Thursday, December 28, 2006
Godfather
The first poem is from my friend, Thom the World Poet sent to me via e-mail today. My response follows his poetry.
At the age of 73
still doing the splits and performing regularly
with a history of domestic abuse
and public entertainments-
"the hardest working man in show business"
smart enough for HIT records
dumb enough to hit his women
That chasm divided all of us
who paid to see him sing
and knew he carried violence within
Perhaps his age was gone long before ours-
when men were patriachs
and women audience
Perhaps soul music encourages
a masochism and misogyny
that fascinates and appalls
enough to jail him
and to release us
from daemons who needed to sing and dance
"get up offa that thing-and dance!"
His mantras remain-but no one
can ever be James Brown again
We have all moved on-he has become
rock hard his story-leaving wife and children
locked out of the marital home
while he goes offf(for the very last time)
to the Apollo
DEC 28 REMEMBERS Thom
(c) 28 December 2006, The Griot Poet
He was probably
more important to us
than Martin, Malcolm or Gandhi
with the same foibles, faux pas as each of us
(magnified to the nth degree because of his celebrity):
drug usage, jail time, striking his white wives...
his music, however reached us
deep within our "minds, wills, imaginations, emotions and intellects"
for a definition I suspect
atheists and theists can agree to be: soul.
He was bold enough
to use his talent
to ruffle the feathers of the establishment:
"say it loud - I'm black and I'm proud"
did more to establish identity
-- for a movement in which Malcolm and Martin
were polar opposites --
displayed by Afros, bell bottoms and dashikis.
at a time when our country fought
an unpopular war
(started by another Texas president)
that one mantra birthed the pursuit of knowledge
about ourselves
almost Occult -- so hidden on sociology shelves
and cobweb periodicals in Mezzanine stacks.
He did not slack
in his civic duty
to visit and perform for presidents
38 to 43: Richard Nixon to George W
and used his celebrity to quiet riots
after King's assassination when he could
have fanned fires with his celebrity.
Now, we have "step-n-fetch"
21st Century minstrel shows with
pants below the waist,
no knowledge or appreciation
that displaying one's male booty
is the preferred state
of one sexually submissive
to cellblock rapists!
He is the originator
of "shake your money maker,"
before LUDACRIS
Yet, self-help advocates forget
"I don't want nobody to give me NOTHING.
"Open up the door -- I'll get it myself!"
Self-help and politics
are to be avoided
in lyrics
that only focus
on sex, violence and ignorance
for a corporate, plantation paycheck!
Hip-hop, like protest music and "Dixie Chicks" is neutered.
That pride has been locked away
on a dank, dusty shelf
not by systemic,
endemic,
xenophobic
racists:
but by
James Brown's
spiritual children
themselves!
Monday, December 18, 2006
R.E.I.T.
© 18 December 2006, Reginald L. Goodwin (The Griot Poet)
The ‘hood IS a government project!
What you don’t get is how the money flows:
First, you need hopelessness…
Started in master-slave Jazz procreation
From Po’ Charlie slicking and pimping
To the modern Step-n-fetch hip hop great grandchildren’s generation
Minstrel shows have to become “status quo”
And relegated to “Bankrupt Entertainment Television” and “U People’s Network”
You can’t have a major show like “Friends,” “Sex in the City” and “Seinfeld” (all praise to Michael Richards’ rant unveiling the hypocrisy!).
They wrote Alfre Woodward crazy on “Desperate Housewives” with a murderous 'normal' son and a crazy one in the basement!
Glorify the Pimp/Hustler/Drug Dealer as the urban entrepreneur one step from Sean Jean and FUBU.
Relegate Rhythm And Poetry – RAP – from revolutionary knowledge to the safe subjects (quoting Cornel West) of “highly sexed, violent, and ignorant.”
Voila: you have a self-hypnotized generation reciting the mantra of their destruction
Sisters “dropping-it-like-its-hot” and brothers jumping in as a “thug-for-life,” “keeping-it-real” with much drama and strife
Repeating the same lie I heard as a child that studying for my future was “acting white.”
This is a better operation than CONINTELPRO or the “Manchurian Candidate!”
Making prison male sexual subjugation – pants below the waist for easy penetration by the dominant, deviant cellblock rapist – a FASHION statement!
Repeal all the laws that put their kind on that side of the railroad track,
Let them attack suburbia and become in debt up to their eyeballs in net worth lack,
In an idolized Cliff and Claire lifestyle
Meanwhile: give your friend the cushy positions for which like “Brownie” they don’t have a horse’s assets qualifications!
But can afford those exclusive neighborhoods the sons and daughters of former slaves are salivating
So they can have the elation of a neighborhood entrance and dues sucking “lawn Gestapo” association
Make laws that subjugate them under the 13th amendment happily:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
“Shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction…”
And, if their kids get addicted, THEY get therapy!
You need some sorcery to enslave them.
When they beat one – Angel Dust, create another – Crack Cocaine.
Systematically, meticulously so that individually you can’t be blamed for racism!
Exit tests that with single parents barely past 14 can’t get you or themselves ready for
Set you up for a certificate of completion versus a diploma.
So, the only positive thing you can do (besides HIV) is being cannon fodder for the military.
You are standing on “Acres of ‘Blood Diamonds’”.
Cause the industry is NAFTA/CAFTA/outsourced overseas!
The top 1% is cutting you off at your economic knees.
East Winston-Salem, East Austin, South Central and New Orleans, you are allowing modern DeBeers and Trump Tower Developers to steal the one true measure of wealth development!
For my suburban sisters and brothers:
As you live out “Huxtable fantasies,” you leave
An aged population more concerned about ‘the next life’ than owning property
It is a historic loss to our own duress.
What we call “gentrification,” they call “real estate investments!”
The ‘hood IS a government project!
What you don’t get is how the money flows:
First, you need hopelessness…
Started in master-slave Jazz procreation
From Po’ Charlie slicking and pimping
To the modern Step-n-fetch hip hop great grandchildren’s generation
Minstrel shows have to become “status quo”
And relegated to “Bankrupt Entertainment Television” and “U People’s Network”
You can’t have a major show like “Friends,” “Sex in the City” and “Seinfeld” (all praise to Michael Richards’ rant unveiling the hypocrisy!).
They wrote Alfre Woodward crazy on “Desperate Housewives” with a murderous 'normal' son and a crazy one in the basement!
Glorify the Pimp/Hustler/Drug Dealer as the urban entrepreneur one step from Sean Jean and FUBU.
Relegate Rhythm And Poetry – RAP – from revolutionary knowledge to the safe subjects (quoting Cornel West) of “highly sexed, violent, and ignorant.”
Voila: you have a self-hypnotized generation reciting the mantra of their destruction
Sisters “dropping-it-like-its-hot” and brothers jumping in as a “thug-for-life,” “keeping-it-real” with much drama and strife
Repeating the same lie I heard as a child that studying for my future was “acting white.”
This is a better operation than CONINTELPRO or the “Manchurian Candidate!”
Making prison male sexual subjugation – pants below the waist for easy penetration by the dominant, deviant cellblock rapist – a FASHION statement!
Repeal all the laws that put their kind on that side of the railroad track,
Let them attack suburbia and become in debt up to their eyeballs in net worth lack,
In an idolized Cliff and Claire lifestyle
Meanwhile: give your friend the cushy positions for which like “Brownie” they don’t have a horse’s assets qualifications!
But can afford those exclusive neighborhoods the sons and daughters of former slaves are salivating
So they can have the elation of a neighborhood entrance and dues sucking “lawn Gestapo” association
Make laws that subjugate them under the 13th amendment happily:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
“Shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction…”
And, if their kids get addicted, THEY get therapy!
You need some sorcery to enslave them.
When they beat one – Angel Dust, create another – Crack Cocaine.
Systematically, meticulously so that individually you can’t be blamed for racism!
Exit tests that with single parents barely past 14 can’t get you or themselves ready for
Set you up for a certificate of completion versus a diploma.
So, the only positive thing you can do (besides HIV) is being cannon fodder for the military.
You are standing on “Acres of ‘Blood Diamonds’”.
Cause the industry is NAFTA/CAFTA/outsourced overseas!
The top 1% is cutting you off at your economic knees.
East Winston-Salem, East Austin, South Central and New Orleans, you are allowing modern DeBeers and Trump Tower Developers to steal the one true measure of wealth development!
For my suburban sisters and brothers:
As you live out “Huxtable fantasies,” you leave
An aged population more concerned about ‘the next life’ than owning property
It is a historic loss to our own duress.
What we call “gentrification,” they call “real estate investments!”
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