Marvin X as Psychic

Marvin X as Psychic

Marvin X has long felt the psychic powers in himself. Most often he would linger in self denial. Two years ago he gave up using his cell phone or any phone and urged his friends and family to ESP him when they wanted to talk.

Recenly he was planning an east coast book tour and wanted to talk with a friend in Washington DC, but didn't have his number. One Sunday Marvin was riding his bike to the Berkeley Flea Market. He thought about going to the Flea Market by biking down Dwight Way to Martin Luther King, Jr., but his mind told him to go Dwight Way to Sacramento to Ashby. As he turned the corner on Ashby heading to the Flea Market a car passed with his DC friend on the passenger side. The car stopped and he talked with his friend who had just arrived in town for his mother's funeral. Marvin told his friend he was trying to get in touch with him. The friend said he had just asked about him at the Flea Market. The friend told him there was no problem when he gets on the east coast, especially since he had an enjoyable time the last time the poet stayed with him. The friend was especially happy to see Marvin bike riding since it was his suggestion that Marvin get a bike. He had let Marvin used one of his bike while in DC.

More recently, something told Marvin to post the poem If We Must Die on his blog. He had no idea why he needed to post this classic anti-racist poem from the Harlem Renaissance by Claude McKay that was used by Winston Churchill during WWII, and later during the 60s Black Arts/Liberation Movement.

He posted the poem as his mind told him. A few hours later he was talking with his grandson who was on the phone talking with his grandmother, Marvin's former wife. The grandson left his house still talking with his grandmother, then the three year old returned to tell his grandfather his grandmother said tell your grandpa Osama bin Laden was just killed. Marvin was absolutely certain his posting of the poem had to do with the death of Osama bin Laden.

Just before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Marvin wrote a love poem with reference to the ocean and beach. Only after events in Japan did the poem make sense to him. It was clear the poem transcended romance and was a poetic precurser to events in Japan, It was written two days before.

In the poem, Marvin X suggests the beloved come to him as a wind, that his arms open wide as the earth opened when she quaked. He pleads with his beloved to do as she will but don't destroy him. We see the earth opened but was not gentle to the people, consuming all things in her path, just as the beloved rejected the poet's love call.

The poem ends with the poet suggesting the lovers walk upon the shore as the tide comes upon them. The people of Japan, and even those on the beach in California, were swept into the waves of the tsunami.

The Funny Thing is That I Already Knew

...when I see you coming toward me
a wind surrounds you
swirling swirling
a dance of the dervish accompany your stride
the wind blows you to me
my arms open wide to enfold the greatness of your spirit
I am here at your pleasure
do with me as you wish
no abuse please.
Yet I have no fear
I know you already know this.

Ah, the air is so fresh
we must go to the ocean soon
I want to walk on the shore
barefoot in the sand as the tide comes upon us
holding hands in the wind
as the dervish dance and swirl.
--Marvin X
4/9/11