Best Amer Poems
Frightend children under the baobab
Of elders discourse playing
At the deep edge of rites
Of passages
With no Atlantic dream.
There is a beauty here
Before the other world began
Forgetting its origin
And taste
Of white milk in black breast
Beautifully caressing
The tongue
Outside the jaws of greed.
The time of pyramids
Lolling
On the golden sands
Full with the jewels of history
Civilizations gone
And dead sphinx to come
To Alexandria dreaming
Far from the distant
Wonders of Timbuctu.
And after all that gain
Suddenly a flood
Of nothingness
Carrying totems
Of laughed animism
On children's head
Like weed.
Stale rum sizzling
In the heat
Of deception
Crackle lies
The missionary and prelates of doom
Smile when the boom
Behind us burst
Crankling chains
Move to the shackle of the feet
The heart coffled
To the suddeness of defeat
Stared at the deception
That could not win
Without the foul
Practices bred in smoke filled bars
Of cold desolate
places making a wave.
We come
From banks of river
Surety to insurance companies
For new ships
That carry us promisary notes
Of golds to cotton and cane
Replacing the earth hidden
Treasures
In a mother's bowels
We come
Dying
To change the mosaic to come
Into a place
Where you know may know
I am
The father of the race.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Free verse
The 44th President “one who is blessed” in Swahili,
Happens to love his wife’s Shrimp Linguini.
His desk, in the senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy!
Renegade Tried to make it in to an all black male calendar,
But was rejected by an all female committee.
He wares $1500 Hart Schaffer suits,
With one of his identical pair of size 11 shoes.
When the president stands up you never hear any boo’s.
A few good luck charms he has with him,
A Madonna and child frozen for eternity,
And a bracelet of the arm of a man fighting in Iraq.
Bar can lift an impressive 200 pounds wile lying on his back.
His favorite delight to drink is Black forest iced tea,
Wile looking at his red boxing gloves signed by Mohamed Ali.
But never ask him out to Baskin Robbins, he don’t like ice cream.
But if you gave him a chocolate protein bar his dream.
Hide any dog meat snake meat or roasted grasshoppers up high,
For all these things he has tried.
All wile keeping his dignified pride.
He gets a snip and a trim once a week cost him $21 dollars,
That’s real cheap thanks to Zariff.
In whom the Obomber confides in to talk about the week.
He mite have been the one who convinced the malotoe,
To trade his Chrysler 300 in for the hybrid.
His memoirs, Dreams from My Father won a Grammy in 2006.
He was o past war president that was left handed the 6th.
He left a stag party which had a stripper in 1996.
As a teenager he tried marijuana and cocaine,
And Berry collects comic books like spider-man and Conan the Barbarian.
His specialty as cook is chili,
His favorite TV shows are Mash and The Wire.
He has four places in a Chicago home to build a fire.
He uses an apple Mac laptop to look at Pablo Picasso art.
He has read every Harry Potter book,
I wonder if he spoke Spanish to his pet ape back in Indonesia.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Rhyme
This wake, I owed it to you, my defining moment :
for the raw melding, of life imprisonement
and death behind the bars. The sin had
seeped slowly in the foundations. A blurred view
of the caravan passing on the shifting sand
of quarter-century; the devastation had turned
black in smug oasis, the victim will not
become virgin again. Blind dead will monitor
the course of grievers. On to her tongue
I leave the endless stars and you will forget
the bull-dosed windows and weeping walls
of incaracerated house where the daily meals
were sex and rape ; the strange shadows
of crime and pardon are breaking now
in blue sky after the defeating moon.
SATISH VERMA
• After hearing the verdict on Josef Fritzl on 19th March 09
Categories:
amer, adventure, allegory, angst, animals,
Form:
YOU CAN WITH GODS HANDS
YOU HAVE A GOLD
THAN UNLOAD
DON'T FOLD
DO IT FROM YOUR SOUL
AND DON'T GET DECUSS
STAY FOCUS
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Ralph Ellison is my Father,
For I am Invisible,
I am real,
And I tire of people telling me different,
I am very real,
And yet Invisible,
I am the frailty of a man who is not allowed to feel,
For I am an appendage of other people's feelings,
I am a mirror for their beauty and as long as I show them a pretty reflection,
They love me,
But when I open up to show them a tired, pain ridden child,
They see past him, to their own wants and needs and emotional greed,
Even their queries as to my welfare, are self serving litmus tests for their own grandiosity,
Ralph Ellison is my father,
And I am invisible.
Amen.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Blank verse
I am a *****.
Young,gifted, and black.
I have been to the golden gates of heaven and felt the blazing heat of the doors to hell.
Then made my way back.
I have cried a sea full of tears.
I have been beating as a slave.
Whips all across my back.
The white man speaks down on me.
He seem to see what I'm soon to be.
I am a gift.
A gift from God to a unholy earth.
I have done some wrongs and some rights.
I have won and lost some fights.
I have been in love,I have falling out.
I am young.
So I have room to grow.
I still have people to see and places to go.
I have room to grow smarter.
I still have room to improve and try harder.
I am a dreamer.
I know what I wannabe when I get older.
I daydream to stay heated in a world that's growing colder and colder.
I am a poet.
I let my mind run freely.
Then let my pen speak for me.
I grow wisdom each time I write.
I am Black History.
I Make history, I don't let it make me.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
What do you know about a nightmare coming true and a dream being just a dream?
What do you know about things looking one way, but they aren't always what they seem?
What do you know about all you've ever known as a father is a dead beat dad?
What do you know about let downs, being all you ever had?
What do you know about living in America, one of the richest countries, but you've always
been poor?
What do you know about, in order to feed your kids tonight, you have to steal something
from the store?
What do you know about being so stressed out, you feel like you are on the verge of a heart
attack?
What do you know about being biracial, so you don't know if you're white or black?
What do you know about crying out but no one listens and no one cares?
What do you know about living alone in the hood of Southeast DC with your kids and not
being scared?
What do you know about, even when you don't have you want to give?
What do you know about this hard life that I live?
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Free verse
“I Come From A People”
Written by Kim Tipton Scott
I come from a people...
Forced to labor from sun up
‘till after it had gone down
and from the fruits of this
involuntary servitude
cotton...tobacco...and cane
an entire country was built
with their bare and blistered hands.
I come from a people...
Men...women…even Children
with limbs big and strong
but spirits even stronger
and though beaten
and sometimes near skinned alive,
never could be broken.
I come from a people...
Mamas…Big Mamas…Aunt Jemimas
Born with that kind of faith
that could move mountains
and just like those trees
planted by the mighty waters
they could not be moved.
I come from a people...
Hated simply for the color of their skin
but continued to say it loud,
“I’m Black and I’m proud,”
‘cause BLACK is so
so beautiful…so beautiful…so beautiful
which is why white folks sit out in the sun.
I come from a people...
Criticized…dehumanized…victimized
called everything but a child of God
but kept on singin ’and a shoutin’
“Sticks and stones may break
every last one of my bones
but those mean ol’ words of yours
will never hurt me!”
I come from a people...
Who as the ol’ folks use to say
had nothin’…nothin’…nothin’
but a wing and a prayer
but somehow made a way
out of no way for their children,
and their children,
and theirs to be…FREE!
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Free verse
The Jaguar has
exquisite spotted
markings...
He roars,
flies,
jet swims,
No wonder
a prestigious
car is
named for
him...
But he
has no
presitge...
but,
extinction...
Same old
reasons...
He's
really
remarkable...
I hear
his
cries
for
help?
Categories:
amer, animals, anniversary, art, black-african
Form:
Elegy
Brown skin
Skin brown
Always an insult
Always a put down
Low expectations
No chance for a win
Cast down and locked up
Because of the color of my skin
I want to be somebody
Is there any hope for me
No, I tell you
As long as my brown skin is all you see
Brown skin
Skin brown
Rich in tradition and culture
I love being me
My path ain’t been easy
No shortcuts I took
Me and my brown skin
For favor, I knew where to look
Brown skin
Skin brown
Wrapped in the strength, courage, and love
Of those who came before me
Brown skin
Yeah that’s right
I got Kobe and Shaq
My man Dwayne Wade’s tight!
Brown skin Yo! Yo! Yo!
Puffy and JayZ Don’t you know
Can’t forget my boy Usher
And Pants on the Ground
Brown skin
Now I see
It’s who I am inside
Not the skin that makes me
My brown skin
Not a curse like I thought
But an honor and privilege
That my skin chose me
Brown skin
The standard is high
I can be somebody
Because I say so!
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Is Hip-Hop Dead?
If People, by Our lyrics
can be led
With the light on ghetto
life, We shed
About how hard We have
it, as a kid
When Momma struggles
to keep Us fed
The hustle, We learn to
make fast bread
If We of such Poverty, can
spew off Our head
Using POWER that has folks
running sca'red
About how, We of the hood,
can Never be rid
Then, on this One thing, you
can surely bid
And, that is, Hip-Hop will Never
Be Dead
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Ode
As soon as Odey arrived,
The villagers greeted in roar
Like the verdicts of Lions.
He was lifted high and
Gongs gave their salutations,
For Odey, the great salt
Discoverer has arrived.
Wrestlers pay allegiance
By displaying black skills,
He walked shoulder high
And his praises were lifted high.
Women swung their backyards,
Making the men's mouth water,
For the great hunter has arrived.
Jubilation is sure, all anger cured.
Gun powder entered the air to
Inform the sky of the black discoverer,
The seed of Yala*.
Children orchestrating black rhythm
And rhyme, happy to see the salts.
Welcome Odey, welcome black hero,
For thou art a true meaning of an African sunset....
===========================
Yala* is my mother's tribal dialect.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Free verse
I finish school, worked and been through love.
these are the days of strong black woman.
I been hurt many times.
I did wrong.
I picked myself up now the pain is gone.
these are the days of a strong black woman.
I said mean things to my mom.
I remember how she put me on this earth all the time.
these are the days of a strong black woman.
I cried and been through many bad choices.
I no them things was wrong but im strong.
Im a strong black woman.
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Lyric
Articulation.
Does color have a language?
What is talking black?
Categories:
black-african amer
Form:
Haiku
Only through adversity can GREATNESS be achieved.
"If there's no struggle, there's no progress",
this is what Frederick Douglass believed.
To tap into our inner stength & push forward even
when the odds are against you.
Being a winner, because failure is not a option:
so I'ma make it do what it do!
Make something outta nothing , that's going to
illuminate in my time & beyond me.
Ya'll cant see it now, but then to ya'll can't see
what I see.
My vision, my dreams. nor my aspiration.
My struggles within or my innated motivation.
To be a better person, with concepts of changing
the world.
A mirror of inspiration to these little beautiful
black boys & girls.
But, on a larger scale this GREATNESS is really not
about me.
Because I can't change, nor can I obtain anything unless
I first start with me...GREATNESS!
Categories:
black-african amer
Form: