Comments on Marvin X poem
Not merely a spell-binding work but a spell-weaving one. Superb, Bro. Marvin!
--John Woodford, Editor emeritus, Michigan Today Newspaper, University of Michigan
*****
Dear Marvin,
This is such a beautiful and very spiritually meaningful poem.
I remember sitting in that class so proud of Askia for saying his truth. I think of the work that I did, teaching young people mostly Latin nd Asian about African American theatre. They eat it up like candy, relating it to stories of watching their parents being taken away or beaten by the police for nothing. They were so thankful for your work, for Askia's work, for Amiri's work, for Ntozake's work, for Sonia's work, and for countless people of color that saw their pain. Each time you spoke to my class, I had students wanting to know more about your life and quoting your words. They told me they called their parents after reading, "Flower for the Trashman." They finally understood how important it is to say, "I love you" before that person is gone. I had a young South Asian woman cry when she read Nellie Wong's poem on Colorism because she had tried to pretend she was white, until she understood the beauty in being brown. You all left a body of work that is healing so many young people. I see the difference. You have brought meaning to the lives of so many people that you will never know.
There are different ways of winning wars or removing oppression. One of the most powerful is through the spoken word.
Keep on writing, keep on showing love.
Peace,
Kim McMillan, PhD
University of California, Merced
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018
Marvin X new poem: The Moment between light and darkness
photos by photographers Kamau Amen Ra (RIP), Adam Turner and Gene Hazzard
As I am half blind in the fourth quarter of my life
I notice as I travel from light into darkness
micro second of total darkness
I do not try to see in this space
just adjust
light into darkness
then I see darkness
thankful
navigate darkness
Dr. Nathan Hare say I have seen enough
flow wit da flow
then I see darkness
thankful
navigate darkness
Dr. Nathan Hare say I have seen enough
flow wit da flow
one day at a time
Dr. Hare say praise Sankofa bird
just don't stay in past
otherworldism
forward motion
Afrofuturism
Sun Ra style
Space is the Place
Your world is not my world
your world is history
my world is mystery
Space is the Pace
You so evil
devil don't want you in hell!
Sonny say
What you doing negro
Sonny say
Negro say I ain't doin' nothin'
Sonny say you wanna job Negro
Negro say doin what?
Sonny say doin' nothin!
Negro say how much you gonna pay me?
Sonny say I ain't gonna pay ya nothin!
I am thankful to see light in darkness
Oh, world, forgive my sins
I try to forgive world for low information vibration
Bible say people destroyed for lack of knowledge not money women men children
What Qur'an say
If your wealth wives children
are dearer to you than Allah
then wait til His command comes
Be ye not of the unjust unmerciful
be of those who praise Him
and He hears those who praise Him
Rabbanaka al Hamd
Our Lord to Thee is due all praise!
In the low information vibration we are
anesthetized to the world of make believe conspicuous consumption
my favorite line from Dr. E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie
Today is Askia Toure's b day
When he apologized to students at UC Merced for leaving them this unfinished legacy of uncompleted revolution
I objected because I know our revolution was aborted by the overwhelming power of the State
military intelligence cointelpro fbi snitches agent provocateurs
how could we overcome the awesome power of the state apparatus?
After all, we were young and invincible thinking we knew it all
refusing the wisdom of elders and ancestors
in our ignut joy to reinvent the wheel
so we did stupid shit
sex drugs rock n roll can make revolution but not complete it
Dr. John Henry Clarke said only high morals will save us
Sun Ra said only discipline
Teach discipline to your actors Marvin X
forget that freedom justice equality talk
don't you see how wild and crazy they act?
Teach discipline
This is what I teach my Arkestra
Sonny was right
look at our freedom babies
wild crazy savage
no discipline
no manners
no etiquette
common sense
from Crack hand to cell phone hand
addicted like the man/woman Crack addicts
they/we used to run through the hood with Crack in hand
Cell phone junkies walk into the streets into cars cell phone in hand
my favorite line from Dr. E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie
Today is Askia Toure's b day
When he apologized to students at UC Merced for leaving them this unfinished legacy of uncompleted revolution
I objected because I know our revolution was aborted by the overwhelming power of the State
military intelligence cointelpro fbi snitches agent provocateurs
how could we overcome the awesome power of the state apparatus?
After all, we were young and invincible thinking we knew it all
refusing the wisdom of elders and ancestors
in our ignut joy to reinvent the wheel
so we did stupid shit
sex drugs rock n roll can make revolution but not complete it
Dr. John Henry Clarke said only high morals will save us
Sun Ra said only discipline
Teach discipline to your actors Marvin X
forget that freedom justice equality talk
don't you see how wild and crazy they act?
Teach discipline
This is what I teach my Arkestra
Sonny was right
look at our freedom babies
wild crazy savage
no discipline
no manners
no etiquette
common sense
from Crack hand to cell phone hand
addicted like the man/woman Crack addicts
they/we used to run through the hood with Crack in hand
Cell phone junkies walk into the streets into cars cell phone in hand
killing themselves
talking loud saying nothing (James Brown)
JB said, "If it was left up to me I would cut yo hand off
talkin loud sayin nothin
talkin black but livin all the negro you can!"
We love you JB
You taught us the Big Payback is a motherfucka
I'm Black n Proud
It's a man's world
but ain't nothin without a woman
there is darkness in the world and there is light
between the two think about the good times
enjoy the good times
when bad times come
roll wit da punches
sister in law told me
smiling faces tell lies
fake news
fake blues
fake jazz
blue eyed blues singer was you in the cotton cane fields Earle Davis asked
cotton/cane fields from can't see ta can't see?
was you on the cross and lynching tree
was you in the big house
or house nigga/field nigga no matter
master came to yo hut
you thought to fuck yo woman
no
master came to fuck you
Mandingo ass nigga
Did master fuck you
fusion jazz ass motherfucka
fk yo woman children
his children too
then sold them New Year's Day Auction block
blues jazz white boy/girl
did jim crow suck yo blood
did yo ancestors eat food in the shit hole door of no return
before Middle Passage through Door of No Return
Did you go there
hear the ancestors wailing in the walls
crying through centuries of pain trauma genocide
400 years without a food stamp
400 years capital accumulation
400 years building white wealth
yes reparations yes
reparations til Fort Knox is drained
Drain Federal Reserve
drain white privilege wealth
depart ghetto gentrifiers
depart
fuck yo high tech jobs
fuck yo hipster fake ofay bullshit
depart with dogs in hand
clean dog shit and yo shit
depart
leave yo keys
South Africa style
leave yo keys
flee to Australia Russia flee
space moon mars saturn
leave keys
no earth lessons learned
go
leave yo keys
white man heaven black man's hell
white man heaven black man's hell
Farrakhan sing
how you sing blues jazz
how you sing anything
where Beatles steal
Elvis
Rolling Stones steal
we love everything about you but you
Poet Paradise say
truly
we love Dolly Parton's coal miner blues
South told me ova n ova poor white trash treated worse than niggas
so we love you trailer house trash white folks
only you can sing the blues
you understand jazz, i.e., black classical music
not Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pseudo white liberals
multi-cultural leave niggas on bottom motherfuckas
Farrakhan say wherever he went over the world
black man woman on bottom
Communist Socialist Capitalist Muslim Christian Jewish
black man woman on bottom
ancestors say
bottom rail top
bottom rail top
JB say the Big Payback is a mother....
poor white man ask me fa a dollar
I said white man would you rather have $500.00 or one dollar?
White man said $500.00
I said, "White man, come back tomorrow faya $500.00
he walked away in silence.
talking loud saying nothing (James Brown)
JB said, "If it was left up to me I would cut yo hand off
talkin loud sayin nothin
talkin black but livin all the negro you can!"
We love you JB
You taught us the Big Payback is a motherfucka
I'm Black n Proud
It's a man's world
but ain't nothin without a woman
there is darkness in the world and there is light
between the two think about the good times
enjoy the good times
when bad times come
roll wit da punches
sister in law told me
smiling faces tell lies
fake news
fake blues
fake jazz
blue eyed blues singer was you in the cotton cane fields Earle Davis asked
cotton/cane fields from can't see ta can't see?
was you on the cross and lynching tree
was you in the big house
or house nigga/field nigga no matter
master came to yo hut
you thought to fuck yo woman
no
master came to fuck you
Mandingo ass nigga
Did master fuck you
fusion jazz ass motherfucka
fk yo woman children
his children too
then sold them New Year's Day Auction block
blues jazz white boy/girl
did jim crow suck yo blood
did yo ancestors eat food in the shit hole door of no return
before Middle Passage through Door of No Return
Did you go there
hear the ancestors wailing in the walls
crying through centuries of pain trauma genocide
400 years without a food stamp
400 years capital accumulation
400 years building white wealth
yes reparations yes
reparations til Fort Knox is drained
Drain Federal Reserve
drain white privilege wealth
depart ghetto gentrifiers
depart
fuck yo high tech jobs
fuck yo hipster fake ofay bullshit
depart with dogs in hand
clean dog shit and yo shit
depart
leave yo keys
South Africa style
leave yo keys
flee to Australia Russia flee
space moon mars saturn
leave keys
no earth lessons learned
go
leave yo keys
white man heaven black man's hell
white man heaven black man's hell
Farrakhan sing
how you sing blues jazz
how you sing anything
where Beatles steal
Elvis
Rolling Stones steal
we love everything about you but you
Poet Paradise say
truly
we love Dolly Parton's coal miner blues
South told me ova n ova poor white trash treated worse than niggas
so we love you trailer house trash white folks
only you can sing the blues
you understand jazz, i.e., black classical music
not Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pseudo white liberals
multi-cultural leave niggas on bottom motherfuckas
Farrakhan say wherever he went over the world
black man woman on bottom
Communist Socialist Capitalist Muslim Christian Jewish
black man woman on bottom
ancestors say
bottom rail top
bottom rail top
JB say the Big Payback is a mother....
poor white man ask me fa a dollar
I said white man would you rather have $500.00 or one dollar?
White man said $500.00
I said, "White man, come back tomorrow faya $500.00
he walked away in silence.
In the moment between light and darkness be still
peace be still.
the storm is ova now
the storm is ova
we rejoice
motion in ocean
Amiri Baraka said
In the middle of the Atlantic ocean
a railroad of human bones
the king sold the farmer to the ghost
in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
railroad of human bones
king sold farmer to the ghost
king sold farmer to the ghost......
rise up North American Africans
rise from low information vibration
no excuse with cell phone
Becky tell you everything
Becky don't lie
Did you mean?
Did you mean?
rise from tricycle to ten speed
rise
In the middle of the Atlantic ocean
railroad of human bones
Amiri Baraka say
don't let them take yo um boom ba boon
if they take yo um boom ba boom
you in deep trouble
take you centuries to get out....
We love you Ancestor AB.
We love Amina too.
We love Baraka family.
--Marvin X
the storm is ova now
the storm is ova
we rejoice
motion in ocean
Amiri Baraka said
In the middle of the Atlantic ocean
a railroad of human bones
the king sold the farmer to the ghost
in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
railroad of human bones
king sold farmer to the ghost
king sold farmer to the ghost......
rise up North American Africans
rise from low information vibration
no excuse with cell phone
Becky tell you everything
Becky don't lie
Did you mean?
Did you mean?
rise from tricycle to ten speed
rise
In the middle of the Atlantic ocean
railroad of human bones
Amiri Baraka say
don't let them take yo um boom ba boon
if they take yo um boom ba boom
you in deep trouble
take you centuries to get out....
We love you Ancestor AB.
We love Amina too.
We love Baraka family.
--Marvin X
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