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



from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems, 2016, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA, unpublished.