Marvin X poem: Apology to my Higher Self and Miles Davis - Time After Time (Live 1985)

Apology to My Higher Self

Oh, Higher Self
I apologize to you
Greater Self
Holy Self
Righteous Self
I  seek to harm no one
but to glorify You always and forever
Have mercy on me
have mercy on myself
Oh, Higher Self
pleae forgive me for allowing my lower self to rule
Please have mercy on me Higher Self, Divine Self
If I will only flow in the flow of You
pick me up Higher Self
when my lower self comes to call
the whispering devil whispers into the hearts of men
and women and children

to take us all  down under
to the thrashing floor
the road where wise men fear to tread
down in the dungeon
rat hole
I become the rat
associating with the rats
dwelling in the dungeon
of my mind

Lift me up Highter Power
let me dwell with You forever

in the Upper Room

surely I know truth from lies
surely I know fire from water
yet I walk into the fire
I am burned again again again
easy to lead in the wrong direction
hard to lead in the right direction,
the Elijah lesson teach  us

And why do we love the devil
because he gives us nothing!
Take me Higher Power
into your loving hands
save me from the fire
whose fuel is men and stones,
Qur'an.



let not the weakness of my lower self
ontrol me
let me cast away illusions
a donkey is not a stalion



Oh Higher Power
catch me if I fall
take me forward faster
time after time
time after time.

--Marvin X

9/28/14

Bob Holman says Marvin X is the USA's Rumi. The humor of Pietri, politics of Baraka, the wisdom of Saadi, the ecstasy of Hafiz.....

Ishmael Reed says Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. His play One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen. 

Dr. Nathan Hare says Marvin X is still the undisputed champion of Black Consciousness.

On Monday, September 1, Marvin X will receive the Elders Award from the Pan African festival, at Oakland's Mosswood Park.

On Septemer 13, he will receive the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Los Angeles Black Books Expo.

Earlier this year, Feb/March, 2014, Marvin X (with Kim McMillan) produced a conference on the Black Arts Movement at the University of California, Merced. He is now planning a Bay Area Celebration of the Black Arts Movement, tentatively for February 2015. Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Post Newspaper Group is a co-planner, along with Eastside Arts and the City of Oakland. Stanford University African American Studies  and Laney College want to be sponsors also. We have the support of Dr. Ayodele Nizinga's Lower Bottom Players, Geoffery Grier's San Francisco Recovery Theatre. If you or your organization would like to participate on any level, especially as possible funders, sponsors, participants. Contact Marvin X: 510-2004154