2009 Black History Poem - Waco Poetry
My aunt Alice called today wanting me and my sister to read a poem at Church tomorrow for their BHM program. So, I sat down and wrote this today.
The 2009 Poem
“The remembrance originated in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson as "Negro History Week"[citation needed]. Woodson chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.”
“When the tradition of Black History Month was started in the US, many in mainstream academia had barely begun to explore black history. At that point, most representation of blacks in history books was only in reference to the low social position they held as slaves and their descendants, with infrequent exceptions such as that of George Washington Carver. Black History Month is also referred to as African-American History Month. W.E.B. DuBois' 1935 work "Black Reconstruction" was an early work in history that pointed to black contributions.[1]
Part of the aim of Black History Month is to recognize significant contributions to society made by black slaves and how their history is integral to mainstream narratives.”
Quotes taken from Wikipedia.com
Poem/Prose
What can a slave create? In bondage, in those tight, damp, snug quarters
In that place where only hope can craft the enduring beauty of itself
A slave can create just about anything…
Anything of worth and anything of worthlessness
Free born long before someone wrapped my life up in tattered bonds
Bronzed, burnt, hinted, tinted, and tanned teaming along coastal shores
And rugged lands
Stretching out into the distant and future plans
Child, mother and earth sufficient man
And we are all sweat born blood bought brethren
Kings and paupers, slaves and masters, creators and destroyers
Proud and learn(ed), prideful and ignorant
Crippled and dependent, gifted and arrogant
Lazy or industrious… self-centered or sacrificing
Visionary and blinded, coursing onward as all are and will ever be
Free born to shed the shackles of “can’t, ain’t and won’t”
Free born to take the tiller of can, will, and do
Dancers and dunces alike
For less than 100 years the elite wanted light
Well stand elite and take flight
Anyone who witnesses will write
Black history is exploding in techno-color brightness
This is the time to rise
Don’t fight this
Wind song of whispered melodies
The outgrowth of a people’s harmony
The slave endured so that we are free
Once again to explore
God’s mysteries
Let him Master thee
400 years in the making of one masterpiece
You, your gift, your song, your light
You, your call, your work, your plight
And in the next 400 hundred years
They’ll write
Those slaves to credit, debt, and blight
Gave to us our inheritance, the might
To overcome the tides of life
And deliver a new nation holding tight
To the call of all who pass this way
The story of a people restored, making their way through discord
Fighting the enemy of greed
Never standing down the need
To repair the evil deeds
We’ve seen
Let history rejoice
Let our current call to duty
Prove no less worthy of the page
Let our works exceed in measure
Let our toil receive the grade
And let all those who came before us
Sing God’s praise
In one collective joyful voice,
Sing God’s praise
blessings~
The 2009 Poem
“The remembrance originated in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson as "Negro History Week"[citation needed]. Woodson chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.”
“When the tradition of Black History Month was started in the US, many in mainstream academia had barely begun to explore black history. At that point, most representation of blacks in history books was only in reference to the low social position they held as slaves and their descendants, with infrequent exceptions such as that of George Washington Carver. Black History Month is also referred to as African-American History Month. W.E.B. DuBois' 1935 work "Black Reconstruction" was an early work in history that pointed to black contributions.[1]
Part of the aim of Black History Month is to recognize significant contributions to society made by black slaves and how their history is integral to mainstream narratives.”
Quotes taken from Wikipedia.com
Poem/Prose
What can a slave create? In bondage, in those tight, damp, snug quarters
In that place where only hope can craft the enduring beauty of itself
A slave can create just about anything…
Anything of worth and anything of worthlessness
Free born long before someone wrapped my life up in tattered bonds
Bronzed, burnt, hinted, tinted, and tanned teaming along coastal shores
And rugged lands
Stretching out into the distant and future plans
Child, mother and earth sufficient man
And we are all sweat born blood bought brethren
Kings and paupers, slaves and masters, creators and destroyers
Proud and learn(ed), prideful and ignorant
Crippled and dependent, gifted and arrogant
Lazy or industrious… self-centered or sacrificing
Visionary and blinded, coursing onward as all are and will ever be
Free born to shed the shackles of “can’t, ain’t and won’t”
Free born to take the tiller of can, will, and do
Dancers and dunces alike
For less than 100 years the elite wanted light
Well stand elite and take flight
Anyone who witnesses will write
Black history is exploding in techno-color brightness
This is the time to rise
Don’t fight this
Wind song of whispered melodies
The outgrowth of a people’s harmony
The slave endured so that we are free
Once again to explore
God’s mysteries
Let him Master thee
400 years in the making of one masterpiece
You, your gift, your song, your light
You, your call, your work, your plight
And in the next 400 hundred years
They’ll write
Those slaves to credit, debt, and blight
Gave to us our inheritance, the might
To overcome the tides of life
And deliver a new nation holding tight
To the call of all who pass this way
The story of a people restored, making their way through discord
Fighting the enemy of greed
Never standing down the need
To repair the evil deeds
We’ve seen
Let history rejoice
Let our current call to duty
Prove no less worthy of the page
Let our works exceed in measure
Let our toil receive the grade
And let all those who came before us
Sing God’s praise
In one collective joyful voice,
Sing God’s praise
blessings~
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