wonder

I wonder if he knows me.

I mean I know he knows about me.
I know he knows what I’m about. 
I know he listens when I speak. 
And when I don’t.

But..

I wonder if he knows what I don’t. 
I wonder if he hears what I won’t. 
I wonder if he sees when I cope 
silently and privately with the impossible.

I wonder if he knows what he wants when he says he wants me.
I wonder 
and then he smiles.
And I think, 
he can’t know; how could he?

If he knew, how could he smile so serenely? 
How could he touch so tenderly? 
How could he contain my carcass with such confidence?

Then I wonder how much power he has. 
I’ve seen him move mountains. 
And I’ve witnessed him feed field-fulls of fraught nonbelievers his truth until they were no longer famished and frail. 
But is he a healer? 
If I touch the hem of his garment,
Will I be cured, or fall further into torment?
Can a dead dame be brought back to life or aren’t such marvels frozen in the time capsules we call theologies?

or is he my savior?

I wonder.

I wonder, because I’m broken. 
And no matter how many magicians I make my master
a miracle has yet to be performed.
Instead, I leave each false prophet more broken than before.
But I wonder if he could be any different.
And I wonder how I would know if he was.

If only I could taste his victory. 
If only I could sense his pride.
If only I could be what he sees when he envisions me at his side.
But I can’t.
So I wonder.
About this wonder.

In awe.

24 december 2012.

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socu

written for the introduction to Yoash Victorious’s Season of the Come Up EP. 
the season of the come up is not just a record. it’s not just a movement.
it’s a declaration made by the millions of minds that feel it’s their time.
too many of us have been denied what is rightfully ours
because we’re too blinded by dreams deferred and hopes devoured. 
not that we don’t have the strength within to win, 
but somewhere along the way we became cowards.
but now, we’re sick and tired of keeping our power confined in our pain. 

it’s time to unchain the change ingrained in our veins and let it rain. 
quenching the thirst of the earth, birth worth, and make it plain.
cus alterations can’t be made if our ways stay the same. 
and we can’t defy defeat if we answer to her name
I’m just sayin..
instead of tryna fix the rules, it’s time to change the game, stop playin. 
if you want to rearrange the scheme of thangs you cain.

I mean you can.
I mean you’re able to kill anything that threatens your will to survive. 
so shift your mental gear; take it out of neutral and put it in drive.
come alive! we’re kneeling

I mean pleading
I mean kneading knowing into being. 
and we’re in needing of some soldiers whose hearts are also bleeding. 
no more weeping. without seeking. a solution. 
no more distractions. 
no more insufficient reactions.
no more chit chattin without action. 
and no more actin.
as a matter of fact, retract the tracks of a change to come from your musical rack until you recognize that it’s time to make it happen. 

it’s time to rise up 
against that which falsely defines us.
time to leave behind fractured frames of mind and all the wrong done us.
time to deny the decline with which life has inclined us put up.
time to quit copying and pasting passivity; it’s time to cut up or shut up.
in other words,
it’s time for the come up.

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Ill Lyterati Presents: Open Mic Night at Kilgore

Ill-Lyterati, a premier arts collective based in Atlanta, Ga, hosts a weekly Open Mic Night at Kilgore on Morehouse College's campus. From 8-11 every Thursday night, you can hear amazing art and sign-up to share your own- for free! Come check out the poetry, music, comedy sketches, freestyles and raps the AUC and greater Atlanta area have to provide.

The first Open Mic Night will be Thursday, 1 September 2011. Be there!

Read more about Ill Lyterati here.

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The Presage

The Presage (an Online Undergraduate Journal) is scheduled to debut on 1 September 2011. The Presage is a quarterly journal that is meant to provide future scholars and leaders with a platform to present their already blooming work. The journal will showcase the theories, analyses, critiques and ongoing research of undergraduates from all over the nation.  Issues will also feature "non-academic" areas of excellence such as poetry and media arts. Not specific to any one discipline, the entries in this journal are united by the skill, foresight and diligence of their authors.

Stop by the website on 1 September to read the featured work of scholars from various institutions including Spelman College, Morehouse College, Emory University, Georgia State University and Claftin University.

For more on The Presage, check out the website.

Meet the co-founder and Co-Editor-In-Chief Whitney Skippings-Dupree.

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