Golden

after Jill Scott

I'm takin my freedom
Pullin it off the shelf
Putting it on my chain
Wearin it round my neck
I'm takin my freedom
Puttin it in my car
Wherever I choose to go
It will take me far

I'm livin my life like it's Golden

Livin for real
Feelin the healin freedom yields
Lettin my soul shine
Like it was designed
Lettin it be
Like it was meant to be
Totally Golden
and totally free

I'm givin up to the Gold
Givin up the ghost
Surrenderin to the Good
Lettin Love live the most
I'm starting to start
Trusting my Heart
and lettin me be

Joyfully me
Boy-o-Boyfully Me
My Best me
My Celestial me
My Strong, getting-along-singing-my-own-song me
My Wisest, bright-with-love-light-shining-out-of-my-eyes me!

I'm takin my own freedom
Puttin it in my song
Singin loud and strong
Groovin all day long
I'm takin my freedom
Puttin it in my stroll
I'll be hotsteppin y'all
Letting the joy unfold

I'm livin my life like it's Golden

Holdin nothing back
Lackin nothing but lack
Puttin Love in my backpack
and stayin on track

I'm throwin away my anger
That worn out piece of junk
Never did help me out all that much

I'm livin my own freedom
Thinkin it in my mind
Speakin it with my tongue
Movin it with my hands

I'm Singin every moment
Lettin my Heart shout out
Lettin my Spirit shine
After all, what else is mine?

I'm relishing my own struggle
Swishin it in my mouth
Listening to the spice
Nature tastes so nice

I'm takin my own freedom
Pullin it off the shelf
Wearin it round my neck
Being my true Self
I'm writing poems about freedom
Screamin them in the streets
Getting the good news out
Love's what it's all about!
I'm giving up all doubt
Puttin Love in my every breath, every step, every move, every mile
It's the only thing that's never goin out of style
What's that you say? Why the smile?
That's just my little way of celebrating
My own immortality
No death for me (thank you anyway)
From now on I'm Eternal
and I'm keepin it real
Being at Home
In my own bones
Alive with zeal
Being my Old Soul
Bold as Gold
Being Good as God
cuz that's just how I feel

I'm holdin on to my freedom
Can't take it from me
I was born into it
It comes naturally
I'm strummin my own freedom
Playin the God in me
Representin His glory
Hope He's proud of me

I'm livin my life like it's Golden
Livin my life like it's Golden
Livin my life like it's Golden
Livin my life like it's Golden
Livin my life like it's Golden
Golden

Utopianism

We, the Guerrilla Arts Brigade, hereby reclaim the words utopianism, idealism, and dreaming. These synonyms mean being dedicated to imagining a human society based on the values of love, peace, justice, equality, sustainability, and unity, and taking steps toward realizing these principles on a collective and individual level. All three of these words implicitly recognize the impossibility of reaching the imagined goal of a perfect society, because evolution is a never-ending process. “Utopia” means “no place,” because the utopian society exists only in the realm of dreams; it is an imagined ideal to strive for, to be approached but never reached. In the true sense of the word, utopianism is an intensely practical creed, because it involves constant evaluation, criticism, and change, according to the context of the present. It is also a revolutionary philosophy, because it calls on governments to uphold utopian values through large scale reorganization and redistribution of resources. From a utopianist perspective, “positive social change” is synonymous with “evolution.”

We believe that Art is a powerful tool for evolution, because it has the potential to act as a weapon of mass creation. We believe that all people are inherently creative, imaginative, and therefore artistic. We believe that art is a fundamental expression of humaneness and should be an essential part of daily life and rituals. We believe there should be an abundance of free, public art. By taking steps toward realizing this vision, we intend to use art in the service of our utopian dream.

This is Eduardo Galeano on the subject of utopia: “She's on the horizon... I go two steps closer, she moves two steps away. I walk ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps ahead. No matter how much I walk, I'll never reach her. What good is utopia? That's what: it's good for walking.”

GUERRILLA ARTS BRIGADE Anthem

Welcome friends
to this sensational moment
of deviant audacity
to the explosion of invisible walls
the shattering of silence

We have come
to interrupt the humdrum
of daily modern life
to break the barriers
that blind us from each other
breach the ocean of courtesy
and connect emotionally

We are here
to remind you
that all people are human beings
who eat, sleep, dream, love, laugh, and cry
who are full of stories and passions
who wish and work for happiness

We are here
to shake, surprise, and wake you
throw you a thought that will stick
like mental graffiti
like a seed in your tooth
or a song in your head
make you think, talk, move, act
tune in more frequently
to your own frequency

We are here
to speak out against oppression and war
to name and condemn forces of terror and greed
to resist ignorance, to combat apathy
to activate evolution through human creativity

We are here
to call on all earthlings for unity
to resolve in a joint effort for justice and peace
this is a public service announcement
this the universal movement of self-determination
join us now please as we intentionally approach utopia

We are here
because all people are poets
creators, somewhere, somehow
Gifted with thought, speech, articulation, emotion
We are here to celebrate the madness of being alive
the joy of breathing, the miracle of mortality
We are here to remind you
that you are all unique, beautiful creatures
gods and goddesses
of vast vision and power

We are the messengers
of this moment
We the outspoken poets
Revolutionaries of art

We are Representatives of the Republic of Poetry
Patriots of the image–eye–nation
Anarchists of performance
Lunatics of love

Let all who have ears to hear come listen

We are the Guerrilla Arts Brigade
and we

are

HERE!

change

i was so busy being
who i knew i was
i forgot to be myself
my smile fell asleep
my life was a song on repeat
so my heart said

change
change the beat
change the key
change the style the language
change everything
and then change it some more
never stop changing
whatever you do
don't bore me

change
change like the moon
like faces
like breathe in breathe out
like the weather like days

change
turn the page challenge stasis
break cycles go crazy
change like the chameleon
the butterfly the tadpole the snake
shed dead skin grow new bones
make changes within
in your head in your home
that is where changes begin
change your name your routine
the channel the constitution
when change calls change it all
change is all (r)evolution
so change change evolve revolve
change your life change your love
change it up
change like bodies
like the beatles
like coins calendars clothes
clouds tides stories
like the dictionary
change like the sky
like water like fire like flowers
like wine like trees like minds
like the breeze like time
change like spring
like the apple you ate for breakfast
like the air in a room
when one song ends
and a new one begins

change
be bewildered
be brave enough to trust fate
be baptized in chaos
don't play it safe
stand naked in the rain
bathing in entropy

change
change is your angel
flux is your friend
remember –
everything that is will cease
only this is unchanging
this alone never ends

surrender –
this is the secret
to peace

Real Talk

you
all of you
right here
hearing me
are me

i and you are false

real talk:
separation is illusion
named maya by the mystics
Love be the solvent
of all surface diversity

hear:
my verse is a city with no walls
enter and melt in my meaning
see yourself everywhere and be free

oye:

Love breaks all barriers
makes the mind's semantics dumb
hear ye now how here
in ultimate reality
self and everything are one

real talk:
means i'm keepin it real
speakin my heart
flippin phrases i feel
life is so beautiful!
everywhere joy unfolds!
some cosmic intention
put these words in my soul!

look at you
look at me
see the universe before us
melody of unity
culminating in the chorus
hear the harmonies of physics
earth, rain, sky and sun
all the elements we're made of
from big bang return to one

real talk:
every movement
of thought, word, and deed
is a synapse in the web of life
expanding to infinity
from the energy in the food
and the water i consumed
comes these words
sound vibrations
to bridge the breach
from me to you
waves and particles
modulate
syllables
reverberate in my throat
out they go
through the common air we breathe
reaching over to your ear drums
droppin the beat so sweet
and in this moment
holy as a lover's tender touch
what was once a movement in me
belongs to you at least as much
now a movement in your mind
electric pulse bouncing through
your byzantine brain
connections made
light of truth

real talk:
that's called Love!
cosmic energy
pouring through pen to page
to echo on the stage
of this sacred circle
a karmic game of children's play
an endless jam
one heart to heal

tag, you're it

real talk
you are really It
for real

A Julia de Burgos,

After Julia de Burgos

Julia,
I'm afraid I am too different to call myself “Puerto Rican”
Too light-skinned, too rich, too white,
too unoppressed, too privileged,
too removed, too distant
I grew up sheltered
from sights of police clubbing students
knowing nothing of grandma's island
or your strife

Puerto Rico
is like a birthmark on my back
I never saw

But like you, Julia,
my heart beats words
my true self is poetry
and she hates my pretensions,
breaks down my fences, calls out my mierda
speaks the unspeakable while the moment lasts
challenges me forever to react and evolve
lately I have learned and loved too much about Boricua
for my poems to stay silently separate

Breaking news:
Puerto Rico is the adopted child of an abusive parent
Who inflicts precisely the same violence he promised to reverse
But worse, colonialism infused with racial hatred
Exploitation that can only be described as national rape
They lied, Julia de Burgos, when they said they would make us a state
All they wanted was a practice place for bombs and neoliberalism
Puerto Rico has always been poorer than poor
Its struggles for justice covered-up and ignored
Right now a civil war is being waged on peaceful protesters in the streets
They don't say it on TV, so I am obliged to speak

Today my heartbeat says
My veins don't end in me
But in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle
for life, love, little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone.

This is where my Puerto Rico lives
In my voice, my power, my light
my truth, my religion, my weapon, my life
Soy poeta, Julia, soy poeta como tú
and this poem is boriqueña, like you
I am what I am, which is everything else
What I eat, drink, read, learn, love makes my self
Your words birthed mine, Julia, this makes us kin
and means infinitely more than the shade of my skin

I am Puerto Rico for I am my poetry
My voice is my identity; you can quote me
Truth is in the naked heart
To speak it is prophetic art
So I say hoy soy boriqueño
and that makes it true
por que soy poeta,
Julia de Burgos,
like you

I, too, sing Puerto Rico,
I sing you, Julia,
I sing my teachers Martín, Aracelis,
Willie Perdomo, Pedro Pietri, Luisa Capetillo,
Jesús Colón, Jack Agüeros,
Mi abuela, mis primos, mis amores, amigos,
I am you, who rise in my writing and speech
My breath is your breath
My voice your voice
My battle your battle
My victory yours
My independence is your independence
My howl for justice is your howl
My language your tongue my music your song
My story your story her story his story
The blood of my words is the blood of your words
My Spanish is made of the sounds of your seasons
My love, anger, passion are yours
When I read, you are my poetry
When I spit, you are my spit.

Give me your torch, Julia,
I am proud to take it now
Today Boricua fills my lungs
rises in my chest
and flies from my throat
in freedom songs

¿Qué será de Puerto Rico?
¿De mi islita que será?
Hoy yo pienso en su futuro
Y no sé que va a pasar

Viva Puerto Rico libre
Adelante a luchar
¡Hasta la victoria siempre
Y la independencia!

Love is God

God is Love
That's all

I asked Her
what I should write
in my manifesto
and that was all She said

I was like “Really?! That's it? Love is God? Are you kidding?”
It's so simple; three words that mean everything and nothing
Infinitely profound yet terribly trite
The easiest and hardest poem to write

They'll think I'm crazy
talking to God
'who does this guy think he is
some kind of prophet?'

Well, actually, yes!
That's right. I confess:
I am a blessed vessel of celestial Light!
Love pours through me in epic creations
My words are a song of Divine revelation
The truths I tell often happen to rhyme
so through me Love speaks to a place beyond mind
like music; my heart beats the rhythm in time
with the cosmic concerto, the drums in the sky –

Love Love
Love Love

All day they play
Every sound sings out loud
“I am so damn real!”
Every move, one Love
Every sight, one Life
I can feel it in my heart

Love Love
Love Love

in the snow, in the flowers
the kiss of water on my throat
in the smile that unfolds like my life on your face
in the towering mountains
the brown of my eyes
in the amorous sighs of lovers
in my friends, young and old
big and small, in all –
the stars, stars, the stars!
the earth flying through space
sun and moon rising daily

Love Love
Love Love

I can't contain my Self
My own beauty drives me crazy
Who, where, what am I not?
Rain falls; I am in every drop
I am not not anything so I'm Everything
synonymous with God, Joy, Truth, Peace,
Wisdom, Power, Light, Grace,
Nature, Spirit, Reality, Universe,
Energy, Intuition, Silence, The Way,
Freedom, Life, the Sage, Buddha, Christ,
Amor, el Universo Infinito, la Raíz,

Love Love
Love Love

The song never ends
Though heartbeats will stop
Essence is eternal

Love Love
Love Love

Friends,
you too are prophets
of Divine imagination
all people are poets
co-authors of creation
the same inner Light
that inspires my art
illuminates your soul
and shines from every heart

We have always been One
and every movement we make
is a passionate cry for the sake
of reunion, connection,
that warm way we feel
when we make sacred contact
and we know, if nothing else is real
This is

Love Love
Love Love

May it spread like fire
May it shake sleeping souls
and inspire artistic hearts
May it touch warring nations
like an epidemic of sanity
and one World Family unite all humanity

Until that time
I'ma keep writin these rhymes of mine
Words be my weapons
peace is my fight
pages my prayers
stages my shrine
my voice is my power
Love is my Light
and I'm gonna let it shine

let it shine
let it shine

Let It Shine!