L'Nass Shango Poet Acrostic

Miseducation of the Negroes

Mentors like priests preparing me for holy rite
Institutional slaves to a false trinity
Subduing adventure, exploration and discovery to classroom rigor
Eternal stairway ... moonbeams to the golden dream
Dismatling who I am so I become who you want me to be
Urges denied constructing scaffolds, setting beam
Castling on beam, I climb like Jack the ogre tree
Ability acquiring arrows for what's embattling me
Tensions beyond the classroom, teacher grading my
Intelligence as if it were a canvas to her eye
Opportunity has too narrow a door for all our differences
Nestled in her pocket, I see the ogre search in vain.

Offering us like children to the fires of Molech
Frantic prayers sibilant in flickering tongues of despair

Teeming the locus of the African nightmare
Husked of gold, silver, uranium, copper and diamond skies
Each one scrambles up the vine compassless of self

Nations fall - without the eyes of love we are blind
Emerging people shaken out in global disarray
Groaning for nothing from classroom to classroom
Refer to their budgets and see what is prioritize
Oysters get their pearls from pain, I know, yet
Errors must be corrected, education must mean more, we
Substance truth only by the purge of a regulated history.

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Yoni Dvorkis March 30, 2009 at 6:37 AM Oh wow this is acrostic too? Holy ---- I didn't even notice. That's talent.

Yoni Dvorkis March 30, 2009 at 6:35 AM I was watching this TV documentary on Zimbabwe where the government just seized and burned all of the farming properties. It's hard enough living in a western nation, I can't imagine what the population goes through when they know their own leaders engineered a famine to starve them all to death. But they don't know their rights, something your poem speaks to very eloquently. "Dismantling who I am so I become who you want me to be" reminds me a lot of Ellison's 'Invisible Man'.

Raul Moreno March 24, 2009 at 4:30 PM 'Oysters get their pearls from pain' Great line so much logic...Raul

Debbie Guzzi March 24, 2009 at 4:27 PM "a regulated history" is all we have and all we will ever get, sorry to say, and the wisdom above was true for anyone not a white male. Actually, true learning, the ability to reason is taught in very few classrooms on any continent. The closest I have seen so far was in Denmark. Your exams were oral. say 7 subjects 5 exams, you didn't know until about a week before which 5 were to be tested. You stood before a panel of teachers and answered, relating one subject to each of the others or failed.

Colin Mitchell Williams March 24, 2009 at 11:52 AM Your use of words is astonishing L'nass; you have a real talent for writing.... this poem is succinct and carefully worded, a rant and an all to clear truth, held in check by its delivery to pin point ........ awesome !

Abe Lopez March 24, 2009 at 9:21 AM this is very well written.... my favorite part is the {negroes} section ....great job! thank you for your comments!

Daver Austin March 24, 2009 at 5:57 AM Thanks for reading "Lace Mary Jane" I can imagine you must feel like you've been on a trip nightmare your entire lifetime. Great write, L'nass. Love, daver

Arany P. March 24, 2009 at 4:47 AM excellent my friend! ~ Arany

Brian Strand March 24, 2009 at 4:16 AM A talented write with this difficult form L'neass..Rgds Brian & thanks for your welcome comments

Carolyn Devonshire March 23, 2009 at 7:55 PM Very wise words, Shango. I hope this situation is corrected someday, but I think we have a long way to go. Carolyn

Keith Bickerstaffe March 23, 2009 at 6:57 PM This is magnificent my friend! A superbly sustained acrostic full of vibrant language and imagery. '...compassless of self,' '...oysters get their pearls from pain,' ...exquisite phrasing. This could only have been written by a native of your continent; the empathies are home-grown... Best wishes, Keith

Anthony Bell March 23, 2009 at 5:35 PM teacher grading my intelligence as if it were a canvas to her eye.. nice brings back memories i really enjoyed this poem, hope to get on your level one day.

Michaela Payne March 23, 2009 at 1:23 PM This is amazing "Oysters get their pearls from pain, I know, yet Errors must be corrected, education must mean more," Such powerful lines of truth. Awesome write thanks so much for sharing. Blessings, ~Michaela~

Frank F. Atanacio March 23, 2009 at 9:47 AM omg--this was Historically charged well written my friend

James Marshall Goff March 23, 2009 at 9:08 AM stubbornly pulling the lies of society apart, you do it the best I've seen L'nass! it's hard work, but you do it effortlessly! Jim