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Mensah Olatunji
New Member
since 2000-04-04
Posts 1


0 posted 2000-04-05 12:58 PM


Alice Walker &
Assata speaks to me in dreamly
languages about the path
I
have
chosen.
Past soldiers of a war deferred
hand me the gun of pens &
sheilds of papers &
the soul of a black man loving to be
a chocolate colored warrior in these
last times for the Movement
the last Movement
The Next Movement.
Time traveling through space realms that
have me streaming easily to the future, not
a consuming download, a
simple path that loads my spirit
with hope for a life
I don't want
nor wish to cultivate, but a
life on the mic
on the road
on the notebook
on the tour bus with the Amerikka 9...
That's life.

Horns blaring blazing Coltrane notes &
griots on the drums &
DJs on the ones & twos
I dance an Afrikan beat comprising of
Nigerian origins &
B-Boy styles on the ground, doing a
windmill in reverance of the path that
yes
Assata &
Alice have paved for me in this Wonderland of
demoning & scheming.

Tupac writing my first book's foreword &
Biggie producing the CD in the back cover, I
glide on the footsteps before me
the bullet shells rain
the gun smoke fogs the view
the ignorance & determination of
people to steer me into a dead end...
job, that is.

Dance with me
dance with me
dance with me
dance with me
dance with me...
& be not afraid
no fear
no doubt, I am
not afraid!

Fireflies & Fireseekers follow the smell of
momma's chocolate from the
kitchen of well-wishing & future's
tasty recipe for the way to finally
run the world.

After "The 7th Moonlight", I thought
being abstract would be the path I
would not go down again.
But 1 24 rotation later, I
am
scaring you...
once more.
But Like I said
be not afraid
be not afraid
be not afraid
be not afraid...
and dance the dance of happiness for the
plans are coming together.

Common & Malcolm sit me on their
knees & speak to this baby trying
to grow in the garden of ill soil &
no sun
no fertile environemnt
nothing but weeds growing out the ground &
tempting me to smoke.

Speaking of which, the
marijuana from landscapes send me
smoke signals to communicate the
hunger for a future we damn sure need
damn sure want
damn sure fight for
damn sure
damn...

Its hard being poetic.

Nikki & Sonia take off my sheep's clothing &
make me a shepard.
Bathe me in oils
in self-determination
in a bubbly lotion called
K.O.S...
indeed,
Knowledge of Self cleanses me from the
muck & mire of editorials that
bad-mouth New Afrikans & poets with
silly Eurocentric bullsh*t.

Damn
damn
damn
Oh Lord, I'm
scaring myself with the constant writing of
elevation, but I hope I
never tumble to my lyrical death.

So I come like this.

I never knew that love of the self could
lead to the love of you.
Tinu, the queen of the ?uestion now
Afrikan called Mensah, know that my self
loves you
wants to comfort you
wants to
want
you.
The Light of this beauty within the
space that sits here & scribes this wants to
hit you with lyrics, although
all these words are confining &
I can't describe you in a infinite tone of voice.

So I come like this again.

Nina Simone & Thelonius Monk,
painters of this portrait
the picture of babies running naked through
a rainforest without running into
bulldozers and an
FDA stealing wonder-potions from their habitat.
A picture taken with
Gordon Parks care in a
black & white glare.

Dance with me
dance with me
dance with me
dance with me to the
Promised land of 40 Acres & a
million shares of Universal Soul wealth, the
health of my people is fading
waning & they need to be
defiberlated.

When I speak of "my people", unless
I make it specific, I am
speaking to the new race
the X-Men of our Marvel-ous world
The Poets.
Not just the Urban Lyricists, although
they're
we're the elite, I
am defending
leading, yes I
a leader at age 18 &
that sh*t scares me.

Be not afraid
be not afraid
be not afraid
be not afraid...
For I Will Be Next To You...

Words of my God, I am
fortified with holy warfare using
ammunition spitting from the
same instrument that speaks sweetly
to the Empress,
I'm no longer new at this
written thang
the Life thang is still difficult, but
I am
not
afraid.

Clyde & Benjamin rock me in
grandfathers' arms transcending
Life & Death to love
their grandson, the
reincarination of the 1st named.
They carry shovels &
push those same
bullet shells &
lynching nooses out of the
way for the computer age represented
by me, the
first in the family to speak to
all types of people all 'round the
world with millions of keystrokes.

People say
"You changing..."
I say
"The world is changing...
and I don't want to be archaic."
Poetry waving like an audience praising me
& groupies asking me to come their ways but
did you forget?

I got an Empress.

Lets do this
lets do this
give me hope
to change life
to change people
for the better
for
the
Last Nights...

James Brown & DuBois
Roy Ayers & Booker T.
got me going to Washington
demanding speech in front of
the Supreme Court &
what's up!!
I'm hear to demand
demand repartitions for the countless
poets never heard
never paid
work stolen like a memory to Alzhemiers, I
DEMAND that they
be heard
I be
Heard.
Damn it, hear me...
listen
listen
listen, you
don't hear me cuz you deaf to knowledge
Webster defines that as ignorance &
you 9 are guilty.

My imagination ceases to roam like
a Sprint PCS with no service, I
have to take a pen
or maybe my weakeness in a green glass bottle
& restart the thoughts of this
poet
me.
Yeah, sinning is a bad thing but
I said I'm a leader
not a God
not a righteous mofo
not a saviour that savors the
taste of public vision & its
cameras on me.

I just want to be heard...

Like Rakim & Fredrick
Chuck D. & Louis A.
Langston & my lyrical love
Zora Neale, like
Richard, the Native Son &
Richard, that comedian that now
rots in a wheelchair waiting for the
cloak & dagger to swagger its way to him &
take him back to the Father.

I want to be heard.

Poets.

Let's be heard
let's be heard
let's be heard
let's be heard...

and taken seriously.




 

© Copyright 2000 Mensah Olatunji - All Rights Reserved
WhtDove
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-22
Posts 9245
Illinois
1 posted 2000-04-05 06:52 PM


Please check your email!
Pepper
Member Elite
since 1999-08-19
Posts 3079
Southern Florida
2 posted 2000-04-06 12:49 PM


A very interesting piece Mensah ...
Definetly written with alot of passion
Welcome to Passions ...  

 "Shoot for the moon.Even if you miss,you'll land among the stars."
_Les Brown_

WhtDove
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-22
Posts 9245
Illinois
3 posted 2000-04-06 10:20 AM


Again welcome to Passions!

I am moving this post to our Open #6 forum.
I will leave this here just incase you haven't read my emails. This topic will be closed here in this forum, but open to replies in the Open #6 forum.  

[This message has been edited by WhtDove (edited 04-06-2000).]

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