Before you knew you owned it
Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.
Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.
Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
Alice Walker
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.
Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.
Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
Alice Walker
enslaved
Oh when I think of my long-suffering race,
For weary centuries despised, oppressed,
Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place
In the great life line of the Christian West;
And in the Black Land disinherited,
Robbed in the ancient country of its birth,
My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead,
For this my race that has no home on earth.
Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry
To the avenging angel to consume
The white man's world of wonders utterly:
Let it be swallowed up in earth's vast womb,
Or upward roll as sacrificial smoke
To liberate my people from its yoke!
Claude McKay
For weary centuries despised, oppressed,
Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place
In the great life line of the Christian West;
And in the Black Land disinherited,
Robbed in the ancient country of its birth,
My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead,
For this my race that has no home on earth.
Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry
To the avenging angel to consume
The white man's world of wonders utterly:
Let it be swallowed up in earth's vast womb,
Or upward roll as sacrificial smoke
To liberate my people from its yoke!
Claude McKay
Never let me down
We are all here for a reason on a particular path
You don't need a curriculum to know that you're a part of the math
Cats think I'm delirious but I'm so damn serious
That's why I expose my soul to the globe; the world
I'm trying to make it better for these little boys and girls
I'm not just another individual
My spirit is a part of this that's why I get spiritual
But I get my hymns from Him
So it's not me, it's He that's lyrical
I'm not a miracle, I'm a heaven sent instrument
My rhythmatic regiment navigates melodic notes
For your soul and your mental
That's why I'm instrumental, vibrations is what I'm into
Yeah I need my loot by rent day
But that ain't what gives me the heart of Kunta Kinte
I'm trying to get us "us free" like Cinque
I can't stop, that's why I'm hot
Determination, dedication, motivation
I'm talking to you of my many inspirations
When I say I can't let you or self down
If I were on the highest cliff, on the highest riff
And if you slipped off the side and clinched on to your life
In my grip I would never ever let you down
And when these words are found
Let it be known that God's penmanship has been signed
With a language called love
That's why my breath is felt by the deaf
And while my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I too dream in color and in rhyme
So I guess I'm one of a kind in a full house
Cause whenever I open my heart, my soul or my mouth
A touch of God rains out
J. Ivy
You don't need a curriculum to know that you're a part of the math
Cats think I'm delirious but I'm so damn serious
That's why I expose my soul to the globe; the world
I'm trying to make it better for these little boys and girls
I'm not just another individual
My spirit is a part of this that's why I get spiritual
But I get my hymns from Him
So it's not me, it's He that's lyrical
I'm not a miracle, I'm a heaven sent instrument
My rhythmatic regiment navigates melodic notes
For your soul and your mental
That's why I'm instrumental, vibrations is what I'm into
Yeah I need my loot by rent day
But that ain't what gives me the heart of Kunta Kinte
I'm trying to get us "us free" like Cinque
I can't stop, that's why I'm hot
Determination, dedication, motivation
I'm talking to you of my many inspirations
When I say I can't let you or self down
If I were on the highest cliff, on the highest riff
And if you slipped off the side and clinched on to your life
In my grip I would never ever let you down
And when these words are found
Let it be known that God's penmanship has been signed
With a language called love
That's why my breath is felt by the deaf
And while my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I too dream in color and in rhyme
So I guess I'm one of a kind in a full house
Cause whenever I open my heart, my soul or my mouth
A touch of God rains out
J. Ivy