Prayer for Thanksgiving

Come, sit at this table & eat,

You who are human & able to breathe,

Drink the water, drink the wine,

Look another in the eyes

& know: it’s true, we all will die.

& so today, while we still have Life,

Let us gather with a feast,

Dance until our feet ache,

Tell stories, laugh out loud,

Give thanks for what we have now.

& as we sit in these chairs

& eat, & speak, our sounds are prayers

that all who wander hungry & alone

will someday find this table, and be Home.

God is

“She’s a revolution against revlon /

a tyrant with a tampon”

- Deja Taylor,  “Ode to a Female Emcee”

for Deja K Taylor – the revolution you are /

for FM Supreme/ for No Name / Kiara /

for Essie / Lakia / Dominique / Kush / Aimee /

for Jamila / Jean Deaux / Nova / Tabitha/ Shea

for the goddesses / god is this fire you breathe

on the mic / like a lioness / obviously

lyin’s no option for you / brutal truth-speakers / rebels /

breakin down myths from the battleground of your sex /

no time for bull / gotta educate these masculine cultures/

rhymes full of misogyny and ass-lookin vultures /

gratitude to women with attitude / & glory

to all those who contended unmentioned in his story

resisting the Man through whatever methods they had to keep

enacting sex battles open and clandestine /

what they can’t stand to see: females fierce to the core /

this is my ode to you / never stop roarin

this for Bjork / Tune-Yards / Ani Difranco /

for Jill Scott / Erykah Badu / Joni Mitchell /

who proudly howl individual voices /

women loudly living out countercultural choices /

unafraid to sound weird even though difference is feared

in women / for Joanna Newsom, who knew some about that/

as did Janis / Joan Baez / Yoko / Josephine foster /

Kimya Dawson / Queen Latifah / Josephine Baker /

this for Meg / K Serra / Lauryn Hill / Regina Spektor /

Billie holiday, standin up for her people like Ester /

for the outspoken poets: Alixa & Naima,

Climbing PoeTree / raising consciousness / teaching people to dream again /

for Iyeoka, medicine woman on the mic /

Sunni Patterson / Caroline Harvey / Jeanann Verlee and the like /

Marty / Cristiana / Cydney / Susie / Patricia Smith /

Simone / April / Jessica Care Moore / Andrea Gibson /

for Aracelis Girmay’s impeccable eyes for the real /

for Fiona / mic beast singing precisely how you feel /

for the teachers: Toni Lightfoot, Santana, Ms Porri,

Diana, Mariah, Missy Hughes, you, your stories

are the silent and righteous fight / for Molly Meacham

your students need people like you who can reach em

this for women poets of old / back to Rabia /

Rumi’s main influence / though biographies rob ya /

for Phillis Wheatley / leader of self-emancipation /

learned to read to free herself for black liberation /

this for Dickinson / Angelou / Atwood / Gwendolyn /

Julia Álvarez / Lucille Clifton /

Nikki Finney/ Nikki Giovanni /

Anna Akhmatova’s invaluable testimony /

Marianne Moore / Claribel Alegría /

Julia de Burgos / Santa Teresa de Avila /

a mystical nun in the Spanish inquisition /

who strategically played her radical position /

for the revolutionaries / for Vandana Shiva /

a one-woman army fighting monsanto’s evil /

for bell hooks / calling prejudice what it is /

teaching teachers to respect what their learners live /

for Rosa, who didn’t just one day sit like the story goes,

but was part of an organized protest of jim crow /

for Harriet / and heroines who never knew fame /

for Sojourner Truth, who lived and died by her name /

for Aung San Suu Kyi / the ghandi of burma /

15 years house-arrested / learned to fight guns with dharma /

this for Jane Addams and Luisa Capetillo

for our own Anna West / para Ana Castillo /

for Afeni Shakur / Rachel Maddow / Annie Leonard /

this for Angela Davis / Barbara Marx Hubbard /

and for all unsung woman-heroes of history /

spanning from Mary Magdalene to Rita Marley /

for Judith / Yael / Miriam / Joan of arc

for Lillith, the first feminist / who lives in the heart

of all those who struggle for gender equality

with strength, love, patience, and all other qualities

of the Divine Feminine / humans find heaven in

the balance between Yin and Yang / but the second one’s

been dominating since man’s been subjugating

women and nature / punching Mother Earth bloody /

ultimately Goddess and God are the same,

so we gotta embrace both within our own frame /

males, taste the sweet honey in the rock /

females, keep fighting for freedom / don’t stop /

lastly i gotta shout out to my family’s

goddesses: Grandmas, Mom, Sarah & Emily /

Lisa, Dev, Yoli, Elisita, Tia Tedi /

Sor Elisa / Leah / Julie, Mari & Melly /

y todas mis primas, amores, amigas,

diosas / my sisters / namaste / i see you /

thank you for making me who i am today /

for teaching me how to love loudly, to play

my own music to my own special heartbeat /

and helping me tune in to the feminine part of me /

my Godessence / God has since always been brimmin

in me / so may it be for all / Amen/Awomen

Angelish

 A Hip Hop Manifesto for John Sacelli

“Equate rhyme with reason” – Saul Williams

ever notice how certain words seem meant to rhyme

and you know this because they get used all the time

together / weather or not it’s cliché / its music /

assume it’s a part of this way we communicate /

ruminate on this thing called language

and tell me it isn’t how we sing all our anguish

for Love / for connection with others / reflecting

Mother Nature above and below us / all around us /

what miracle found us with speech?

this wizard technology through which we reach

between souls and into the very bowl of Creation?

roll with me now / i’m teaching poeducation:

welcome to Angelish 101 / a tongue

which, though strange, is so much fun /

start with the premise that all forms of Meaning are one /

then start gleaning Truth from all wordplays and puns /
find Divine by uniting both sides of the mind /

drink the Wine of you / you are Buddha-full Being /

look within at the Starlight / then bring what ur seeing

to yr outer spacetime / write yr life in alignment

with the Stream / a line meant to carry yr dreams / see

speaking is prophecy / gods work on teams /

words are weirds, which is why they are spelled /

by the words we speak our own lives are held /

we are sentenced to live by the spells which we cast /

so we speak sentences / intentions that last /

as humans we must learn to master this magic /

now pay close attention cuz it’s gonna go fast / yo

this here be lyrical alchemy / all – key – me /

as in the key to knowing All be me /

my own soul is the key to unlock Heaven’s gate /

now please allow me to demonstrate /

homophones are Dhamma poems: my eye is my i /

hay más en otras idiomas / ai ai ai! /

ah more! / bilingual puns / i love em /

they may be bad but i can’t act like i’m above em 

anymore than the sun shining like my sol /

can’t deny the pun-ness / it’s waving like ola! /

God’s Poetry / Jah know it’s me /

why i’m sowin seeds over these flowin beats /

Spirit kicks / 26 letters let Her out /

went to college but self-knowledge was a better route /

g – u – r – u: yr own guru

lives inside / that’s right / jesus? gee, he’s us!

mind-blowing or what? find knowing in gut /

are you getting it now? are you letting it touch?

are you getting in to it /  getting better intuiting

this duet between language and music we do /

that’s Angelish / funny and deep at the same time /

beauty rings true when you hear that name chime /

it’s the game of rhyme, played since ancient times /

relating the Divine thru fun puns and punchlines /

hip hop does the same thing / check it /

off the list / i’m poppin off with this now /

it’s mystical code / the artistic mode

which insists upon going the unknowable road

into Self / travel deep / and keep going /

delving / unraveling knots / watchu know?

break it down like this / make it sound right with /

with the beat you bring / when you speak truth, sing / say,

this musicality is sacred stuff /

True Reality / we didn’t make it up /

it was always there / drifting on the air /

in the moving breeze sifting thru the trees /

in the rolling seas / the drumming raindrops’ soothing

percussion / the thunder booming from above /

in bird calls / and fall leaves underfoot /

humans understood that this Wonder was good /

that these sounds we heard were like god’s own words /

so we started responding and the line got blurred /

imitating Nature’s abounding creations

we channeled Her magic into sound vibrations /

and this imitation must have been the first music /

and thus the first language / how else could we do it?

every body understands beating drums / our hands

speak a vocab we didn’t make / Life planned it /

we were blessed with bodies and rhythm came with em /

an inborn god-given mystical system / a way

to pray thru play so stay ok always /

all days of living are sacred in all ways /

as kids, we knew the Truth / that it’s magic /

now we must access our youth and imagine /

i – mage in me – must defy limitations /

reclaim citizenship of the image – eye – nation  /

revise the pre-sent with the eyes of a poet /

reinvent the world and humankind as we know it /

it starts with a question: a quest – i – on /

who am i? how do i pen my song?

change starts with the songs and the wrongs you right

within yr search / u n i verse from the Poetree of Life /

best be leaf! / manifest O! / let my chi ka go! /

free myself so i can help my people get goin

like moses / i know it / you don’t have to believe it /

it’s just mythology / my theology / see in

this human existence there are only fictions /

pick yr reality / make yr own dictionary /

speak Angelish / the original language /

before babylon babbled on its mad path

in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God

and the Word was God / and the earth is Her body /

but Her soul is eternal unnameable Tao /

primal power / the meaning of WOW / this Now /

now how we gonna save this / take this home?

the answer’s in sanskrit / the base is OM…

Anitya ("Impermanence")

Anitya / i need ya /

a little mantra that i wanna teach ya /

one word you can always repeat, yea,

that i learned at a silent retreat, yea /

it means Change / constant flux / it’s true /

whether or not you fucks with it, it fucks with you /

all things in the Universe are always changing /

the atoms in your body are right now rearranging

themselves, & you can never stop the waves /

in short, shit’s impermanent / nothing is saved /

mountain ranges & cities are turned into sand /

bodies & worlds are just passing through

& that’s Anitya / law of Nature

that applies to all objects & creatures /

no exception, no deception /

Mama Time will eventually eat ya /

all things in the Universe rise & fall,

so no point in attaching / just watch it all

come & go, fast or slow, eyes open or closed /

all the currents of the River of Life which flows

ever forward, forward / this moment, this /

Now is the state which you ride in bliss /

just observing the body & the mind’s sensations

with the understanding that you’re made of vibrations /

Anitya / so you never get stuck /

got an itch? yea, it’ll pass soon enough

try this exercise out: next time you wanna scratch,

just don’t / let it rise, stay awhile & pass

without getting mad or reacting too much /

then practice doing this with the bigger stuff /

like tension, pain, or your mind’s mad reasoning /

heat, cold, or rain, not to mention the seasons,

the sickness, loneliness, long plane rides

beside crying babies / stay sane on the inside /

weather all storms saying this too will change /

saying this too, this too will change, change...