Soul Ramblings
A Fish Market Easter Revelation Normally the 71st street Fish Market runs with astonishing efficiency, which has been the case in all the years I’ve come here. My dad would bring me here on Saturday mornings as a child. They’ve been here a long time. Not too many community gathering spots like this still exist. I still make the trek […]
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There is no condemnation. Only new creation Celebration of the unchained generation Word of God incantations Freedom fighter protestations Sword of truth to wicked administrations Natural hair domes like flaming crowns Mind power stomp the devil down Pursue your purpose like the Caleb hound You can be the greatest pound for pound Jesus freed you so you freed indeed To […]
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Proclamation Emancipation Jah people gold people bold rebels of gold soulFreedom fighters, enterprisers, world civilizers,Healers, burning spear welders, pyramid builders,Love preachers, Spirit beseechers, world teachers,Birthing high culture in systems of mystery,Heartbeat of 10000 years history,My people bold people gold rebels of old soul,Arise I arrive bearing notions to make you whole,Wreak chains free brains/ behinds will follow,Heap of beats seep […]
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Dear Old Dunbar Dad’s High School Song Both my parents, Clarence and Joetta Powell (Oglesby) were born and raised in Earle, Arkansas (although they didn’t come to know each other and marry until many years later after Dad finished his military duty and Mom migrated north to Chicago, where they met one morning on the El train). They grew up […]
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Broken Legacy Dedicated to John Coltrane Do the bruised brass wailing exclamation scar of history/ suffocating in shadows of projects spread like southern crosses burning/ fall futilely on depressed ears of spiritually deaf/ Do harsh sharp horn shouting preachments sustain chanted sermons to empty pews/Do anyone still listen to John Coltrane laying dead buried in our Black blue souls/sax projected […]
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Give Love to Life Give love to life. Let it linger In laughter and tears. Let our hands Labor to build joy outward From our bones. We’ll raise nations Of chosen people from peaceful womb. Sow seeds/ exhilarated sprouts of hope Swaying in every breath of God. Let love Compose our hearts song. Love is God’s breath Stretching our chests […]
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Lyric for My Sons (I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:14) The poetry of your birth cries Revelatory connect of our eyes Caused Grandma Joetta to sigh From Blood River you rise Move my emotions to devotion Birth inspires […]
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Twenty One Years (In celebration of the 21st Anniversary of our union) You are rhythm to my days, music read and memorized, notes improvised on breaths of our love, tempo that moves me higher and higher. Heartbeat that compels me to give thanks for the gift. You, exhaling life and love gifts In every breath. in every morning glory, no […]
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Reunion Welcome (To my family, with love, reflecting on our 2018 Reunion) Blues guitar whining Voices intertwining Roots kin binding Time stream unwinding Memories in the making Together undertaking Soul ties demonstrating Love orchestrating Celebrating graces Of new little faces And those long in the race The weight bends time and space We stay in far places But the distance […]
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Tall as Trees (against state sponsored abuse of any Hueman’s child) Under soft yellow lights Clothes racks, tags hanging Like strange fruit, towered over Little me. I couldn’t see Over them to find daddy Who was taller than trees. Stay right there he told me But, I wandered, into a strange land A hostile place, clothes rack Monsters Closing in […]
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