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Topic subjectblk history month writers {06}
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=20&topic_id=18266
18266, blk history month writers {06}
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-03-06 10:55 AM
ima just post one a day
18267, lucille clifton
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-03-06 10:55 AM
"the lost baby poem"

the time i dropped your almost body down
down to meet the waters under the city
and run one with the sewage to the sea
what did i know about waters rushing back
what did i know about drowning
or being drowned

you would have been born in winter
in the year of the disconnected gas
and no car
we would have made the thin walk
over the genecy hill into the canada winds
to let you slip into a stranger's hands
if you were here i could tell you
these and some other things

and if i am ever less than a mountain
for your definite brothers and sisters
let the rivers wash over my head
let the sea take me for a spiller of seas
let black men call me stranger always
for your never named sake

18268, RE: lucille clifton
Posted by ASIEM, Sun Feb-05-06 03:32 PM
this is depth of heart...well springs of a mothers torment and relief unfortunatley for so many this is an anthem.

"keep pennin till the earth birth's your rightful seed then nurture it wit more ink..."
"there are no writers just channels"
ASIEM
"Kuun fiyah Kuun" Quran
(Be and it is)
" A writer takes his pen to write the words again that
18269, amiri baraka/leroi jones
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-03-06 10:56 AM
"Black Art" {possibly my favorite poem eva}

Poems are bullshit unless they are
teeth or trees or lemons piled
on a step. Or black ladies dying
of men leaving nickel hearts
beating them down. Fuck poems
and they are useful, wd they shoot
come at you, love what you are,
breathe like wrestlers, or shudder
strangely after pissing. We want live
words of the hip world live flesh &
coursing blood. Hearts Brains
Souls splintering fire. We want poems
like fists beating niggers out of Jocks
or dagger poems in the slimy bellies
of the owner-jews. Black poems to
smear on girdlemamma mulatto bitches
whose brains are red jelly stuck
between 'lizabeth taylor's toes. Stinking
Whores! we want "poems that kill."
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
with tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland. Knockoff
poems for dope selling wops or slick halfwhite
politicians Airplane poems, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . .tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuh
. . .rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . Setting fire and death to
whities ass. Look at the Liberal
Spokesman for the jews clutch his throat
& puke himself into eternity . . . rrrrrrrr
There's a negroleader pinned to
a bar stool in Sardi's eyeballs melting
in hot flame Another negroleader
on the steps of the white house one
kneeling between the sheriff's thighs
negotiating coolly for his people.
Aggh . . . stumbles across the room . . .
Put it on him, poem. Strip him naked
to the world! Another bad poem cracking
steel knuckles in a jewlady's mouth
Poem scream poison gas on beasts in green berets
Clean out the world for virtue and love,
Let there be no love poems written
until love can exist freely and
cleanly. Let Black people understand
that they are the lovers and the sons
of warriors and sons
of warriors Are poems & poets &
all the loveliness here in the world

We want a black poem. And a
Black World.
let the world be a Black Poem
And Let All Black People Speak This Poem
Silently
or LOUD

18270, RE: amiri baraka/leroi jones
Posted by seraph219, Fri Feb-03-06 01:50 PM
sigh... i remember the first time i read this one...
check this out when you get a chance: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817314962/102-2844663-9318511?v=glance&n=283155
i'm gonna try to find it on alibris for cheap
18271, $60 is serious....
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-03-06 02:27 PM
they have the paperback for $30
i may mention it as a vday present

what other authors/pieces are in there??

sumtimes anthologies can be lackluster

inbox me
18272, RE: $60 is serious....
Posted by seraph219, Fri Feb-03-06 04:22 PM
I ordered the paperback, so I'll find out soon if this anthology lives up to the hype. I can say for sure that Black Chant by Aldon Lynn Nielsen is the truth. Basically I ordered the anthology off the strength of BC.
18273, RE: $60 is serious....
Posted by whothafck80, Mon Feb-13-06 01:50 PM
..
18274, RE: amiri baraka/leroi jones
Posted by truth, Sun Feb-05-06 02:45 PM
this is my favorite baraka piece
happy feb
18275, mari evans
Posted by rgv, Sat Feb-04-06 05:03 PM
"Where Have You Gone"


Where have you gone

with your confident
walk with
your crooked smile

why did you leave
me
when you took your
laughter
and departed
are you aware that
with you
went the sun
all light
and what few stars
there were?

where have you gone
with your confident
walk your
crooked smile the
rent money
in one pocket and
my heart
in another . . .


18276, enjoying your blog too...
Posted by blak_yukon, Sat Feb-04-06 05:14 PM

<--jamaican ipod--


me and the fellas would converge and heat up some Hot Pockets in preparation for Rap City.© Roc

let's talk:
yukonmag.com
18277, thanks
Posted by rgv, Sat Feb-04-06 05:16 PM
i hadta laff at ur avatar...
makin fun of my ppl

itsallgood

atleast w/ the blog, i can post the fotos
it's cuter
18278, carolyn rodgers (an all-time favorite)
Posted by rgv, Sat Feb-04-06 05:14 PM
It Is Deep (don't never forget the bridge that you crossed over on)

Having tried to use the
witch cord
that erases the stretch of
thirty-three blocks
and tuning in the voice which
woodenly stated that the
talk box was "disconnected"

My mother, religiously girdled in
her god, slipped on some love, and
laid on my bell like a truck,
blew through my door warm wind from the south
concern making her gruff and tight-lipped
and scared
that her "baby" was starving.
she, having learned, that disconnection results from
non-payment of bill (s).

She did not
recognize the poster of the
grand le-roi (al) cat on the wall
had never even seen the books of
Black poems that I have written
thinks that I am under the influence of
**communists**
when I talk about Black as anything
other than something ugly to kill it befo it grows
in any impression she would not be
considered "relevant" or "Black"
but
there she was, standing in my room
not loudly condemning that day and
not remembering that I grew hearing her
curse the factory where she "cut uh slave"
and the cheap j-boss wouldn't allow a union,
not remembering that I heard the tears when
they told her a high school diploma was not enough,
and here now, not able to understand, what she had
been forced to deny, still--

she pushed into my kitchen so
she could open my refrigerator to see
what I had to eat, and pressed fifty
bills in my hand saying "pay the talk bill and buy
some food; you got folks who care about you . . ."

My mother, religious-negro, proud of
having waded through a storm, is very obviously,
a sturdy Black bridge that I
crossed over, on.

18279, i love thee to the bone marrow © teena marie...
Posted by morpheme, Mon Feb-06-06 08:53 PM
a friend of mine who wanted to manage *scoff* my {then} career *piff*


one of my favourites is masquerade


i have it printed out along w/my things
i believe i posted it here once before



*we both love carolyn*
18280, don l lee/ haki madhubuti {in love w/ this poem}
Posted by rgv, Sun Feb-05-06 12:40 PM
Rainforest

you are forest rain
dense with life green colors
forever pulling the blue of life into you
see you walk and
i would burst rainwater into you
swim in & out of you
opening you like anxious earthquakes
uncontrollable but beautiful & dangerous.

get with this woman come
fire frozen beauty,
men cannot sleep around you
your presence demands attention
demands notice
demands touch & motion & communication.

you are runner
swift like warm hurricanes
fast like stolen firebirds
& you disrupt the silence in me
make me speak memories forgotten & unshared.
secrets uttered in strange storms,
deep full sounds reserved for magical,
magical lovers.

listen runner
i have shared pain with you,
i have commented on future worlds to you,
i have let you touch the weak & strong of me,
i have tasted the tip of your ripeness &
kissed sweat from your middle.

i have bit into your mouth and
sucked the lifeforces from your insides and
i know you. Understand you.
i have shared books and travel and music and
growth with you.

sweet knows honey & I know you.
under salted water tides
& running against polluted earth
i've tried to be good to you woman
tried to care beyond words
care beyond distant spaces
sensitive phases & quiet lies care
beyond cruel music & false images.
you are original high & dream maker
& true men do not try to limit you.

listen woman black
i do not wish to dominate your dreams
or obstruct your vision.
trust my motion feel
know that I am near & with you
& will cut the cold of winter winds to reach you.
you are delicate bronze
in spring-summers & special autumns
you are forest rain
dark & runner & hurricane-black frequently
i say frequently I bring you midnight rain.
18281, I Wonder ...
Posted by PhotoSynthesis, Mon Feb-06-06 05:29 PM
If it would be possible to get an "anchor" on this thread -- (Would be nice) -- :)


Your contribution to blk history month -- In the way of sharing poets/writers -- is much appreciated -- *Forreal Tho*




18282, audre lorde
Posted by rgv, Mon Feb-06-06 07:27 PM
"Rooming Houses are Old Women"

Rooming houses are old women
rocking dark windows into their whens
waiting incomplete circles
rocking
rent office to stoop to
community bathrooms to gas rings and
under-bed boxes of once useful garbage
city issued with a twice monthly check
and the young men next door
with their loud midnight parties
and fishy rings left in the bathtub
no longer arouse them
from midnight to mealtime no stops inbetween
light breaking to pass through jumbled up windows
and who was it who married the widdow that Buzzie’s son messed with?

To Welfare and insult from the slow shuffel
from dayswork to shopping bags
heavy with leftovers.

Rooming houses
are old women waiting
searching
through darkening windows
the end or beginning of agony
old women seen through half-ajar doors
hoping
they are not waiting
but being
the entrance to somewhere
unknown and desired
but not new.

18283, robert hayden
Posted by rgv, Tue Feb-07-06 03:22 PM
"The Whipping"


The old woman across the way
is whipping the boy again
and shouting to the neighborhood
her goodness and his wrongs.

Wildly he crashes through elephant ears,
pleads in dusty zinnias,
while she in spite of crippling fat
pursues and corners him.

She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
boy till the stick breaks
in her hand. His tears are rainy weather
to woundlike memories:

My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear
worse than blows that hateful

Words could bring, the face that I
no longer knew or loved . . .
Well, it is over now, it is over,
and the boy sobs in his room,

And the woman leans muttering against
a tree, exhausted, purged--
avenged in part for lifelong hidings
she has had to bear.



18284, patricia smith
Posted by rgv, Wed Feb-08-06 11:14 AM
Asking for a Heart Attack

Aretha. Deep buter dipt, burnt pot liquor, twisted sugar cane,
Vaselined knock knees clacking extraordinary gospel.
hustling toward the promised land in 4/4 time, Aretha.
Greased and glowing awash in limelight, satisfied moan
'neath the spotlight, turning ample ass toward midnight,
she the it's-all-good goddess of warm cornbread
and bumped buttermilk, know jesus by his first name.
carried his gospel low and democratic in rollicking brownships,
sang His drooping corpse down from that ragged wooden T,
dressed Him up in something shiny, conked that Holy head of hair,
then Aretha rustled up bus fare and took the deity downtown.
They coaxed the DJ and slid electric untill the lights slammed on,
she taught Him dirty nicknames for His father's handiwork.
She was young then, thin and aching, her heartbox shut tight.
So Jesus blessed her, He opened her throat and taught her
to wail that way she do, she do wail that way don't she
do that wail the way she do wail that way, don't she?
Now every time 'retha unreel that screech, sang Delta
cut through hurting to glimpse been-done-wrong bone,
a born-again brother called the Holy Ghost creeps through that.
and that, for all you still lookin', is religion.

Dare you question her several shoulders, the soft stairsteps
of flesh leading to her shaking chins, the steel bones
of a corseted frock eating into bubbling sides,
zipper track etched into skin,
all those faint scars,
those lovesore battle wounds?
Ain't your mama never told you
how black women collect the world,
build other bodies onto their own?
No earthly man knows the solution to our hips,
asses urgent as sirens,
titties familiar as everybody's mama
crisscrossed with pulled roads of blood.
Ask us why we pray with our dancin' shoes on, why we
grow fat away from everyone and toward each other.

18285, RE: patricia smith
Posted by soulchild, Wed Feb-08-06 05:50 PM
*nods*

soul.
18286, regie gibson
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-09-06 12:12 PM
"the city is..."

the city is the body of a woman where stars and street-lamps war for night.
a cauldron of asphalt glass rubber where money is heart ovary semen vein
the city a host living off her leeches where ghost fumes lay in ambush and anger is
a legacy alive in her skin
the city the body the women pens her poet in the dim lights of projects,
spray-paints her artists on crumbling walls I have seen loneliness languishing in
caverns of neon, where her dreams live, rape, torture die and live again.
the city is the body of a woman a body where transformation forms in the fallow of grease and sweat.
A body tattooed with henna and hell. Where men stumble into bitter memory and beg the comfort of
quarters where kindness is contraband held soft and trembling to the swollen lips of rage.
the city the head-phoned body of a woman bobbing in subways to 4/4 oblivion in whose body heroin
is rider-less horse whinnying beneath the windows of fetuse
s in whose body night is stalk and hyena spit laughing alley and dark corridors of snoring nightmares mumbling dark fugues of ache and awe
whose body is muse and murder the city is refrain of suicide seeking salvation in pulpit
and tambourine while god is scripture moaned in the beds of sinners.
the city is the body of a woman whose water is always breaking
18287, june jordan {i know...ive used this before, but i LOVE it}
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-10-06 09:19 AM
The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones: Poem # one

well I wanted to braid my hair
bathe and bedeck my
self so fine
so fully aforethought for
your pleasure
see:
I wanted to travel and read
and runaround fantastic
into war and peace:
I wanted to
surf
dive
fly
climb
conquer
and be conquered
THEN
I wanted to pickup the phone
and find you asking me
if I might possibly be alone
some night
(so I could answer cool
as the jewels I would wear
on bareskin for you
digmedaddy delectation
"WHEN
you comin ova?"
But I had to remember to write down
margarine on the list
and shoepolish and a can of
sliced pineapple in casea company
and a quarta skim milk cause Teresa's
gaining weight and don' nobody groove on
that much
girl
and next I hadta sort for darks and lights before
the laundry hit the water which I had
to kinda keep an eye on be-
cause if the big hose jumps the sink again that
Mrs. Thompson gointa come upstairs
and brain me with a mop don' smell too
nice even though she hang
it headfirst out the winda
and I had to check
on William like to
burn hisself to death with fever
boy so thin be
callin all day "Momma! Sing to me?"
"Ma! Am I gone die?" and me not
wake enough to sit beside him longer than
to wipeaway the sweat or change the sheets/
his shirt and feed him orange
juice before I fall out of sleep and
Sweet My Jesus ain but one can
left
and we not thru the afternoon
and now
you (temporarily) shownup with a thing
you says' a poem and you
call it
"Will The Real Miss Black America Standup?"

guilty po' mouth
about duty beauties of my
headrag
boozeup doozies about
never mind
cause love is blind


well
I can't use it


and the very next bodacious Blackman
call me queen
because my life ain shit
because (in any case) he ain been here to share it
with me
(dish for dish and do for do and
dream for dream)
I'm gone scream him out my house
be-
cause what I wanted was
to braid my hair/bathe and bedeck my
self so fully be-
cause what I wanted was
your love
not pity
be-
cause what I wanted was
your love
your love
18288, RE: june jordan {i know...ive used this before, but i LOVE it}
Posted by seraph219, Fri Feb-10-06 11:04 AM
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Jordan.html
18289, yusef komunyakaa {per papa & soul's requests}
Posted by rgv, Fri Feb-10-06 09:37 AM
"Believing in Iron"

The hills my brothers & I created
never balanced, & it took years
To discover how the world worked.
We could look at a tree of blackbirds
& tell you how many were there,
But with the scrap dealer
Our math was always off.
Weeks of lifting & grunting
Never added up to much,
But we couldn't stop
Believing in iron.
Abandoned trucks & cars
Were held to the ground
By thick, nostalgic fingers of vines
Strong as a dozen sharecroppers.
We'd return with our wheelbarrow
Groaning under a new load,
Yet tiger lilies lived better
In their languid, August domain.
Among paper & Coke bottles
Foundry smoke erased sunsets,
& we couldn't believe iron
Left men bent so close to the earth
As if the ore under their breath
Weighed down the gray sky.
Sometimes I dreamt how our hills
Washed into a sea of metal,
How it all became an anchor
For a warship or bomber
Out over trees with blooms
Too red to look at.

18290, read like a nice twist to John Henry ;)
Posted by blak_yukon, Fri Feb-10-06 09:45 AM

<--s'right--


me and the fellas would converge and heat up some Hot Pockets in preparation for Rap City.© Roc

let's talk:
yukonmag.com
18291, RE: yusef komunyakaa {per papa & soul's requests}
Posted by soulchild, Fri Feb-10-06 06:21 PM
*sigh*

soul.
18292, thylias moss
Posted by rgv, Mon Feb-13-06 09:33 AM
"TORNADOS"

Truth is, I envy them
not because they dance; I out jitterbug them
as I'm shuttled through and through legs
strong as looms, weaving time. They
do black more justice than I, frenzy
of conductor of philharmonic and electricity, hair
on end, result of the charge when horns and strings release
the pent up Beethoven and Mozart. Ions played

instead of notes. The movement
is not wrath, not hormone swarm because
I saw my first forming above the church a surrogate
steeple. The morning of my first baptism and
salvation already tangible, funnel for the spirit
coming into me without losing a drop, my black
guardian angel come to rescue me before all the words

get out, I looked over Jordan and what did I see coming for
to carry me home. Regardez, it all comes back, even the first
grade French, when the tornado stirs up the past, bewitched spoon
lost in its own spin, like a roulette wheel that won't
be steered like the world. They drove me underground,
tornado watches and warnings, atomic bomb drills. Adult
storms so I had to leave the room. Truth is

the tornado is a perfect nappy curl, tightly wound,
spinning wildly when I try to tamper with its nature, shunning
the hot comb and pressing oil even though if absolutely straight
I'd have the longest hair in the world. Bouffant tornadic
crown taking the royal path on a trip to town, stroll down
Tornado Alley where it intersects Memory Lane. Smoky spirit-
clouds, shadows searching for what cast them.
18293, jean toomer
Posted by rgv, Mon Feb-13-06 09:40 AM
a portrait in georgia

Hair-braided chestnut,
coiled like a lyncher's rope,
Eyes-fagots,
Lips-old scars, or the first red blisters,
Breath-the last sweet scent of cane,
And her slim body, white as the ash
of black flesh after flame.




*****
&...if uve never read his collection, cane, pls do.
18294, sapphire {it's kinda long, but is's fkn worth it}
Posted by rgv, Mon Feb-13-06 09:42 AM
"Wild Thing"

And I´m running,
running wild,
running free,
like soldiers down
the beach,
like someone
just threw me
the ball.
My thighs pump
thru the air
like tires
rolling down
the highway
big & round
eating up the ground
of America
but I never been any
further than 42nd Street.
Below that is as
unfamiliar as my
father´s face,
foreign as the smell of
white girls´pussy,
white girls on the bus,
white girls on TV
My whole world is
black & brown & closed,
till I open it
with a rock,
christen it with
blood.
BOP BOP
the music
pops thru me
like electric shocks,
my sweat is a
river running
thru my liver
green with hate,
my veins bulge out
like tomorrow,
my dick is
the Empire State Building,
I eat your fear
like a chimpanzee
ow ow
ow whee
ow!
My sneakers glide off
the cement like
white dreams
looking out at the world
thru a cage of cabbage
& my mother´s fat,
hollering don´t do this
& don´t do that.
I scream against the restraint
of her big ass sitting on my face
drowning my dreams in sameness.
I´m scared to go
it hurts me to stay.
She sits cross-legged
in front the TV
telling me no
feeding me
clothing me
bathing me in her ugliness
high high in the sky
18th floor of the projects.
Her welfare check buys me $85 sneakers
but can´t buy me a father.
She makes cornbread from Jiffy box mix
buys me a coat
$400, leather like everybody else´s.
I wear the best, man!
14 karat gold chain
I take off before I go wildin´.
Fuck you nigger!
Nobody touches my gold!
My name is Leroy
L-E-R-O-Y
bold gold
I got the goods
that make the ladies
young & old
sign your name across my heart
I want you to be my baby
Rapper D
Rapper G
Rapper I
my name is lightning
across the sky
So what I can´t read
you spozed to teach me
you the teacher
I´m the ape
black ape
in white sneakers
hah hah
I rape
rape
rape
I do the wild thing
I do the wild thing
My teacher asks me
what would I do
if I had 6 month
to live.
I tell her I´d fuck her,
sell dope & do the wild thing.
My thighs are locomotives
hurling me thru the
underbrush of Central Park,
the jungle.
I either wanna be a cop
or the biggest dope dealer in Harlem
when I grow up.
I feel good!
It´s a man´s world,
my sound is king
I am the black man´s sound.
Get off my face whining bitch!
No, I didn´t go to school today
& I ain´t going tomorrow!
I like how the sky looks
when I´m running,
my clothes are new & shiny,
my tooth gleams gold.
I´m fast as a wolf
I need a rabbit,
the sky is falling
calling my name
Leroy Leroy.
I look up
blood bust
in my throat
it´s my homeboys
L.D., C.K. & Beanbutt!
Hey man what´s up!
I got the moon
in my throat,
I remember when
Christ sucked my dick
behind the pulpit,
I was 6 years old
he made me promise
not to tell no one.
I eat cornbread &
collard greens.
I only wear Adidas
I´m my own man,
they can wear New Balance or Nike
if they want,
I wear Adidas.
I´m L.D.
lover
mover
man with the money
all the girls know me.
I´m classified as mildly retarded
but I´m not
least I don´t think
I am.
Special Education classes
eat up my brain
like last week´s greens
rotting in plastic containers.
My mother never
throws away anything.
I could kill her
I could kill her
all those years
all those years
I sat
I sat in classes
for the mentally retarded
so she could get
the extra money welfare gives
for retarded kids.
So she could get
some money,
some motherfuckin´ money.
That bitch
that bitch
I could kill her
all the years
I sat next to kids
who shitted on themselves,
dreaming amid
rooms of dull eyes
that one day
my rhymes
would break open
the sky
& my name would
be written
across the marquee
at the Apollo
in bold gold
me bigger
than Run DMC
Rapper G
Rapper O
Rapper Me
„Let´s go!“ I scream.
My dick is a locomotive
my sister eats like a 50 ˘ hot dog.
I scream, „I said let´s go!“
„It´s 40 of us
a black wall of sin.
The god of our fathers
descends down & blesses us,
I say thank you Jesus.
Now let´s do the
wild thing.
I pop off the cement
like toast outta toaster
hot hard crumbling
running
running
the park is green
combat operation
lost soul
looking for Lt. Calley
Jim Jones
anybody who could direct
this spurt of semen
rising to the sky.
soldiers
flying thru
the rhythm
„Aw man!
nigger please
nigger
nigger
nigger.
I know
who I am.“
My soul sinks
to its knees &
howls under the
moon rising full,
„Let´s get a female jogger!“
I shout into the twilight
looking at the
middle-class thighs
pumping past me,
cadres of bitches
who deserve to die
for thinking they´re better
than me
You ain´t better than
nobody bitch.
The rock begs my hand
to hold it.
It says, „Come on man.“
T.W., Pit Bull, J.D. & me
grab the bitch
ugly big nose white bitch
but she´s beautiful cause she´s white
she´s beautiful cause she´s skinny
she´s beautiful couse she´s gonna die
cause her daddy´s gonna cry
Bitch!
I bring the rock down
on her head
sounds dull & flat
like the time I busted
the kitten´s head.
The blood is real & red
my dick rises.
I tear off her bra
feel her perfect pink breasts
like Brooke Shields
like bitches in Playboy
Shit! I come all over myself!
I bring the rock down
the sound has rhythm
hip hop ain´t gonna stop
till your face sees
what I see every day
walls of blood
walls of blood
she´s wriggeling like
a pig in the mud.
I never seen a pig
or a cow
´cept on TV.
Her nipples are like
hard strawberries
my mouth tastes
like pesticide.
I fart.
Yosef slams her
across the face with a pipe.
My dick won´t get
hard no more.
I bring the rock down
removing what she
looks like forever
ugly bitch
ugly bitch
I get up
blood on my hands
semen in my jeans
the sky is black
the trees are green
I feel good baby
I just did
the wild thing!

18295, Gayle Jones
Posted by invisible ink, Tue Feb-14-06 10:39 AM
...if you haven't heard of her get your read on ...miss k
18296, ive read all of her novels
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 12:22 AM
i support blue streak to the fullest

havent read any poetry

thank you for this addition...

she makes me proud to be a jones
{&morehouse too}
18297, RE: ive read all of her novels
Posted by invisible ink, Fri Feb-24-06 05:47 PM
she's definitely bad ass...you're welcome...k boogie
18298, langston hughes
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 11:36 AM
Juke Box Love Song



I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.


18299, more langston
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 11:39 AM
Theme for English B


The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you--
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white--
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me--
although you're older--and white--
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.


18300, more langston again
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 11:40 AM
To Artina


I will take you heart.
I will take your soul out of your body
As though I were God.
I will not be satisfied
With the touch of your hand
Nor the sweet of your lips alone.
I will take your heart for mine.
I will take your soul.
I will be God when it comes to you.


18301, my absolute favorite langston piece {if u were a harlemite, ud understand}
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 11:45 AM
Puzzled

Here on the edge of hell
Stands Harlem –
Remembering the old lies,
The old kicks in the back,
The old, Be patient,
They told us before.

Sure, we remember.
Now, when the man at the corner store
Says sugar’s gone up another two cents,
And bread one,
And there’s a new tax on cigarettes –
We remember the job we never had,
Never could get,
And can’t have now
Because we’re colored.

So we stand here
On the edge of hell
In Harlem
And look out on the world
And wonder
What we’re gonna do
In the face of
What we remember.

18302, RE: my absolute favorite langston piece {if u were a harlemite, ud understand}
Posted by jjune, Tue Mar-14-06 10:22 AM
i'm from harlem and i definitely understand
18303, RE: more langston again
Posted by Naanaa, Thu Feb-16-06 02:02 PM
thanks for posting this. gave me an idea for this week's story :)
18304, ntozake shange {for noni, & shida, & me}
Posted by rgv, Thu Feb-16-06 11:47 AM
you are sucha fool

you are sucha fool/ i haveta love you
you decide to give me a poem/ intent on it/ actually
you pull/ kiss me from 125th to 72nd street/ on
the east side/ no less
you are sucha fool/ you gonna give me/ the poet/
the poem
insistin on proletarian images/ we buy okra/
3 lbs for $1/ & a pair of 98 cent shoes
we kiss
we wrestle
you make sure at east 110 street/ we have cognac
no beer all day
you are sucha fool/ you fall over my day like
a wash of azure

you take my tongue outta my mouth/
make me say foolish things
you take my tongue outta my mouth/ lay it on yr skin
like the dew between my legs
on this the first day of silver balloons
& lil girl's braids undone
friendly savage skulls on bikes/ wish me good-day
you speak spanish like a german & ask puerto rican
market men on lexington if they are foreigners

oh you are sucha fool/ i cant help but love you
maybe it was something in the air
our memories
our first walk
our first...
yes/ alla that

where you poured wine down my throat in rooms
poets i dreamed abt seduced sound & made history/
you make me feel like a cheetah
a gazelle/ something fast & beautiful
you make me remember my animal sounds/
so while i am an antelope
ocelot & serpent speaking in tongues
my body loosens for/ you

you decide to give me the poem
you wet yr fingers/ lay it to my lips
that i might write some more abt you/
how you come into me
the way the blues jumps outta b.b.king/ how
david murray assaults a moon & takes her home/
like dyanne harvey invades the wind

oh you/ you are sucha fool/
you want me to write some more abt you
how you come into me like a rollercoaster in a
dip that swings
leaving me shattered/ glistening/ rich/ screeching
& fully clothed

you set me up to fall into yr dreams
like the sub-saharan animal i am/ in all this heat
wanting to be still
to be still with you
in the shadows
all those buildings
all those people/ celebrating/ sunlight & love/ you

you are sucha fool/ you spend all day piling up images
locations/ morsels of daydreams/ to give me a poem

just smile/ i'll get it

18305, just a fact.
Posted by robynwildchild, Fri Feb-17-06 02:35 AM
darkness
in the mouth of a crime
justified in time
with all of the dimes well earned an spent

smoke another get pushed up against your car
and vent

just another day
getting torn
just another way
through the
door

everybody knows who you are
and you just keep playing
no hate or delaying
just one of them everyday thangs.
18306, RE: blk history month writers {06}
Posted by Krakkedout, Mon Feb-27-06 01:29 AM
Half black half white still deciding what side I want to bite. Living in hate and love at the same time never knowing who too be in each rhyme. Never had a good role modle on either side when I look left or right I have no pride. People say that im white some say black but it’s just me being me so every one else is wack. How can you live when you’re not accepted on either side? Makes me want to be Mexican and just ride. I know it’s the month of all who have died the people that worked and slaved just to stay alive. But in my own case a really feel deprived because I get no respect on either side.
18307, not a poet, but... octavia butler
Posted by mindful, Mon Feb-27-06 11:59 AM
R.I.P. June 22, 1947-February 24, 2006

fave books by her: Kindred and The Fledgling.

------------------------
Pinwheels and Hula Hoops: my book
http://www.lulu.com/content/132318

http://msmind.blogspot.com

why is it then
do we leave the details to the devil
but get angry at God? ©kimabe

no shit in 06.
18308, ohmyfknGod
Posted by rgv, Sat Mar-04-06 11:31 PM
i didnt know she died
she was just in essence...she just finished a new book

{if i remember right}

a few months back

absolutely

peace to octavia
18309, yeah, The Fledgling...
Posted by mindful, Sun Mar-05-06 11:50 AM
died from a fall and hitting her head outside her home... a fuckin' fall????

*sighs*

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701585.html

for reading. she was only 58.



------------------------
Pinwheels and Hula Hoops: my book
http://www.lulu.com/content/132318

http://msmind.blogspot.com

why is it then
do we leave the details to the devil
but get angry at God? ©kimabe

no shit in 06.
18310, RE: blk history month writers {06}
Posted by delrica, Tue Mar-14-06 02:55 PM
RGV, you're a pioneer in your own right girlfriend.

I'm going to go ahead and archive this later this week.