SECTION
TWELVE
POETRY PAGE ONE
sm
COLUMN
NINETY-FOUR,
JULY 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
RUN UP THE MOUNTAIN (SISYPHUS BOP)
Don't
be 'fraid
The Beast is never strong
As he said
Charge
into your future
Of
destiny to come
Don't hesitate
Submit
or succumb
We
are the world of what's
Coming
into being
It is a
new life
You
feel and be
Seeing
Don't
doubt your strength
Or
the wisdom of yr heart
Resist
Triple Six & his
Multiple
faces, Don't Believe
Or be
tricked by the
Slickest of Racists
We are
the people who
Created
civilization
Now
our highest art
Is to make the world
One
Nation!
Go
On, fly if you need, Climb, walk
Run,
Fight, rush
To
the height, stalk, talk, do what
Is
Just, Swing, Sing, do what we must
There
is nothing more noble than humanity's
Being,
re-being, go higher, on fire, the
Sky
past desire, move fast, sail wail
Stay
up, out last, educate, mobilize
Don't
let ourselves be trivialized
Get
in, Get out, make a fist, just insist
Look
out, See in, speak to all, never fall
The
road is long the path zigs and zags
Some
who are friends might become drags
Be
clear on what you hear, be certain
What
you see, always know yr enemies
As
well as you know your friends.
Don't
be slow, but don't be too fast, it's
A
protracted struggle, we got to last
But
learn the world, and all its looks
Be
able to distinguish the wise from the crooks
Learn
from everything, the sky, the earth,
The
people, animals, and the church
Listen
to people who work every day.
Listen
to what every body tell you
For
free, they not getting paid. Learn
From
every, watch the moon
&
read books, look at flicks, watch
the
dancers, check the Singers, dig
the
music, be full of poetry, understand old
people,
learn from the young, babies got
something
to say, even if they cant say it
old
folks' way. The sun is a teacher
clouds
are question marks the stars
their
periods. Ask the question nobody
understands.
Think up answers they
will.
Be for life. Against Killers,
&
People Sellers, and the fake good willers.
Be
Christ one day, Buddha the next, Krishna
When
you Blue, Du Bois when you true
Be
Marley when you Sing Langston when
You
rap, Douglass when you speak
Ho
Chih Minh when they try to sneak.
Be
Fidel & Kick They Booty, Roumaine when
You
need Beauty, You can act like Zora
Running
the aesthetic of anthropological
Colored
Hip. You change to Margaret Walker
Tao
Valorize the people, Jimmy Baldwin
To
hyke the simply evil. You can be
Cesaire
& talk about the entire island
Of
the soul. You can speak immediate
Wonder
Spanish, & then you'll be
Nicolas
Guillen
You is all the Africans you
wanna
Be
You was Diop yesterday, Sembene
This
morning. I heard you in the bathroom
You was Marvin Gaye!
Any one you love you can become
Instantly,
you was Malcolm in the evening
Dr.
King afternoon, just a little bit later
You
was talking like Robert Williams
&
your mouth became a gun.
Was you Robeson on the
weekend
I
heard that Thunderous voice, I knew
You
was Nat Turner when I saw a serpent
Burning.
Somebody sd you was Lorraine cause
they
saw a rasin risin' & wondered was that
You
who brought them slaves up north on
A
greyhound, they saw yall getting off.
You was talking like Miles a minute ago,
Layin
Bird's crumpled vine across a chair, sd to a square,
"So
What?" Waitin for Trane to come..
I
know you been Monk from day number one.
You
was Billie & Sassy & Ella & Johnny Hartman
I
heard you being Louis & Buhainia
Lames
paid talking about Art,
But
it ain't Blakey nor Farmer and it sure aint
Tatum.
You is them all them time.
You the real President even with that counterfeit
In
your residence. No Splivs in The
Caucasian Crib.
But you is the only Rabbit, the only Ben Webster, and I aint saying
You
a predictable spook, but I knew all the time
You'd
show up as Duke.
I
ain't crazy, I even expected Basie
Anybody
with the facts wd know
You'd
come as Max
&
no matter the lies
the media got you thinking
I knew
you would also
Be Abbey Lincoln.
Come on, you was Nina Simone
Hanging out with my wife
When I
got home.
I was in the Third Ward, believe it or not,
You was sliding up Waverly Ave
As Little Jimmy Scott
Like it was the same street, You was Archie Shepp,
With that tender step, on them same kind of foots
Was Pharoah delivered, I remembered you was also
Horace Silver.
All who are diggers
Know who we are
We was last seen
Being Sun Ra
Back
in the Day, and The Day before
&
THE Day before Day
you was
acting like
Lester Young
After being
Jelly Roll
Even
when you cryin
You
cd be Willie The Lion
&
if stuff get messy
you
cd weep like the Empress
Bessie
So deep the world
Start to weep
Wakin
everybody up
Who was sleep
Ma
Rainey hollerin
About
the flood
Ethel
the rising Waters
Bumpy
was you that time up town
You
made the Dutchman back down
(Jesse
Jackson heard him as he fell
But
didn't quote him well, Dutch screamed
This
is Arthur Fliegenheimer's Town.)
Beat
his behind like a common crook
Was
you and Harlem wheel build the numbers
He
tried to steal,
But
the rulers of the land
(Bush
the president of
The
klan, he his own hood!)
Who
hate us worse than Jazz
Put
bumpy in Alcatraz
And
in a few ticks, ambushed us
With
dirty tricks, Legalized the numbers
To
Pick Six, to help education and such
If
that is so why the budget cuts
I
knew that even
when I was Fat's
When
me and James P used to
Make
George Gershwin Rich
Aint
that a bitch, just like Jackie Wilson
Worked his pelvis to turn doo doo into
Elvis.
If
you steal don't make you smarter
I
is still Benny Carter, I don't need Colon
I
got Bud, and Speak the truth even when Dizzy
With
my Latin ego The Tito, or Machito or this is scary, I can be
Palmeri,
supossin I appeared as Mongo or Bauzo or confessed
That
I also Denzil Best, that I was Sonny Til AND The Orioles,
That
I was Stevie Wonder every time he opened his mouth
To
see. I wasn't Papa Doc but I was
Papa Jo, though
There's
Negroes cheap as clams, bloodless
blueless white stars they knighted snakes. Who answer to the name of
Assissant oppressor, happy to say Me Am, they own
Oppressor too, heels of the big dogs shoes.
And
we scream and holler
We
aint really mad nor crazy
We
be dead if we was lazy
We
is sweet if we need to be
Hot
when we wanna be
And
when we scream and holler
It
makes maniac poison less deadly
To
swalla, as nobly as Hank Mobley
To
get down like Clifford,
Or
wild as James, still me by
Any
of them names, still you
Smokey
Armstrong Aretha Ellington Lawrence
The
Trillionth. It's still me
With
my bad blue black out side inner on under soul be bop funky rasta
Vonz
dread irae uhuru amandla ujamaa digging serious deep heavy hip
Invisible
red suit conk head decorated religious singing dancing playing running
Shit
talking, praying, staying, paying, smart ass, slick ass, strong ass, big ass,
Colored,
Club Member, woogie, nemderoloc, apex, kujichagulia, black panther,
Dr
King, Stokely, Lumumba, Rap, Huey, Malik, Tupac, Mau Mau, dangerous, Ray
Robinson,
Muhammad Ali (or Cassius Clay, they both kick ass), Jack Johnson,
Supremes,
Miracles, Temptations, Orioles, Son House, Little Richard, Tiger,
Williams
Sisters, Willie Mays, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Henry Dumas, Larry
Neal,
Sekou Toure, Black Arts, oldest communists, 1st upright walking, language
talking,
1st singing, 1st poet, , 1st dramatist, 1st city building, 1st human, 1st
scientist,
1st
doctor, 1st artist, 1st preacher, 1st teacher, 1st thief , lst liar, 1st killer,
1st astronomer,
1st
map maker, 1st soldier, 1st sailor, 1st flyers, 1st most beautiful, I1st most
brilliant,
1st
everything but the shit we shouldna been 1st in but still was, 1st creators of
religion,
houses, boats, fire, tombs, plates, clothes, revolutions, is the you the me the
we
us is speaking of, (we us I mean black) like we grandmamma, me nana say,
we
movin on to higher ground.
Oh
oldest talking, singing, dancing, tool making, furniture making,
government
making, actor, comedian, tail shedding tale telling family, I seen you in
Acapulco
(yo Mix Co), seen yr pointy buildings in Yucatan, Checked you out in
Colombia,
Nica(yeh?) ragua, the living black mountain Indians of Haiti, Easter was
where
you rose, You always was Solar, Soul is your sunshine, Over head you
understand,
to look up is to turn On, to Nut, to go out, Seen you in India black as
Ptah,
Christmas is when you show, Jesus is your Jam, I Am, Ham, Sam, Kam, yeh
dug you in Cambodia, you left your face all over the place,
went up side the
mountains head, Got to China you still had your locks, Buddy in the South, Buddha
In the East, Allah is Everything, Albert sd that, is Everything, Blues is your arrival
and you survival, pentatonic is the 1st liquor, the scale is
the justice of sound, Monk
taught martial arts on the piano the religion of Humph!
It is never cold, Away is the
never got hot. So we call it Zen.
Oh speaker of all languages, measure the meaning of remaining being the sea of
seeing, the Wholly C, measure what is left if what is gone is what is right, you the
child of night, the invisible wonderful 1st seer of the
stars, what you looking at
High in that tree, but what is wonderful.
About to rise again, to get up off the
ground
Oh
1st thing with hands
Oh
1st digger of flats and sharps
Oh
first drummer, foot patter,
Oh
first with amazing brain
Oh
great Artist and lover of good food
Oh
admirer of the sharp the flashy the cool the slick
Oh
farmer 1, worker 1, Oh explorer of everything
Oh
1st knower oh 1st card player oh creator of dominoes and dice
Oh
creator of robes, trousers, dresses, underwear and the zoot suit
Oh
ex monkey and 1st signifier
Oh
first to play the dozens and get cut
Oh
first to doo doo on an elephants head
Let us, is it time, don't be late, you always, was, where, time to climb the
star, don't
stare, up the stair of yrself again, going to greet we self
again, up that goddamn
mountain
again, don't worry again is always again
Time
to rise to higher ground
Go head sing, make that wholly sound! ##
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