sweet honey comb there....
Mmmm...God how I love your hair.
You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.
Lost, injured, hurt by chance.
I screamed to the heavens....loudly screamed....
Trying to change our nightmares to dreams...
The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out
in and out
in and out
of time.

by Maya Angelou

It is what spices up life. Yet, when we seek it, it is never there. We impose our definition of it when we do find it & in one swift motion kill its purpose.Our trials and tribulations mold our view of love. I started off rejecting the notion of love, progressed to embodying it and finally like everything in life I ended up where I started. Love trancedes gender, race, religion, tribe and everything in between. Love is universal and it is this trait that makes it a scarce commodity. It sends shivers up your spine and in the same instant it can bloody your nose or worse break the very organ that beats its rhythm. The rhythm that resounds and is amplified by the weakness in my knees, my tummy doing the cartwheels and the inevitable rush of blood to my loins. 'Tis a bittersweet fruit this love but I am entraced by it. It weaves a web around my writhing body as I try to escape. Leave me be, I yell. This ride is not yet begun comes the swift answer as the beating of my heart increases twicefold. I twist and turn, look south and north but never at the object of my frustration or should I say desire. The clock chimes the witching hour and I cringe for time is a bitch to chase. Must be due to the two xtra hands it possess. I got you NOW, as I manuever into a more comfortable position. I look up and gasp, for the image I see is me alone, haggard and alone. All this time I was running away from myself and time wasn't even a factor.

Nationalist pride

I was visiting my cuz this morning when he made me watch this clip from youtube.com I didn't understand everything about what she said but something about her voice and the way she seems to convey her message pulled at me. So, can y'all help me out in translating the whole thing? Much appreciated to anyone who does.

Part II of Taalam Acey

We need you to come back forward

Sorted into the monolithic mysteries of missing links

Between cotton fields and killing fields

These brothers need rebuilding

Whether they've burned out in cubicles

Or burned up on blocks

Whether they've been pushing pencils

Or pushing rocks

They done tried to go from capital to capitalist

But it wasn't enough action in their auction

So they been walkin' into prisons

Like roach motels

And the prison industrial complex

Done eliminated the division

Between slave quarters and cells

And look at him sitting there

Still thinking this is a white man's world

When his cell mate is white

And his cell mate is thinking if we could just

Get rid of these niggas

I could economically improve my trailer-park life

become a father to my children

And a husband to my wife

He has yet to figure

That he's just a flesh-colored nigga

Who can't even afford the luxury of being white

Both of them sitting there blaming each other

Living the same cell, Living the same life

Meanwhile the Net is destroying the minds of young men

The Net, Nigga Entertainment Television,

constantly broadcasting the crippling passions of the at-risk young population

showing videos and shows that make seventies blackXploitation films seem like the work of August Wilson

that's why I needed to have daughters

to give Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman and Queen Mother Moore

The opportunity to come back forward

I tell them he says he can't get past

"Her breast ... Her ass" but you gotta make 'em

take 'em under your wings make 'em rise

make 'em understand that the heaven between your thighs

can't compare to the salvation thats behind your eyes

revolutionary negotiation

He can't get wet if he can't get wise

remind him of the late nineteenth century and southern reconstruction

when black women made a pact not to touch him

if he wasn't about nothing, what happened then?

Brothers couldn't smoke ses on corners

Cause they were too busy smoking sessions in congress

But in this millennium the next could've been Malcolm X

Is somewhere taking a swig off of a 40 oz malt liquor

Called Black Death talking about "Damn that Billboard was right,

This shit here do put hair on a nigga's chest."

Tell 'em you ain't impressed.

He can go home and feel his own damn chest

If he can't take kids then he can't take sex.

Like Frederick Douglass "No Struggle. No Progress."

You can't process his request

Till he stops confusing his manhood with his baguettes

Tell him to tuck in his long-ass chains

And pull out some self-respect

Holdin' up street signs

Like somebody's paying him overtime

Grown-ass man gotta run like a bitch

Every time the police comes

And cause he calls himself a player

Now your son wants to be one

Tell him the cost of clowns in the community is buildin'

And our children simply can't afford it

Tell his backward ass to play the bottom

Till he's up and ready to come back forward!

Cleaning out my files

I was cleaning out my files on my word when I came across a bunch of my ramblings. Some of these suprised me when I read them.

Twisted and confused
In a fetus position I lay
My temper infused
I think of how far I came
Could it be that I was robbed
Robbed of my youth
Like a thief in the night
You came within sight
Told me a lie
Then ran off with my life
There you left me
Twisted and confused
In the fetus position I stayed

Damn the heavens
Damn the hell
All I wanted was to be even
Instead I failed
I fought the fight
To be the same in your sight
I wanted prove my worth
Instead you pained my wrath
Laying in agony on my mat
I set out for my flat
I knew I would die
For I never told I lie
The child I bore
Was yours for sure
Instead you turned your back
And told me to see a quack
Now I am walking the last mile
Leaving this world with a smile
I came to terms with the facts
At least I learned how to act

Taalam Acey in Town

For those who live in Minneapolis I would recommend to catch this cat's show this Friday. The unfortunate part of the whole thing is his show is at a bar (Spirell Bar). Show starts @ 7 pm, doors open at 6. I believe tickets at the door cost 15 bucks but advance cost $3 less.

Oh jeez, I didn't even introduce him, Duh! Taalam Acey, not to sound like his groupie,is the most famous spoken word artist out there. He has toured and lectured, not to mention educated on spoken word, both domestically and internationally. He does venues in select cities and usually is prominently featured on campuses. As a spoken word fan, I own a couple of his cds, my favourite being 'pieces of change'.Most of you might be shocked with the work I chose to highlight. Taalam's style is different. He uses erotica to capture attention and draw it to whats important.

PS:- Anyone go watch Chris Tucker when he was in town last weekend?

Collection of my fav. poems.

In the Depths of Solitude

I exist in the depths of solitude
pondering my true goal
Trying 2 find peace of mind
and still preserve my soul
CONSTANTLY yearning 2 be accepted
and from all receive respect
Never compromising but sometimes risky
and that is my only regret
A young heart with an old soul
How can I be in the depths of solitude
when there R 2 inside of me
This Duo within me causes
the perfect opportunity
2 learn and live twice as fast
as those who accept simplicity


Sometimes I cry

Sometimes when I'm alone
I cry because I'm on my own
The tears I cry R bitter and warm
They flow with life but take no form
I cry because my heart is torn
and I find it difficult 2 carry on
If I had an ear 2 confide in
I would cry among my treasured friends
But who do u know that stop that long
to help another to carry on
The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by
than 2 stop and c what makes u cry
Its painful and sad and sometimes I cry
and no one cares about why

Only 4 the Righteous

I'm down with strictly Dope "So"
That means I'm more than u can handle
"Hot" I'm hotter than the wax from a candle
"Him" that's Roc he's my microphone companion
"Lyrics" full of knowledge, truth and understanding
"Hobbies" rapping is my only recreation
"Retire" you must be on some kind of medication
"Why" because I'll never loosen up my mic grip
"Drugs" never cuz I'm living on the right tip
"Sex" only with my girl because I love her
"Babies" impossible I always use a rubber
"Bored" rarely cuz I'm keeping myself busy
"Scratch" nah I leave the cutting up 2 Dize
"Dize?" yeh that's my D.J. he's the greatest
"Word" nah he's paying me 2 say this
"The mind" is something that I cultivate and treasure
"Thanks" you're welcome and besides it was my Pleasure

If I Fail

If in my quest 2 achieve my goals
I stumble or crumble and lose my soul
Those that knew me would easily co-sign
There was never a life as hard as mine
No father-no money-no chance and no guide
I only follow my voice inside
if it guides me wrong and I do not win
I'll learn from mistakes and try 2 achieve

What Is It that I Search 4

I know not what I search 4
But I know I have yet 2 find it,
Because it is invisible 2 the eye
My heart must search 4 it blinded.

And if by chance I find it,
Will I know my mission is achieved?
Can one come 2 conclusions,
Before the question is conceived?

Just as no one knows
what lies beyond the shore.
I will never find the answer 2
what it is that I search 4.

And 2morrow

Today is filled with anger
Fueled with hidden hate
Scared of being outcast
Afraid of common fate
Today is built on tragedies
which no one wants to face
Nightmares 2 humanities
and morally disgraced
Tonite is filled with rage
Violence in the air
Children bred with ruthlessness
Because no one at home cares
Tonite I lay my head down
But the pressure never stops
gnawing at my sanity
content when I am dropped
But 2morrow I c change
A chance 2 build anew
Built on spirit, intent of heart
and ideals based on truth
And 2morrow I wake with second wind
And strong because of pride
2 know I fought with all my heart 2 keep my dream alive


These poems were written by Tupac Shakur and below you can hear me reading them out loud. I hope they touch you like they did me.Enjoy

Tribute to my father

Abo I have much to say to you. Last time I saw you tears were streaming down that weather-beaten, kind face of yours. You asked for my forgiveness and told me to take care of everyone. I didn't understand why you were leaving me. I didn't understand what I did to make you run. All I knew was that I was alone in this world.

Since then I shut you out of my life. When you made contact I refused to feel again. I fought with the whys and what ifs. I had to be strong when the others were around, but all alone in my bed I cried myself to sleep. I hated you and I never wanted to see you again. I blamed you everytime hooyo screamed at the children and I cussed at the world for being cruel. Why me? Why them? Why her? Why us?

Now I have come to understand that your deeds were for your survival. If you hadn't left I am told that you would have died. I pray that you are well. I pray that you found peace wherever you might be. I also pray that you know deep in your heart that we all still love you. You are our father and our rock. When I fell, you were there to pick me up and send me on my way with whispers of encouragement. You have equipped me well for this life and for that I want to thank you. I want you to know that I will take care of the family as much as I can. I will take your place at the hilt of this ship and steer it to calmer seas. All I want is for time to rewind and for me to take back the hurtful things I said to you. I want time to rewind for me to wipe the tears off your face and send you off with a kiss and a hug. Alas I can't and all I am left with is regrets. Be well my darling father and rest easy for your daughter is right back where she belongs;by your side.