Force For Good

a force for good (for john coltrane and ahmed obafemi based on ‘trane’s treatment of ‘nature boy’) “…I wanna be a force for good…” -John Coltrane …there was a man… a very brave, enchanted man… and he spoke of many things… peace and change this, he said to me… he wanted to be a force to help set us free so we all cd truly have our dignity… in those backstraightening eyeopening times… times of cities burning times of black churches bombbursted times of black and brown babies sacrificed in fire!... hot times! hard times! heroic times!... times of civil rts workers black and white but waaaay mostly black maimed shot lynched and made to disappear the way facists have a way of making people disappear… dangerous and courageous times… times of music changing times of art changing times of laws changing and even some people changing… changing times… times of yg people challenging elders about facing the limits of some of their ways and their times… questioning times… times demanding real answers… critical times… times of malcolm hurling his flesh and his incendiary commitment headlong into the whirlwind!... times of black workers bankrupting racist alabama bus companies feetfirst… sick and tired times of fannie lou krashin lbj’s big ol’ undemocratic false show house party… magic times…tragic times… dreamy times…nightmarish times… times of brothers comin back from ‘nam in pieces times of cia capsizin lumumba and others like him and instituting the genocide of low intensity warfare in its place… blessed times…cursed times?... martin’s roughside mountainclimbin tough times… times of fidel and che comin down from the mountains to make peoples power real after first makin peoples war rt!... rough times…reckless times… revolutionary times… times of wild pigs and troopers shootin at emptyarmed black mothers after shootin at their sons whether they were runnin or not or resistin or not… times of a whole lotta funerals… times of this nat’l order feasting off flesh and famine and hard as hell on the rest of humanity… insane times…bloodstained times… times of people movin and marchin to stop the madness… times at times romantic but often nasty like napalm times… times at times so evil it made eric dolphy’s brokenheart stop somewhere between his ‘be’ and his ‘bop’ at 30 something even though he was far away in a safe place at the time… tearing times…tearing times… thunderous and wonderous times like elvin and philly jo jones times… tryin times…cryin times… high flyin times… hot hard heavy and heroic times… in those times under those conditions upon the ghostly shoulders of underground gone ancestors this man this lone bold loving soul of a man… this man this gentle man of the soft ankhified electric eyes… this man obsessed with peace like the drum major for justice was obsessed with peace… this man this very brave enchanted man seeking to be a force for real good… this man took those times by the bell of his tenor and burrowed laserlike thru the pain and love and fury of it all… this man took those times those hot hard heavy and heroic times by the smoke of his searing soprano and wiped the blood from the face of the stars falling from the sky of those times and he poured and he poured and he poured andpouredandpouredandpouredandpoured from wells ancient deep within him onto the forever of our ears and the eternal of our eyes until there was nothing left nothing but the voluminous print of him trying to cradle those times to make them better… …he wanted to be a force to help set us free so we all cd truly have our dignity… ©2000 all rights reserved ‘bro. zayid’