Dance

I dance when I can't feel anymore and when I feel everything. I dance to be humble, through my vulnerability, to give love, and to selfishly love myself. Without a voice my body lets me speak. Yes. Always yes.

But can i be someone else?" he asked desperately. 
"Of course," replied the wind.
"How will I know when I am different?" his eyes flickered but the blinds remained closed. 
The wind became still and then, in a purposeful sigh, exhaled, "You will honor the in between," and with that, it departed. 
He wiped his hair from his eyes, spurred by a tender breeze, and breathed deeply.

People

I know the most amazing people in the whole wide world. I know artists: singers, musicians, painters, sculpters, sketchers, muralists, crafters, idea makers, brave critical thinkers, doers, truth seekers, protesters, sign makers, sign holders . I know writers, dancers, lovers, relentlessly perfect coffee makers, chefs, welders, keeper of books and other sacred things, historians, athletes, anthropologists, observers, time keepers, people who ignore time, travelers, eternal mothers ad fathers, cuddlers, people who paint whole rooms bright yellow, scavengers, fossil hunters, community organizers. I know rappers who rap because they have decided that their will be a place in the world for their experiences, graffiti artists, people who find art in dark places and revere it, people who say, "just look, just look". I know people who stand up against hatred and bigotry everyday even through searing pain. I know people who spend their whole life seeking to right wrong. I know people who create a sacred space for all of us; people who allow you to feel beautiful because of who you are and who you are not. I know people who are so passionate it scares you out of your comfort and you are never the same again. I know people who question and question and don't stop questioning, tearing down the barrier, brick by brick. I know people who trust my truth. I know the most amazing people in the whole wide world.

Myself

I've decided I don't want to try to find myself
Only an observation
Fighting 
A step in the right direction
I've decided there is no me to find
Only eyes to see
Hands to reach 
Feet to run
I've decided that I can find magic when there is no me
Only crushing waves
Feeling
Smothered in a cause that doesn't involve finding
an arbitrary definition of me
I can resent tomorrow

Time For Dancing

And there will be time for dancing. March on. Crying, sobbing, screaming. Rest up. Raging, chanting, singing. March on. Laughing, hands raised, shouting. Rest up. Linked arms, talking, smiling. And there will be time for dancing.

Refuge

Take refuge. I implore you. Take refuge in tears and rubble. Take refuge in bad things you find yourself needing, things that seek to swallow. Be swallowed, if necessary. Take refuge. Take refuge in things that hurt less, less than what life is now. It's okay. Take refuge. In arms that will not hold and nights that numb. Take refuge, if you must. It's painful enough without the shame that inevitably pierce from blind eyes and gaping wound mouths. Take refuge in your emptiness. The time will come for fullness. It always comes. So for now, take refuge.

Disagreement

Now is the time for intense disagreement 
Yelling and crying
We know we're not free.
But now is the time for intense disagreement 
It's time to face it
We haven't all seen, that 
Too many people have been left behind 
In the fight for what's right
Don't pretend you can't see
We left behind people whose voices were strangled
By the rank and file shouts
of solidarity
So now is the time for intense disagreements
The screaming you hear
Are the people who need
To speak and be heard
In the fight for real justice.
This revolution needs to plant a new seed.

St. Patrick's Day In America

You have these cheeks
And small tree trunk eyes
People notice your face
Connected to a body that is built for hard labor
You know this, your thick hands and trunk and leg roots burrow down
Your body was built to do the work that has to be done.
Remember when you went searching
A homeland not your own
Searching for others like you
Big cheeks, small eyes
Before you came to be called white
Before the forced colonialism
The starvation. You lost your language and your dancing and your home
And then the internal colonialism
A pallid choice
To fit in with oppressors,
To survive.
But that's not survival, not really
Because I saw the green earth that is female
And I saw druid caves and magic
And I know the missing part,
The part that was both stolen and rejected
Desperately tiring, recreated ghost
Trading our humanity for white culture built on blood and lies
We are the shells of our ancestors
And somehow, we still can't find our face

"But can i be someone else?" he asked desperately. 
"Of course," replied the wind.
"How will I know when I am different?" his eyes flickered but the blinds remained closed. 
The wind became still and then, in a purposeful sigh, exhaled, "You will honor the in between," and with that, it departed. 
He wiped his hair from his eyes, spurred by a tender breeze, and breathed deeply.

Newark

Newark
There is a strange opening, 
A knowing that is sad and gaping,
And beautiful in its realness,
A pulsating city made up of people and principles
heavy drum beat of inconsolable loss and 
indestructible power

Newark
The place where I learned that
Ella , Malcolm, Assita,
Wells, King and Douglass
taught me the things that I always thought I knew
but never understood
that love is the core
But "love without power is sentimental and anemic."
And "power without love is reckless and abusive"

Newark
Where righteousness is a place
and humility is the path
Where revolution is fed at the dinner table
In the lateral feeding of hope and love
From one hungry mouth to another
From those who understand that
“the appetite grows for what it feeds on”

Newark
The place where I met
"The Fire of Love And The Sweat of Truth"
In 90 degree weather
Sitting on the pavement of the onramp of Route 21
Where students, wide awake
“[Began] to examine the society in which he is being educated”
And rip from the blackboard and lips and minds
Lies made to suffocate and murder
Who found themselves, and me, too

Newark
A city built brick by brick
Understanding that
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress”
And “stumbling is not falling”
The revolution never left this place
The vibration caused not from bulldozers or the building of corporate offices
But the power of the people who never forgot
“Give light and people will find the way.”

If I Spent the Whole Day Crying

If I spent the whole day crying
I'd cry out all my tears
I'd cry and cry and cry until
there was no trace of fear

If I spent the whole day laughing
I'd laugh till I was spent
and I wouldn't have to buy my joy
I wouldn't spend a cent

If I spent the whole day singing
A crowd would gather round
And we'd sing our song together
We would never quite down

If I spent the whole day loving
Exactly as I am
I wouldn't mind who you loved at all
No I wouldn't give a damn

If I spent the whole day seeking
to be better everyday
I'd find it isn't hard at all
To spend each day this way