Xhosa English Nkosi, sikelel’ iAfrikaMalupakam’ upondo lwayo;Yiva imitandazo yetu Chorus Yihla Moya, yihla MoyaYihla Moya Oyingcwele Sikelela iNkosi zetu;Zimkumbule umDali wazo;Zimoyike zezimhlouele,Azisikelele. Sikelel’ amadol’ esizwe,Sikelela kwa nomliselaUlitwal’ ilizwe ngomonde,Uwusikilele. Sikelel’ amakosikazi;Nawo onk’amanenekazi;Pakamisa wonk’umtinjanaUwusikilele. Sikelela abafundisiBemvaba zonke zelilizwe;Ubatwese ngoMoya WakoUbasikelele. Sikelel’ ulimo nemfuyo;Gzota zonk’indlala nezifo;Zalisa ilizwe nempiloUlisikelele. Sikelel’ amalinga etuAwomanyana nokuzaka,Awemfundo nemvisiswanoUwasikele Nkosi Sikelel, Afrika;Cima bonk’ […]
learn moreWhen some people talk about money They speak as if it were a mysterious lover Who went out to buy milk and never Came back, and it makes me nostalgic For the years I lived on coffee and bread, Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday Like a woman journeying for water From […]
learn moreGotta love
us brown girls, munching on fat, swinging blue hips,
decked out
in shells and splashes, Lawdie, bringing them woo hips.
As the
jukebox teases, watch my sistas throat the heartbreak,
inhaling
bassline, cracking backbone and singing thru hips.
Like
something boneless, we glide silent, seeping ‘tween floorboards,
wrapping
around the hims, and ooh wee, clinging like glue hips.
Engines
grinding, rotating, smokin’, gotta pull back some.
Natural
minds are lost at the mere sight of ringing true hips.
Gotta love
learn moreOur dead forefathers, mighty though they be,
For all their power still leave our spirits free;
Though on our paths their shadows far are thrown,
The life that each man liveth is his own.
Time stands like some schoolmaster old and stern,
And calls each human being in his turn
To write his task upon life’s blackboard space;
Death’s fingers then the finished work erase,
And the next pupil’s letters take its place.
That he who wrote before thee labored well
Concerns thee not: thy work for thee must tell;
‘Tis naught to thee if others’ tasks were ill:
“Come, all you rounders, if you want to hear
The story told of a brave engineer;
Casey Jones was the rounder’s name,
A high right-wheeler of mighty fame.”
Of mighty fame, of mighty fame,
A high right-wheeler of mighty fame.
Casey pulled into the Memphis yard
Fed up, beat down and dog tired,
Another driver had called in sick,
Asking Casey to do a double trick.
Casey smiled, said, “I’m feelin’ fine,
Gonna ride that train to the end of the line.
There’s ridges and bridges, and hills to climb,
Got a head of steam and ahead of time.”
Ahead of time, ahead of time.
Early one morning when the sun was down
Flatbush part of New York town
Hey ho there ain’t no foe
All one body got to heal and grow.
Abner Louima his name
This is how he came to fame
When a club closed for the night
People broke into a fight
Justin Volpe policeman
Brought to the ground by an unknown man
Hey ho there ain’t no foe
All one body got to heal and grow.
Volpe grabbed Louima why
Said he was just standing by
Beat him in the car to the seven-o
Put him in a cell for an hour or so
Then grab him from his holding cell
And do to him what no tongue can tell
Hey ho ain’t
My questions concern the subject poetry is whatever runs out/ whatever digs my guts til there’s is no space in myself
Cryin wont help/ callin mama wont help lover are detour/ no way to assuage this poem/ but in the words & they are deceitful/ all of you to share me/ & I hide under my bed/
Poetry is unavoidable connection/ some people get married/ others join the Church I carry notebooks/ so I can tell us what happened/ midnight snacks in bed with whoever/ are no compensation/ when I’m listening to multitudes of voices / I consume yr every word & move/
During the day you are initiated i
learn moreKilling us one by one, in one way or another America will find a way to eliminate the problem
One by one, the problem is the troubles in the black youth of the ghettos
And one by one we are being wiped off the face of this earth
At an extremly alarming rate, and even more alarming is the fact that we are not fighting back
Brothers, sistas, niggas, when I say niggas it is not the nigga we are grown to fear, it is not the nigga we say as if it has no meaning
But to me
It means Never Ignorant Getting Goals Acomplishes, nigga
Niggas what are we going to do walk blind into a line or fight
I see’d her in de Springtime,
I see’d her in de Fall,
I see’d her in de Cotton patch
A cameing from de Ball.
She hug me, an’ she kiss me,
She Wrung my han’ an’ cried.
She said I wus de sweetes’ thing
Dat ever lived or died.
She hug me an’ she kiss me.
Oh Heaben! De touch o’ her han’!
She said I wus de puttiest thing
In de shape o’ martal man.
I told her dat I love her,
Dat my love wus bed-cord strong;
Den I axed her w’en she’d have me,
An’ she jes say “Go long!”…………………
When I look down, I see the season’s blinding flowers,
the usual mesmerizing and repellent artifacts:
a frat boy who turns too sharply from my stare,
a cardinal capturing vision in a lilac bush
on my walk home. I’m left to long
even for simple dangers. From the waist up
it’s still winter, i left world behind
a long time ago; waist down it’s catching
up, a woodpecker out my window is mining grubs
from some nameless tree squirrels scramble over.
When I turn back it’s gone, I hadn’t realized
this had gone so far. (Everywhere I look
it’s suddenly spring.
learn more
