Tag Archives: Freewrite

In Search of Leadership

06 Monday Apr 2020

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Imbalanced lives and circumstances
Adversarial communications based on fallacy laden rhetoric
To ridicule
To evade
To incense
To ostracize
A collectivized canon
Too familiar
Too historical
Too avoided
Are those words that current actions are challenging most to hear and discuss
Colin nor Jim nor Muhammad nor all of the others in sports should be viewed through a planter’s lens
As physical labor incapable of formulating coherent thoughts and meaningful actions
Yet, the lens that has framed how a nation sees one another remains avoided like the plague.
All of this frames the context for what is most needed and missing at present
In search of leadership
Cannot start from a position of myopia
Skewed by self-interest at the expense of common decency and compassion
In search of leadership
Cannot start with fragmented politics nor oligarchical capitalism
Unfortunately, our search for leadership ended with 44 and hopefully will be reinstated by 46…

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She Calls

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

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Silently beckoning movement forward
In fragmented steps
Destined to affect change
Tears radiate from sorrow
Entrenched in years of becoming
Or the denial thereof
As “American” as the fallacy of 1776
The ideal institution of indoctrination and subjugation
Of multiple differences who either were forced or willingly relented their uniqueness
Heritage
Language
Selfhood
Be mindful of the intoxicating effect of professed freedom
As it often renders us more dependent on the system outside of ourselves
Pawns on an uneven chess board
Without the benefit of a queen or rooks…
She has called for generations
Yet remains truly unheard
Through an unjust social and economic structure
An educational system of oppression and ideology
She calls yet remains unheard
She remains blinded by a misconceived belief in equality and hope
She desires and deserves as those who fed her ideals and coffers
She calls
She embodies
Yet does not ensure what she is believed to personify most
Freedom…

She’s Crying

03 Sunday Sep 2017

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Rising tides of insurmountable waves
Indiscriminate to zipcode and identification to a degree
Uncertainty and displacement
Helping hands extended in harm’s way
Humanity at a time when circumstance and situation require her best
Young and old
Equally dependent and deserving of a calming presence of safety and shelter
Flooded homes and dampened realities will yield to the power of hope and possibility
Created when one cares about others more than themselves
We must see the beauty in a difficult situation once again
Fleeting memories are etched with the trauma born from Harvey’s tears
Yet a city named Houston has been left to do the crying…

Letting Go To Let Live

26 Monday Jun 2017

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As our lives continue
We face at different moments fundamental hurdles and challenges
Figurative forks in our roads
Challenging us to be present in the moment
Moments that impact our futures as well as our present circumstances
Letting go to let live
Mothers and fathers
Find these moments true at different stages of development of their children
Lovers will become adversaries if conflicts and contradictions arise
Childhood friends drift apart as their life’s journeys require
Letting go to let live
is a critical facet of our existence
The pain that often arises is one that we bear
With pride
With reservation
With an undying belief that we must
We need
We are required
Letting go to let live
Allows us to either free ourselves or further become imprisoned
By regret
By what ifs
By what could have beens
When as stewards of our lives
we naively deny all signs that answer our deepest questions
Those we most fear
The ones that let us know that what we once held dear was not meant for us
What we once guarded as truth was fiction or not what we once believed
That our fairytale does not have that happy ending we always wanted
Letting go to let live
Ultimately allows us to let ourselves love

Bipolar Nation

18 Sunday Jun 2017

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Civil unrest
Civil disobedience
Calls for subordination
Calls for enforcement of divisive ideologies of othering
Lives in turmoil as fear blankets them
ICE agents knocking on doors
Rounding up breathing, living, loving beings as if they were cattle being led to slaughter
Mothers and fathers separated from their children
Families in disarray as if they were being auctioned off for Southern plantations
For a simplified prescription for a complex circumstance
The hypocrisy of the time is one of major concern
Those who celebrate their ancestors’ arrival on such places as Ellis Island
Seem to not recognize that they too were from legacies of foreigners
Yet the romanticism ends quicker than it really began as this has been forgotten
We want them invisible to our lives unless they are speaking “our language”
Obeying our laws which we ourselves often abuse or ignore
Cooking our food
Washing our clothes
Making our beds when we travel
Manicuring our lawns
An underlying principle of the “American Way”
Exploitation of laborers in the form of free or significantly reduced labor
Voiceless
Faceless
Humanless
A nation is again putting those who are different on notice
Pray like us
Believe in our God
Believe in our Way
Concede your history and beliefs for a better way
A way made in “America”
Bipolar Nation
Should be our new anthem
For we have continually practiced a policy of forcing either or outcomes
Whether it was 1776
Or during the antebellum period
During the times of McCarthy and his hunt for Communists
We remain steadfast in being the obstacle in our own way
Bipolar nation
Either you have or you do not
That includes education, financial freedom, and health care
Yet we continue to look the other way until our hatred of others spills on our doorsteps
Our rhetoric of violence to not only those beyond our boundaries but those who reside within is disheartening
If you speak too sharply you may find yourself in the reach of the tentacles of the “Patriot Act”
More so like yelling “fire” in a crowded movie theatre
You are labeling yourself as if you wore a scarlet letter or Star of David
Bipolar nation
We are who we’ve always been yet most do not want to see
A nation whose fractured past prevents us from un-fracturing our present and future…

The Casual Eye

11 Sunday Jun 2017

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Across spaces

Distant yet familiar

Beating hearts eclectic in rhythm

Captivating each other with each passing moment

Condensation along slim figures

Unable to quench what is preconceived

Foreign becomes naturalized

With each sway and calculated movement

The outcome is evident to those who retain focus

Until what is full becomes empty

 

To Capture a Heartbeat

04 Sunday Jun 2017

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Transfixed with fleeting thoughts and question marks
Regulated to internalized skeletons, buried deep
Our pride can become our greatest asset while simultaneously being an equivalent liability
Each guided step leads us to a conclusion that we often deny
To be encapsulated
Enchanted
Captivated
At the mercy of another
Flesh and bone
Mind and spirit
Forbodes many complexities for which we place our wounded, vulnerable selves
With each rhythmic melody or sorrow song
We forge ourselves ahead in the imaginations of our captor
The one who garners all that we seek to embody
We yield in inopportune times forfeiting what fuels our agency
Self worth is not defined by the whims of others but by our willingness to become what our hearts and minds imagine
In spite of all obstacles, we pursue a destiny beyond the horizon
With each step we take based on our belief in our dreams
We persevere
We fight
We challenge
We remember
And we forget
Yet through all of these things we never forsake what beats within our breasts
For if we do,
We have allowed what’s most dear to us to be captured by those deemed unworthy
Our heartbeat…

Transient Echo

04 Sunday Jun 2017

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Standing in plain sight
Contemplating next steps
Unanswered questions
Left to self devices
Faint remembrances of togetherness
Unified in passion and purpose
No recollection is beyond reproach
For images of what once held attention
Now are residually empty
Transient echoes
Heartbeats
Warmth
Tenderness
Fixation now serves preoccupation’s bidding
Electing to transform closed wounds to open scars
Emotional neglect prevails the atmosphere
Harboring fragmented promises of trust, loyalty, amd compassion
You may escape its initial orbit but one cannot clear its pull
Black holes are not solely found among the constellations
We find them in the hearts and lives of those who still seek completion
Some suggest that absence makes the heart grow fonder
Others experience false senses of hope as proclaimed in fables and shallow love songs
Transient echoes

The Reason

02 Friday Jun 2017

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Falsehoods and desires for greatness

Left with the responsibilities of our ancestors

Most of whom I’ve never met

To the future generations who I hope to help empower

This chosen path often positions me in the role as gatekeeper or antagonist

Neither of which I seek to portray

So much is at stake

The past, present, and future converge upon us

With the impact of an atomic bomb

Destroying all within its reach

Yet, we persevere like abolitionists, freedom riders, and infantry of the great wars

Each battle we embark upon impacts an unformed legacy

Of young and old

Insanity is defined by our actions as we believe in those who often have had no opportunity to believe in themselves

Intellectual idols are few and far between for many because we’ve never been allowed nor taught about the intellectuals who look, talk, or act like us.

In recognition of these truths as self-evident

I embrace my reason

My purpose

My calling of being an educator…

Thoughts in Motion

18 Saturday Feb 2017

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Remarkably captured in my imagination
Perplexing yet understood
Of the variables that constitute this phenomenon
One that has fixed its sights and hold onto what was beyond reach
Stored away
Under guard
With each passing moment that begins to change
For the better
For the unknown
With each passing moment what is hardened becomes malleable
What is exiled becomes repatriated
The immeasurable chaos that accompanies becomes desired harmony
The instrumentation that orchestrates our understanding of ourselves
Takes center stage for this performance
Of life
A life that is less perfect than it has ever been before or envisioned
Garnered with civility and promise
Rooted in a core belief in something more
With each passing moment time becomes an echo
Reminding all within its reach of how important all things dear to us remain
Reminding us of the invaluable purpose of love
And its affect on all those who are fortunate enough to encounter its path…

Assail

18 Saturday Feb 2017

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A festive congregation of diverse forms
Gathered in joy and celebration
Unknowingly targeted for reasons
Subjectively debated and/or ignored
The setting places those who truly
Seek to be advocates and allies
In perilous conundrums
Scared hearts and bodies
Others cold and riddled
Propaganda is the last thing needed
Or wanted to be heard
By a family, lover, and/or friend of anyone
Who was assailed
Violated
Traumatized
Or even scapegoated
Identities fractured by incomplete
Or politicized objectives
The absolute truth may never truly be known
Yet we can concretely deduce
There are no true winners if all of us
Truly embrace our humanity
Advocacy means we share our voices with those
Who oppression continues to work to mute
Advocacy means not playing the victim-blaming game
That often becomes the means of historical erasure
With each last breath or aching wound
Whether physical or emotional
We have all lost and are under assail
Race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and culture among other aspects of our humanity
Have been further eroded
Orlando is just one of many examples of the
Detrimental effects of hate no matter the rationale
Love is not the solution when it is cloaked in complacency and inaction that shuns levels of sacrifice
Until each breath inhales this unalterable truth
There is no true we, yet the current national, societal, and political stances
Empower an assailant that has historically mutated
Each second, minute, hour, day, year, decade, and century
Known as the “American” F
Fear…

From Beyond the Prism

16 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Identity Politics, Poetry, Racialization Impacts, Uncategorized

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Captivating in ways that are detrimental
Far fetched and historically incomplete
Figments of others’ imaginations
Yet fundamentally an ascribed reality
Fear has reintroduced itself as fictive kin
Predating hands being raised
Votes being denied
Necks being roped
Bodies being burned
Left to be
To rot
To never become because many viewed us as never complete in the first place
Or maybe the 3/5 place
As compromise often happens to us but not for us
From beyond the prism
We are in a land that still finds ways to question our humanity
Personhood
Sense of self-actualization
Young boys and grown men recognize that Predator’s sights are historically locked on them
Young girls and grown women are both recipients and protectors of generations of young people who are precious gems even when a society seeks to denigrate them
As history tells us…
when not found in the history books of revisionist dehumanizers
whose fear of those who have been “othered” continues to permeate
The pores of a nation as many revisit its birth within theaters
The sweat off one’s brow from determination and a false belief of Meritocracy
Leaves much to be desired for those who were constitutional add-ons of the 13th, 14th, and/or 15th varieties
If we’re honest about Abe then would we really see the
Emancipation of physical bonds only to preserve psychological and economic ones can not be erased nor flipped as done by the party he’s so adamantly revered by
No donkey nor elephant seems to reach deep enough
Effectively address
Morally renounce
The effects resulting
From beyond the prism

Trajectory

19 Sunday Jun 2016

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Positioned to discover, explore, and/or question
Life’s charted course
Each decision is beseeched with
Possibilities yet we are not
Guaranteed of its outcome
Whether good or bad
We hope to champion a cause
That is worthy of our effort
Our commitment
Our sacrifice
Yet, we are left to question
It and ourselves
At each critical phase, stop, or hurdle
Many of us embody the good fight
The willingness to put the wellbeing of others first
At the expense of our own wishes for ourselves
We plant the seeds through our
Professional and personal obligations and commitments
In doing so, we help set the trajectory
For all of whom we are honored to teach.

Standing Alone

30 Saturday May 2015

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Often the challenge faced requires one to go against the grain
The question of being a leader or follower is one that faces us time and time again
Society suggests a contradictory message in which we are both isolated but viewed as a collective
We are grouped and segregated by a host of descriptors that are now the norm
Normal for whom?
Normal for what?
Normal for the maintenance of a status quo that shames, demeans, and oppresses
Any who does not meet the “eye test”
The “actions test”
The “American Patriot test”
These are very challenging times where fear has a strong grasp on the lives and realities of so many
News features and calls for fear, resonating with a collection of persons who have been taught not to question or ask
but instead to accept
How did this happen you ask?
It actually has always been,
for this country
It just depended on who you were and how you were classified.
If you were female, patriarchy ruled your world
If you were African, Asian, Irish, Indigenous, and many other identities you were relegated to inferior status or worse
This is the context in which our realities have been shaped
Our worldviews are fortified with institutionalized oppression in the forms of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, and the list continues to grow.
We are undoing our existence through the enabling and pacifying of our rights
Not the rights to oppress those who do not
Look like us
Love like us
Think like us
Speak like us
Pray like us
We are standing alone
because we are and have been taught
to be afraid to stand together…

Broken Sparrow

29 Friday May 2015

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Challenged in nature
Weak
Perched on a ledge
Unable to fly
Damaged feathers
A wounded wing
Unable to balance

Perched on a ledge
Wishing to soar
Wishing to leave
This place
This ledge

Limited movement
Exposed to the environment
Predators lurking all around
Waiting for the opportune moment to
Conquer
Capture
Consume
Devour

Perched on a ledge
Unable to fly
Damaged feathers
A wounded wing
Unable to balance

Perched on a ledge
Broken Sparrow
Seeking to fly
To return home
To its nest
Weak
Unable to fly
Unable to soar

Here comes the rain
Saturating what remains
What is uninjured
Chirping between
The constant patter of raindrops
As if help were within its song

More unwanted attention is drawn
Recognizing the situation
That is ideal for most predators
Seeking an easy prize
Vulnerable
Yet determined
To fly
To soar
To make it home
To its nest

Perseverance is a characteristic of more than just humans
The broken sparrow can attest to this
Not relenting
Not giving in
Not giving up
Seeking and searching
For a way
For an answer
For survival

Life does not always readily
Place those answers obviously at our feet
Yet the broken sparrow continues to
Test
Challenge
Discover
Among the rain and would be predators
Salvation

Perched on a ledge
Unable to fly
Damaged feathers
A wounded wing
Unable to balance

Perched on a ledge
Wishing to soar
Wishing to leave
This place
This ledge

The broken sparrow can attest to this
Not relenting
Not giving in
Not giving up
Seeking and searching
For a way
For an answer
For survival…