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Zayid Muhammad Poem
where rainbows breathe
(for the late Dorothy Collins, 1961-2015)
by ‘bro. zayid’
“I’m
just chasing rainbows…
“And I ain’t seen a star that’s had your smile…
“I’m just chasing rainbows…
“Like a butterfly
I’m
zooming through the sky…”
Chasin Rainbows, Blue Magic(1975)
what happens when loves dies…
when a star
personal and tender
falls from the sky…
after the acidic vat of tears u burn
bleaches yr landscape’s face
after yr mountain of anger
rages and explodes
after the impaling thirst of absence
real and sudden and permanent
empties you from inside…
what do u do?
what do u do?
when a star
personal and tender
falls from the sky
icing yr heart
freezing yr summer
blurring yr rainbows…
what do u do?...
u carry that love
close
like yr life depends on it
because it does
and u let it be…
let it run river rich and raw
from yr heart
to the very soles of yr feet
and let it guide yr remaining steps
towards preserving and protecting and fulfilling
all the love left
here to be found in this realm…
let it leap from yr heart
to the back of yr mind
the very seat of soul consciousness
where yr sea of salty tears were born…
where those memories of a lifetime
pure and full
gel
like breast milk
honeyed sweet…
let it flow from yr heart
aching and huge
to yr tongue
on yr thirsty starving crying tongue
where its taste will dance
on and on forever…
carry that love
cradle that love…
let nothing or no one
come anywhere near the candlelight
glow of love u once knew in her eyes
and let it simmer in yr own eyes…
let it be…
let it flow like a river’s heartbeat
sparkling and rich
to a sweet place
to a personal place
to an evergreen eternal place
where u can always taste that love
to an untouchable place
where the plume of that love’s candle
radiates on forever
an elect place
a special place
where rainbows breathe and leap
from the mouth of god…
a personal
tender
evergreen
place
where stars do not fall
where stars do not fall…
“the days have turned to teardrops
falling colder than the snow…
“the ups and downs
are getting me down.
“it’s no wonder that I’m cold
“so until the day the eagle flies,
I’ll wait for you.
“until I hold u close again,
I’ll pray for you…
“memories of me
sing this song for you…
“I’m
just chasing rainbows,
and I aint seen a star that’s had yr smile…
“I’m
chasing rainbows,
like a butterfly
I’m zooming through the sky…”
©2015 all rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
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Zayid Muhammad Poem
…before us ( for Sweet Honey in the Rock )
By ‘bro.zayid’
“We will not bow down to
Racism…
“We will not bow down to
Injustice…
“We will not bow down to
Exploitation!...
“I’m gon’ staaaand!
“I’m gon’ staaand!...”
I’m Gon’ Stand, Sweet Honey in the Rock
they stand before us
primed
to peel the pain of oppression
from legions of eyes…
they stand before us
quilted
to the heart
to the soul
to the drum
of the vast continuum of our history…
they stand before us
a full
hipthick tapestry
of memory and sound…
they stand before us
ancestor-anchored
battle-proven
and ready…
they stand before us
sparklin
in an array of dignity
regality
and enchanting cosmic and earthbound smells…
they stand before us
wingswide
wailin
moanin
stirrin
swingin
thumpin
jumpin
circles of lyric rhythm
forevah unbroken…
they stand before us
walkin
in the incredible wonder and way
of the ancient glory of the afrikan woman
and of the magic of earth mother…
awwww
i say,
they stand before us
honey-sweet
rock-solid
dove-throated
cross-strong
liberation-cravin
mountain-climbin…
with blazin prizebound eyes
quilted
to our incredible past…
anchorin
a fierce future…
peelin pain from our eyes
by the legions…
forcin us to feel the ancestors’ screams
to stand up
back straight
daring to cradle their necksnapped dreams
for us to soar
high
with wings oceanwide
journeyin
risin
risin
risin
forevah
to the sun…
“Whatchu gon’ do?
Whatchu gon’ do?
Whatchu gon’ do?
“I’m gon’ staaaand!
“I’m gon’ staaaand!...”
©1996 all rights reserved
‘bro.zayid’muhammad is a well known cub of the legendary NY chapter of the Black Panther Party. He is the founding press officer of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee and the media advocate for the Newark AntiViolence Coalition…
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
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Zayid Muhammad Poem
killing her song
(for Adhimu aka Lawrence Hamm and Sheila Reid*)
by ‘bro. zayid’
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield,
Until I die…”
--Freedom Song
this is not rocket science…
no experts need be empaneled
to further milk this cow of genocide…
u say that ‘all lives matter’
but this is not happening to
pete, or heather or bob…
it is our sons getting shot
with their hands up
it is our sons getting shot
with their cellphones in hand
it is our sons getting shot
with their hands in their pockets
or their hands behind their heads
or their hands cuffed behind their backs…
and it is our daughters
being pummeled into highway asphalt
our daughters
getting body slammed into their windshields
face first in midsentence
trying to answer their questions
it is our daughters
being found throatless in putrid jail cells
after minor traffic violations
as if they have no names…
and we are the ones whom death is shooting apart
surrounded by squad cars amp’d up
to enjoy feasts of state massacres…
this is just not happening to bob, heather or pete…
and it doesn’t even matter
that it is now happening to us on videotape!
grand juries
let it go
local courts
let it go
state courts
let it go
even the justice department
lets it go and explains to us
why we have accept it all
and accept what they won’t do…
why? why?! why?!!
insulting the saltburned flooded eyes
of the growing litany of mothers burying children
over and over and over and over and over again…
even the leaves the grass and the soil
are offended by the volume of our earthburning tears…
the universe yelps
at the outrage
of the bleeding imbalance of injustice…
their warning whispers
of the lethal consequences
of the violent lunacy of white supremecy
continue to be ignored…
there is more to whats wrong in Milwaukee
than the beer and the cheese going bad…
so when the fat lady’s toxic bloated belly
bursts
into an indiscriminate lava of blood
soaking the streets of our cities
ruining yr gentrifying grand plans
u will have no one to blame
but yrselves
for killing
her song…
*Lawrence Hamm is the founding chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress(P.O.P.)…He has put more foot soldiers on the streets of New Jersey over the scourge of police brutality over several decades than any other so-called ‘leader’ or ‘leaders’ combined…He is currently directing a Justice Mondays campaign where P.O.P. rallies at the Justice Dept’s Newark office every Monday…Sheila Reid is the mother of Jerame Reid who was shot by Bridgeton police officers with his hands up on videotape on December 30th, 2014. On August 22, 2016, the Justice Department said that they would not charge these officers for that spectacle killing. This poem is a response to that decision…
‘bro.zayid’ Muhammad is a Jazz poet, stage actor and activist. Also known as ‘Baba Zayid’ to young people in the greater Newark area, which means ‘father’ in Yoruba, he is one of the more well-known cubs of the legendary NY chapter of the Black Panther Party. He is working on a new volume of poems called The Soul Poems-Offerings of Love and Resistance…
©2016 all rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
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Zayid Muhammad Poem
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’
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
|
Details |
Zayid Muhammad Poem
killing her song
(for Adhimu aka Lawrence Hamm and Sheila Reid*)
by ‘bro. zayid’
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield,
Until I die…”
--Freedom Song
this is not rocket science…
no experts need be empaneled
to further milk this cow of genocide…
u say that ‘all lives matter’
but this is not happening to
pete, or heather or bob…
it is our sons getting shot
with their hands up
it is our sons getting shot
with their cellphones in hand
it is our sons getting shot
with their hands in their pockets
or their hands behind their heads
or their hands cuffed behind their backs…
and it is our daughters
being pummeled into highway asphalt
our daughters
getting body slammed into their windshields
face first in midsentence
trying to answer their questions
it is our daughters
being found throatless in putrid jail cells
after minor traffic violations
as if they have no names…
and we are the ones whom death is shooting apart
surrounded by squad cars amp’d up
to enjoy feasts of state massacres…
this is just not happening to bob, heather or pete…
and it doesn’t even matter
that it is now happening to us on videotape!
grand juries
let it go
local courts
let it go
state courts
let it go
even the justice department
lets it go and explains to us
why we have accept it all
and accept what they won’t do…
why? why?! why?!!
insulting the saltburned flooded eyes
of the growing litany of mothers burying children
over and over and over and over and over again…
even the leaves the grass and the soil
are offended by the volume of our earthburning tears…
the universe yelps
at the outrage
of the bleeding imbalance of injustice…
their warning whispers
of the lethal consequences
of the violent lunacy of white supremecy
continue to be ignored…
there is more to whats wrong in Milwaukee
than the beer and the cheese going bad…
so when the fat lady’s toxic bloated belly
bursts
into an indiscriminate lava of blood
soaking the streets of our cities
ruining yr gentrifying grand plans
u will have no one to blame
but yrselves
for killing
her song…
*Lawrence Hamm is the founding chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress(P.O.P.)…He has put more foot soldiers on the streets of New Jersey over the scourge of police brutality over several decades than any other so-called ‘leader’ or ‘leaders’ combined…He is currently directing a Justice Mondays campaign where P.O.P. rallies at the Justice Dept’s Newark office every Monday…Sheila Reid is the mother of Jerame Reid who was shot by Bridgeton police officers with his hands up on videotape on December 30th, 2014. On August 22, 2016, the Justice Department said that they would not charge these officers for that spectacle killing. This poem is a response to that decision…
‘bro.zayid’ Muhammad is a Jazz poet, stage actor and activist. Also known as ‘Baba Zayid’ to young people in the greater Newark area, which means ‘father’ in Yoruba, he is one of the more well-known cubs of the legendary NY chapter of the Black Panther Party. He is working on a new volume of poems called The Soul Poems-Offerings of Love and Resistance…
©2016 all rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
|
Details |
Zayid Muhammad Poem
Chops for Pops
(a Blues response to Black n Blue
for Louis Armstrong)
By ‘bro. zayid’
Put a lock n chain
on yr dreams ygfolk
‘cause they will sure try to take it
Put a lock n chain
on yr dreams
‘cause they will sure try to take it
make it so big n thick
can’t nobody break it…
Play bluenotes so sharp
it’ll stab the air they’ breathe
I say, play bluenotes so sharp
it’ll stab the air they’ breathe
Hit’em dead in the head
with they’ mean selfs
Make all they’ wrongdoin’ bleed…
Use excellence as an attack
make they’ obstacles disappear
Use excellence as an attack
make they’ obstacles disappear
Attack so hard
fill they’ bowels up with fear…
Purple lips dream are precious too, baby
Don’t let’m tell u no lie
Say, purple lip dreams are precious too, baby
Don’t let’m tell u no lie
Chase’m down like they’ stole from yr mama
Chase’m down till u die…
So get yr chops up
Get yr chops up
Get ready to blow’m away
Get yr chops up
Get yr chops
Get ready to blow’m away
‘cause when they come for u and yr dreams
they’ aint comin to play…
© 1987
All rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
|
Details |
Zayid Muhammad Poem
Red x trane
(a black arts movement kwansaba)
by ‘bro.zayid’
Garvey greased Harlem struttin
Baraka bluuuue New Ark floats
Chicago ‘sippi blood thick
Watts fire ibeji badd
Big Eazy polyrhythmic
Dee stroyed broadsided lovin
A red X’d Trane flyin home…
@2015 all rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
|
Details |
Zayid Muhammad Poem
Irresistable kool
(a Kwansaba for Eugene B. Redmond)
by ‘bro.zayid’
For him Miles is not god
Just irresistible kool
Yet he claims ancient ears
Sips Dunham’s golden legged dance
From Dumas’ Ra thick gourd
Ejaculating ink first
Our regal splendid swag…
©2015 all rights reserved
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
|
Details |
Zayid Muhammad Poem
The crying grass
(for the late Victor Jara,* Pablo Neruda
and Salvador Allende)
by ‘bro. zayid’
In this stadium
of footlaunched spotted balls
of what should be promising soccer stars…
In this stadium
reeking with the stench of terror
and the numbing sounds of death…
In this stadium
whose horror riddled circling winds
repel the doves and the sparrows…
In this stadium
echoing with insane insistent
martial march of hardhoofed soldiers
primed for fleshopening madness…
In this stadium
of gagged people’s poems
of throat slashed people’s songs
their bloodmuffled melodies
missing their companion audience’s eyes
repelling the wings and the whistles
of the doves and the sparrows
with their blood splatter
on our faces and our shirts…
In this stadium
haunted with the harrowed harmonies
of a guitar played with krushed fingers
and a bayoneted heart…
In this stadium
of paraded corpses and paralyzed eyes
of long lines of skulls
freshly popped open in the back by gunfire…
In this stadium
where democracy was lynched
by imperialism’s sanctioned
and uniformed
hyenas
and then buried in an anonymous heap…
There were no heroes here…
Only the massacred and martrys…
Their bleeding breathless torsos
had just watered the crying grass
and their stars had just been
shot thru the eye in the sky…
In this stadium…
In this stadium
there were no promising soccer stars
to behold
No footlaunched spotted balls finding goals
No tickets to be bought and sold
No fans on hand to cheer
No smiling confetti
sparkling for all to hear
No cameras rolling and snapping
to capture what happened
in that horrific vomitous moment…
In this stadium
In this stadium
In this stadium
barking and cracking with orders to fire
and the gutsplitting bursts of bullets
There were no heroes…
Their bloodied breathless torsos
had already watered the crying grass
and their stars once heated with hope
had already been shot
thru the eye in the sky…
*Chilean people’s artist Victor Jara…
Killed in a stadium massacre in a purge that accompanied the CIA sponsored military overthrow of the democratically elected socialist president
Salvador Allende in September 1973…Several thousand Allende supporters were rounded up by the military at a
soccer stadium and slaughtered in a mass execution…
Augusto Pinochet, who emerged Chile’s dictator for years, is responsible for over 3000 killings and the torture of over 30,000. There was a recent effort to have Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez, one of his surviving officers believed to have directly responsible for the beating and shooting of Jara, held liable for his role Jara’s death in this massacre…
©1999 all rights
Copyright © Zayid Muhammad | Year Posted 2016
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