God be in my head And in my understanding; God be in mine eyes And in my looking; God be in my mouth And in my speaking; God be in my...

I stand most humbly Before man’s wisdom, Knowing we are not Really wise: If we were We’d open up the kingdom And make earth happy As the...

Once I adopted A little girl child, She grew up and got ruint, Nearly drove me wild. Then I adopted A little boy. He used a switch-blade...

Always first to rise he usually sliped into daybreak like a phantom – heading (in jacket jeans white socks & loafers) for Alemeda the...

One more mountain, One more valley, One more river to cross. One more sorrow, One more heart break, One more disappointment To overcome....

I cannot sleep.  The long, long Night is full of bitterness. I sit alone in my room, Beside a smoky lamp. I rub my heavy eyelids And idly...

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon I heard a Negro play Down on Lenox Avenue the other night ...

In places like Selma, Alabama, Kids say, In places like Chicago and New York…… In places like Chicago and New York Kids say, In places...

That which inside of me screaming beating about for exit or entry names the wind, wanting winds’ voice wanting winds’ power it is not...

“Mingus One, Two and Three” “Which is the image you want the world to see?’ – Charles Mingus, Beneath the UnderdogHeartstring, Blessed...

Like Lady Day, your voice forged from the harshness of life’s realities, soft yet powerful,  confident yet so very vulnerable, speaking...

Listen! All you beauty-makers, Give up beauty for a moment. Look at harshness, look at pain, Look at life again. Look at hungry...

First, erase your mane, unravel your years, destroy your surroundings, uproot what you seem, and who remains standing?Then, rewrite...

my ole man took me to the fulton fish market we walk around the guts and the scalesmy ole man show mw the dead fish, eyes like throat...

1 when i stand around among poets i am embarrassed mostly, their long white beards, the great bulge in their pantstheir certainties i...

In black core of night, it explodes Silver thunder, rolling back my brain, Bursting copper screens, memory worlds Deep in star-fed...

See that lady Dressed so fine? She ain’t got boogie-woogie On her mind –But if she was to listen I bet she’d hear, Way up in the...

Now a void, a black hole in a starless midnight sky. A passion, not unlike a raging fire. Now like embers dying in the cold dampness of a...

Won’t read about it in no AMA Journal. No cure on WEBMd. Symptoms have you feeling a bit light headed, short of breath toward the end of...

So long, So far away Is Africa. Not even memories alive Save those that history books create, Save those that songs Beat back into...