Poetry Session #5

I REMEMBER

I remember when I was in undergrad on a typical day that went bad. It was still morning and I was checking my e-mail in the computer lab.

I remember the chain e-mail around ten in the a.m stating there has been been a plane hijacking and there were hostages, so please pray for them.

I remember heading to my first class an hour later and being one of only five people there. The professor didn't even show up, something wrong was going on and we were not aware.

I remember a classmate walked in suggest that class was cancelled as a matter of course. She said that everyone was to stunned by the attacks in New York.

I remember rushing home to my dorm wondering what could have possible occurred to upset the norm.

I remember getting home to see my roommate glued to the T.V. The events on the box were so intense that he didn't even see me.

I remember one- no two planes hit one- no two buildings. I felt a rush of emotions but was too numb to be in touch with my feelings.

I remember it was like watching a movie with a familiar plot and then to our collective horror and shock the buildings dropped. All those citizens, firefighters, and cops. It was like time stopped.

I remember the screams, the tears, the dust, the bodies, the blood, and the fears. I knew this day have aftershocks that would knock us around for years.

I remember predicting how things were going to go about from here on out. This country would be determined to inflict and endure anything in order to regain its clout.

I remember when the culprits were being named. Foreign, Muslim, and brown was enough to get patriotic hearts inflamed. Nothing would ever be the same.

I remember my roommate and I likening these events to “The Siege”, but this time there was no Denzel Washington to help when the rights of a minority would be aggrieved. At that moment I thought about American born Japanese.

I remember being assured that we would be going to war in order to payback these attacks with devastation multiplied by four. But I didn't fully appreciate what was really in store for our young men and women doing tours.

I remember in the face of such pain no soothing words would avail. We would follow a path of force ans stay the course. Cooler heads would not prevail.

I remember the fury of the debates. I remember the consensus to go on the offensive and the hate for those few who said, “Wait!”

I remember the mistakes that were taken for granted, because granted, emotions were still raw. In seemingly quick succession there was a nearly unified expression, followed by projections, faulty connections, threats, and finally "Shock and Awe!"

I remember not truly the widespread and long lasting devastation that one day could cause. I remember us holding to flags and buzz words instead of addressing our flaws.

I remember lost freedoms, renditions, water boarding, terror alerts, two wars, and the rampant Islamophobia being troubling to me. Even in the era of Obama I remember that Osama is out there somewhere still hiding, still plotting, and still free.

-Noface

Poetry Session #4

Here's a haiku summing up my feelings in regards to current events these past couple of weeks:

I hate tea parties
News bigger than pirates is-
Obama's new dog

-Noface

Poetry Session #3

View From The Mountain Top

We stand as a witness, man in all shades of American
Coming both male and female with belief that we can
Overcome and indeed overrun the dysfunction of the old ways
That sought to deny the causes of freedom rides in the old days
That corrupted the ballot when it could not use the bullet
When change came from the courthouse and the pulpit
When our lightning rods were struck and a movement got stuck
A social conscience deadening and threatening to self destruct
Turmoil that seems ages ago, but all true sages should know
That the story is not finished for we still have pages to go
This has been a long time coming, but it is here now
I will not say that we have arrived, but we’re near now
Closer than ever before because never before have we seen
A clearer representation of the incarnation of a King’s dream
A dream too long deferred but at this moment much preferred
Over a nightmare with but a single flare of hope, burning undeterred
Seen from the mountain top by a prophet and revolutionary King
As bells in the valley of the Promised Land sound with freedom’s ring
It’s a view from the mountain top that we can all now see
The visible truths infused with the palpable power of “we”
Swirling around Uncle Sam’s first black son
A view from the mountain top of a people as one

-Noface

Poetry Session #2

Just a little something to keep you going while you're waiting in (what will surely be) those long lines at your local election centers. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

CHANGE HAS COME

They say change is coming
From night almost gone
Towards the breaking of dawn
The people keep running

At the end of that dark night
We stopped following the blind
Turned around only to find
Our own Dark Knight

With a voice of Unity
Now man to man
We dare to stand
An organized community

Chanting, Yes We Can!
To the immovable all day
To the impossible, we say
YES WE CAN!

That’s why, win or lose
This moment is frozen
Not for the right to be chosen
But for the right to choose

And this is our choice
Hope is not strange
We are our change
And he is our voice

Speaking true and clear
Though we don’t stop running
Our change is not coming
Our change is here

This is promise fulfilled
Our nation’s restitution
With a more perfect union
Through hope that we willed

And though we’re not done
We are not humming
That change is coming
Because change has come

-Noface

Poetry Session #1

During one of my routine treks through the viral infested jungles of YouTube, I came across this gem of Spoken Word, spoken and heard (you like that don't you!?) from and "urban" teen to other "urban" teens, respectively.



I must say that I was profoundly impressed and inspired to sit down and spill out a little of my self to be critiqued by...no one (seeing that I don't have any subscribers yet).


STATE OF MIND

I say I’m black because of my state of mind
A state of paranoia that makes me stay with kind (mine)
You always say you’re blind, to color
Every time I hear that line, I say, “Oh brother…this mutha--“
You see, I see color, texture and tone with twenty-twenty
In my sight is the white of the lint within pockets empty
I see green on the leaves and in the weaves of money
Which don’t grow on trees, indeed it seems funny
Still I need money to make my world go round
But the world sees only black and white, and I’m brown
See that’s my color and there are others like pink, peach and tan
Like the highest yellow to a hue that seems the darkest blue (damn)
Man, when it comes to skin tone it’s well known that from dark to light
Shades of brown can be found, but there is no black or white
Because white, is the absence of and black, the fullness of
And understand that the race of man can claim none of the above
So where’s the love, which covers a multitude of sins?
Please excuse, but screw the few, when is the multitude gonna win?
Look at my skin, then look within and see the Negro in me
The brother in he and the sister in she, African-American are we (?)
If you look clearly enough and deep enough, I think you’ll find
Black is not a color, it’s a state of mind
Found in the cognitive bent of the Talented Tenth
And seething within the underachieving (?) ninety percent
That constant pressure that tells us we can’t measure up to the hype
So some fall back to what we call black, forever stereotyped
While others break the mold and take a hold of that promise
Saying, “Forget what you’re told and what you know, because I’m this!”
Their faith, education, determination, and wits are their entourage
That was with them from the stoop to the house with a two car garage
That brother whose mind is stronger than his swagger
With that black mentality so sharp, he can spit daggers
He’s not a braggart, because his success is his hype man
Demanding his rights by taking the fight to the “white” man,
He’s not the thuggish type, but black means he can take it to the streets
Yet the truth is he’s from the burbs so he tries to stay discreet
And keep his head down with feet pumping at an above average pace
But black is what puts him in his place, not the color of his face
Which, is such a waste of personality, talent and skills
Because white only sees him as a token space to fill
And he’s an Oreo to the around the way brothers, you know, the others
But damn, calm down brothers because that brown brother
Can’t act black, since black is not an act, it’s a state of mind
And the notion so untrue that one’s hue is black, is so unkind
It sets us all back, further than those shows with Flava Flave
Or being Bobby Brown, TV clowns representing how black behaves
Oh behave, that’s not black because black is beautiful and proud
We’re just dark and lovely, swift and slow, quiet and loud
Reaching as high as the clouds and beyond the stars
And in this life no matter where we go, we know exactly who we are
Near or far, search the earth, uncover every secret place
Inquire the face of the nations and examine every race
Especially in the United States, because in the end you’ll find
That Black is not a color, black is a state of mind


Wow! I haven't written poetry for so long that I have forgotten how fun it is to turn expressions, emotions, and thoughts into beautifully arranged words.

-Noface