Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Shake The Foundations!



The Black Lives Matter mural on Hamilton Avenue in front of Palo Alto’s City Hall, California 


Drought Broken... Shaking Our World to its Very Foundation 


It is frightening…

The raw unfettered life-giving energy of lightning

With its spontaneous thunder

Breaks the air…

And speaks in violent monotones

To earth and sky and sea…

And all that in these dwell

The living…And the dead


It is quickening…

The juice of life that falls upon us

Without distinguishing the just from the unjust…

It quenches the thirsty ground

And grows with ever increasing fecundity

The seeds of men and beasts...

And all that for these dwell

Of living…And of dead


It is frightening…

It is quickening…

The raw unfettered juice of Life

That falls upon us

Distinguishing between the living and the dead…

It breaks the fear…

And makes us speak as authentic beings

To earth and sea and sky

And all that in these dwell

As living souls who have come to know the fecundity of freedom...

Souls who no longer

Allow our seeds to fall…And perish…

On what for some…is fertile ground



With freedom comes the quickening

Of an otherwise fettered life…

And they will know the frightening

Who once maintained the strife…



It is violently magnificent

This flash and its accompanying roar… Of truth

That signals the abolition of all the codes

That keep those in their place

Who for one reason…or other

Suffer for the inequities of their ancestors 


Emancipation comes to all

Who by omission or commission

Are residents of those barb-wired spaces in time…

Till now they have only existed…

And now…Now they are...

Quickened from the dead… they live again...

And the sounds of drums you hear

Are amplified reproductions of their hearts’ beats



We know that freedom is no gift

So we dance in celebration of our birthright…


Speak my heart…Shake my world

Shake my world of its complacency…

Rid my world of its indecency…


Speak my heart…

Cause the spark that starts a fire

Build a ladder that takes me higher...

Higher than the fear

That keeps my soul impounded…

That keeps my spirit grounded…


Speak my heart… 

Cause my feet to listen

Inspire my hands to clear the way

That leads to the place

Where the lightning is stored…


Speak my heart… Speak and I will listen

Awaken now and quicken the living and the dead…

Break the drought that makes of my world

The valley… of the shadow of death


Break free my heart… And quench this parched place in my soul…

Guide my feet to the place… Where living waters flow.




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