"Just Words"- a poem
This is poetry by Lydia, a member of our congregation. It represents her unique voice and vision of life and living.
“Just Words”
I
As I lay dying of the apathy
Beneath my anger,
I found a speck of deliberate justice.
“Just words”
As I lay in a swallowed up existence
Without true meaning,
A spark of new times flickered against the night.
“Just Words”
As I awaken to the passion between the peace and the fight,
“Just Words”
Just speeches
Just charisma.
Just Hope.
As I awake wondering about the truth in politics….
“Just Words”
My beat, my cadence realizes that the dance of words has a new Astaire, a new Travolta.
He is a dancer of words beneath the rhythm of racism and hatred.
Above the Congo line snaking through the muscle of Blues; rappelled into rap.
“Just Words”
‘I have a dream today’
“Just Words”
‘That the content of my character
Shall be’ …. “Just Words”
I have a dream tonight,
That poetry wakes up to the conch shell before us!
That we blow the horn and excuse Gabriel!
And the drum, the African drum beat renewed, the pulse restored.
“Just Words”
‘I am all fired up’ I am between the existence of Hope and Pain
I surrender my anxiety.
Someone gives a bloody sun.
Someone is speaking to our needs.
“Just Words”
‘And the Oscar goes to…’
‘Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale’,
“Just Words”
The flicker of intelligence, of elegance,
Of empowerment…’
I sit with his speeches on my lap thinking ‘thank you for giving yourself.’
Thank you for being a well spoken black man who leaves the color up to divinity.
“Just Words”
I say ‘I feel less apathy’
‘I say poets unite and take over the Democratic convention!
I say the ‘time is now!’
The great debate is meeting the great biracial Hope
“Just Words”
‘Can you feel it?’ ‘I want to rock with you,’
‘All night’
Dance with you baby…, all right’
“Just Words”
‘I stand before you’ amazed at the beauty of being able to hope again.
Being able to wish for a competent, compassionate Secret Service.
To wish for a changing mindset of smart dialogue; to common decency .
To wish for a new Camelot.
A new Hybrid. Just hear me out…
‘I’m all fired up’
I want a black call and response…
‘Can you feel it’
You say ‘Just Words’
‘I have a dream today’
(Just Words)
Be a mountaintop unto yourself.
(Just Words)
Just Words coming from a pen, searing the banality with a spark of the Sun’s beauty.
(Just Words)
‘I feel these Truths to be self-evident’
(Just Words)
How do I end when I’ve woken up from the soma,
When the matrix is revealed?
How do I speak my truth?
I am a dancer, dream deferred.
I am an actor crushed by fear,
I am a painter hidden beneath depression,
I am an artist and my words are my palate.
My words speak my dream.
Apathy punctured,
Planets aligned,
I stand before you
With the spoken word.
“Just Words”
“Just Words”
