|
OK
Shoot!
Too bad love
is encumbered like all spirit
in flesh or
stone
and
cardboard
lovers
in steel men, counters, bricks named after
dudes
grinning crowds of animaleaters, eating
pieces of animals
and frightened of the sun
Too bad we are here in the slave world
we wanted to be elsewhere, thought for too
many years
that this was
else where and we were
somebody else.
All you can see is fools gold
but all our pockets are full
we bent from picking and pilling
we varicose veins nerve forest slobbering
over meat or paper or smoke or noxious
liquids
But name something needs
to be built and that is yrself in another
world. Yrself in the building world. Are you
a poem that little dudes tell time and their
fortune by. Yrself in the sound world,
screams and moans some sister hums you,
connecting that with a way out a way in a
path to herself. Yrself in all worlds, is
yrself in this one. It’s the same and real
nigger real. Weself in the theyself world.
He, She, It, in the I World. All all those
worlds impinge. All watched under the
motormurderer spirit time. Ourself in the
our world. Wish need desire. Run time and
smoke disappear like a dwarf of kiss. We sit
and watch the air reproduce. And touched
things sing and zig zag forever.
In our endless trip to be
God. We must experience all there is. We are
you in love with us. We sing our own songs
remembering All beginnings and the open door
of sun to Jesus.
What is encumbered sings
to change its meaty box. The dirt is full of
music. I see you have some questions.
* *
* * *
US
Pressure,
sap
rising up a
stalk
eyes collect
am, night too
banjo banjo
moon moon
all the
cryin’s gone
get down,
don’t square
up on us
ready get
ready
the devil’s
comin
back
Yr 40 acres
has barbed wire around it
yr picnic
grounds is covered with crosses
in the
newspaper a pile of enemies; a bigger pile
of
friends.
saxophone
sunshine. some crazy nigger with his arm
full.
he trying to
beat up everything.
i went
you went
we all saw
america together
we were a
family digging it go down
not abstract
mischief poets and knowits,
create a
flying squadron of Afrikan institutions
yr son is
waitin
yr old man’s
waitin
yr mama’s
waitin
the world,
is
waitin
even you
waitin
some niggers
debatin
as to
whether its right
for us to
survive
But we done
survived
got passt
the rip off
move on
time, consolidate, get efficient
get
technical on the chump, learn how to do it
for the life
of the nation
for the
beauty of the world
Afrika’s
bringing science
Afrika’s
bringing life
Afrika’s bringing ujamaa
cooperative
economics
Afrika’s
nationalism, is the finding of the Afrikans
And they hook up the Black nations
Afrika’s
bringin renewal
bust the limits on the old
reach, reach, reach, liberate yr mind
* * * *
*
In The Midst of Chaos
In the midst
of chaos, and near injury
we survive,
because we are still young and correct
and black
enough to be tough
to kill, and
even harder
to keep
still.
We have
survived, long past, and are now
putting out
deeper roots and broader brighter blossoms
The
development, of food and cities and the
weather
of a good
place. Trying to be ourselves healthy.
Trying
to be
ourselves, unlimited by cold storekeeper
dudes
ghostlovers.
Trying to be ourselves, intouch with
every good
part of us. Trying like we say to be black
and all that
means, unified, self determining, working
collectively
distributing
our wealth of energy and love cooperatively,
struggling
life anew,
and the new philosophies of vibrant black
life, and finally
to have deep
faith that we are beautiful enough and bad
enough and
conscious
enough, to do it. Yes, in the midst of
chaos, crazy slaves
babbling,
white folks plotting our character, and
mental, and political
and legal
and economic, and physical assassination, in
the middle of all
this way out
wildness, we still come on like lovers and
brothers, a new
generation
of black fathers and mothers. We say Pamoja
Tutashinda,
jive elements of the universe, Pamoja
Tutashinda. Together we will win.
* *
* * *
Look Inside
Son, Sun, no
pockets of sorrow, except beat through beast
made
and day by
dat-flat day, we find out, sun son, we find
out
study and
work, and get better close to knowin how
we find out,
study and work work
out,
we are
finding out what we are when we rule
ourselves
how we sound
when we teach our selves
how we look
when we judge our selves
we are
finding out, need to
need to
Look Inside,
Somebody’s There
the deep picture fronts a sun, rising,
new day
to day
find out how we need to do
to do
The Afrikan
powerless Afrikan
The Black
World powerless Black World
LOOK INSIDE!
to find in there, what words we need
objectively consider what skills we lack
objectively consider what must be
accomplished
calmly check out the distances, the terrain,
our own
dispositions. Look plainly at our strengths
our weaknesses
the needed acquisitions. LOOK INSIDE, And
outside too
Where Change, and Transformation, Progress
and Movement,
Where all
these suns come from. From out of the
darkness of our own
thrilling
consciousness. From out of the black
fertility of mind. Weight
all things Afrikans. Weigh All Things.
* *
* * *
Habari Gani
|
the wake-ing
colony yawns world wide
Yawning dance
and yawning singers pimps
yawn turning the corner
in a grey
world—scattered cement,
scattered lots, vacant gaps of
ugly
colony a
yawning void threatening black
sanity with its constant nega-
tive criticism
niggers sharper than doo doo
doing the doo doo which is
not about
doing any thing real, they yawn,
it’s early morning in their
head, or maybe early evening
pre-war sluggishness a permanent
blown mind a snaggle brained
dope dipper whining in tune with
Nixon’s wooden constipation. Pat
sprays Roy says something about
one flag for all americans,
Essex slays a half a dozen raw
funky hunkies, braises them for
history to eat up, history of a
race waking up. Yawns, right
now, is our real national
anthem, race waking up. Brothers
stretching they arms stiff,
sisters raring back stretching
their mouths, race waking up,
wake up race. Get finished
yawning in a minute, do the cat
stretch good till electric tunes
back in from sole to soul, hair
be fire, fingers be clenchin
and itchin to be at
something. Wake up race. Its
really way
foday,early
early morning. Quiet in the
universedespite the insane
clat-ter of the real dream of
devils runin the earth, it’s a
real dream, that blood and
screams and maniacs in cheap
suits and white faces that
real dream, go
way if you wake up, race,
yawning, yawning first breeze
eastern hum is
niggers mouths popping wide open
and them stretching trying to
open they eyes, wake up race .
. . its history history
history
we watchin
spooky motion picture mist blown
away, cold air, brace you, wind
across cool lakes, cool bright
morning, wake up race, we wakin,
you watchin a whole race wake
up. |
* * * *
*
Afrikan Revolution
[Conakry, Guinea, February 4, 1973
After Amilear Cabral’s
funeral]
l]
Afrikan
People all over the world
Suffering
from white domination
Afrikan
People all over the world
Trying to
liberate their Afrikan nation(s)
Afrikan
People all over the world
Under the
yoke, the gun, the hammer, the lash
Afrikan
People all over the world
being killed
& stifled melted down for the white boys
cash
Afrikan People all over the world
conscious, unconscious, struggling, sleeping
resisting,
tomming, killing the enemy killing each
other
Being hurt,
surviving, understanding, held in ignorance
Bursting out
of chains, lying for Nixon, drowning
colonialists
Being shot
down in the street
Afrikan
People everywhere
Afrikan
People all over the world
Evolving
because of & in spite of ourselves
Afrikan
People all over the world, trying to make
Revolution
The world
must be changed, split open & changed
All poverty
sickness ignorance racism must be eradicated
Who ever
pushed these plagues, them also must be
eradicated
All
capitalists, racists, liars, Imperialists,
All who can not change
they also
must be eradicated, their life style,
philosophies
habits,
flunkies, pleasures, wiped out—eliminated
The world
must be changed, split open and changed
Transformed,
turned upside down.
No more
Poverty!
No more dirty ragged black people, except
from hard work
to beautify & energize a world we help
create
Death to
Backward Powers
Death to Bad Dancers
No more trash piled up in the streets
No more wind in the bedroom
No more
Europeans in penthouses & colored people in
tents with no houses
Death to
disease & carriers of disease
All disease
must be cured!
“Individuals” who love disease must be
reeducated
If they
resist world unity and the progress of all
races
Kill them.
Don’t hesitate! Kill them. They are the
Plague
No more
filthy places for us to live and be
uneducated
No more
aimless black children with nothing to do,
but die
Death to the
creators of unemployment
What do they
do for a living? They are thieves.
Jail them!
Nixon is a sick thief why does he
Remain
alive? who is in charge of killing him?
Why is it
Cabral, Lumumba, Nkrumah, Moumie,
Malcolm, Dr.
King, Mondlane, Mark Essex, all can
be killed by
criminals, & the criminals are not
hung from
bridges? No more unfair societies!
We are for
world progress. Be conscious of your
life! We
need food. We need homes; good
housing—not
shacks. Let only people who want to
live in
roach gyms live in roach gyms
We do not
want to live with roaches. Let
Nixon live
with roaches if he wants to. He
is closer to
a roach. What is the difference
between
Nixon and a roach?
Death to bad
housing
Death to no
work
We need
work. We need education so
we can build
houses and create work for
ourselves.
All over the world we Afrikans
need to make
progress. Why do Europeans
Why do white
people why do ignorant
People of our own race obstruct us.
STOP
OBSTRUCTING US EUROPEANS!
STOP OBSTRUCTING US IGNORANT PEOPLE OF
OUR OWN RACE
Niggers, NeoColonized Amos & Andies
Everywhere in the Afrikan World.
No more traitors! Death to traitors
Dope Pushers should be killed
Niggers who inform on Revolutionary
Movements
Should be killed
Assassins masquerading as heroes
Butlers masquerading as presidents, of
Afrikan, & Asian & South Amerikan
Nations. They have made them Dough-Nations
So the white boy can make his bread.
Leaders who want dialogue with South Afrika
Leaders who want to box in South Afrika
Leaders who want to sing in South Afrika
Leaders who want to observe South Afrika
These are not Leaders but Pleaders and
They should be beaten till their yoke and
Their white are stiff & exposed
No more
useless pain
We must
refuse to be sold out by anyone
The world can be changed, we do not have
to lick
the pavements
All over the
world the world can be changed
No more
stupid ugliness everywhere
Death to the
vultures of primitive disease
ignorance, America must change or be
destroyed. Europe must change or be
destroyed. Capitalism must be destroyed.
Imperialism will die. Empty headed
mummified niggers who support white
rule over black people will be killed too.
Dope peddlers, Pimps, Teachers who teach
Europe’s lies, doctors who love money more
than people, muggers, pretenders of
revolution,
Sterile intellectuals, Soul singers who
Sold their soul to the soulless—live people
who live
their lives for the dead—all—change or die!
The world
revolution cannot be stopped. Understand the
new criteria
of life or forfeit what little life you
have.
We will not be poor any longer
We will not be dirty, or ashamed of
ourselves
Racists, Capitalists, Imperialists, Sick
People
Fascists, white rulers of Black.
Lovers of disease, change or die
Oppressed People of the world change
or die
Afrikan People, all over the world Rise
& Shine
Shine
Shine
Afrikan
People all over the world, the future is
ours
We will
create on our feet not our knees
It is a
future of Great works, and Freedom
But we can
not crawl through life drunk &
unconscious
we cannot dance through life
or read the
NYTimes through life, or wear vests
all our life give our lives to parties, &
work with no
reason but
life in a prison of white domination
Be
conscious. Black People
Negroes
Colored People
AfroAmericans Be
CONSCIOUS
You know you
can run your own life
You can have
all the money & food & good life
you need
Be conscious
meet once a week
Meet once a
week. Talk about how to get
more money,
how to get educated, how
to have scientists for children rather than
junkies. How to kill the roaches. How to
stop the toilet from stinking. How to get a
better job. Once a week. Start NOW.
How to dress better. How to read.
How to live longer. How to be respected.
Meet once a week. Once a week.
All Over the
world. We need to meet once a
week. All over the world Afrikans, Soul
Brothers Good Sisters we need to meet.
How to live
longer be healthier build houses
run cities
understand life be happier
Need to meet
once a week
OK All over
the world
Once a week
All over the
world Afrikans
Sweat
Beautiful Afrikans
New ark
Afrikans (Niggers too)
Harlem
Afrikans (or Spooks)
Ghana
Afrikans (bloods)
San
Francisco Afrikans (brothers)
Afrikan
Afrikans (ndugu)
West Indian
Afrikans (Hey man)
South
American Afrikans (Hermano!)
Francophone Afrikans
(Monsieur)
Anglophone
Afrikans (Mister Man)
Anywhere
Afrikans
Afrikans
Afrikans Afrikans
People
Afrikans
Afrikans Afrikans
Watu Wazuri
Afrikans all
over the world
Moving to
the new way
A world of
Good people is coming!
We gonna
help make that world
We gonna
help eliminate the negative
accentuate
the positive
yellow folks
brown folks red
folks will
too
they hurting
I cant speak
for white folks, they’ll
speak for
themselves
But the rest
of us, Everybody Everybody
Everybody,
let us first deal with us
Afrikans
All over the
world, Yes, Everywhere Everywhere
Everywhere,
we are Afrikans
& going to
make change
Change or
die
Afrikans
Change or
die
to the Whole
world too
we are
Afrikans
Love is our
passport to the perfectability of humanity
Work & Study
Struggle & Victory
—Imamu Amiri Baraka |
