Ode to Perseverance

I wrote this after high school, 1st or second year of college I think, don't have an exact date, but...I'm thankful that it's touched a few lives over the years. It's good to get it up in video form, maybe it can reach a few more. I'm posting the words like this because it's so hard to do irregular spacing in HTML, it's really not the worth the headache when this can work just as well.

Enjoy peeps!

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The Time is Nigh -- 99%

all i wanna do is write
i don’t even wanna read
all i wanna do is fight
for the light i think we need
to find to set things right
unblind us to the greed
remind us that we’re right
to decide for whom we bleed
to demand instead of plead
for a land devoid of plight
at the hands of those who lead
to stand up and unite
and bite those hands that feed
a bogus line of sight
they’d have us to believe
is fine and pure as white
despite the dark it breeds

there’s not a day or night
nor a breath i breathe
that doesn’t reek of fright
for all the pain i see
that’s been there all my life
ignored by so many
that’ve learned to walk upright
with no integrity

but now the time is right
to unwind the lies they weave
uproot the vines of spite
and finally plant new seeds
show our own forthright
and fight until we’re freed
i’m tired of being polite
about these shameful deeds
that reach a higher height
as we walk on our knees

i wanna beat all the might
that we might meet
with our insights that incite us
to pack these streets
til they’re tight with the knowledge
of what we can be
til we ignite the revolution
that sets our minds free

These Streets

Please beware of these streets.
And please be aware
of all their tricks and treats.

And don’t be scared to reach for more
than what’s at your feet.
Don’t learn what they teach,
don’t take what they hold,
these streets can be a leech on
each of our souls,
like bleach on our clothes—
leave holes that won’t close—
they reap but don’t sow,
they preach but don’t know.

And if you get too deep,
you’ll be a seed that won’t grow.
But if you make that leap
you’ll become a hero,
for all the people
down at the depot,
sittin’ front-row,
waitin’ for a bus that’s comin’
but don’t show.
For all the people runnin and runnin
but don’t go—
ANYWHERE EVER!

Plenty men sever their dreams whenever it seems
they’ll never achieve the better they need,
whatever believed would breathe Godspeed
into a life that breeds darkness!
The heartless beget the heartless
in an artless cycle
where the smartest only get the farthest
if their sharpness can cut through the harness
HOLDING ALL OF US BACK,
under a sky that looks starless and Black
as if it
were our
Reflection.

My 2 Cents for the 99%

(video's at the bottom)

11-15-11

Money makes the world go round….is a thought I abhor
True as it may be on a dozen different shores
From Jean Paul Gaultier to all the dollar stores
for a lot of us it seems money's got us on all fours
We bark when it says speak and let it tug our popped collars
lug thru every week while being drug thru debt galore
fillin out our lives like a fuckin order form
And this I'm sad to say's becoming more n more the norm
we can barely tell the difference between perfume…and chloroform
as we put our passions deep to sleep to be cool instead of warm
Is there any reason to think that there will ever be reform
as our imaginations shrink along with the depth of our own core
it’s like the soul’s the missing link as we are further than before
from the center, towards the brink of an endless civil war
One country fails, One country succeeds, and the prosperous ignore
the luscious garden’s full of weeds but there’s nothing to deplore
“as long as there’s a clean place for my feet and the poor don’t look…
too poor, then there’s not much else I need up on the 42nd floor”
Not that you should be ashamed of being successful…or a whore
it just doesn’t seem humane to suck the life out of every pore
of every person in every country for the profits that you HOARD

So you wanna know what I think of money
and the rich vs the poor
yeah you Got NO I-DEA What the fuck I got in store!

Whenever I look at the system I think there must be a glitch
most the world lives in a prison that was built by the rich
and the poor live with this mission as they stretch every stitch
to get on that golden bridge instead of livin in this ditch
but da whole world’s like a game that is fulla bait and switch
and I don’t know the system’s name but it really is a bitch
fulla pretty rocks that glisten and pleasures that make you itch
fulla ears that never listen and eyes that look bewitched
or bewildered by the isms that make everybody twitch
Capitalism….commercialism….consumerism, which
are the trains on which
everybody’s lives are hitched
You might think it idealism
you might even call it kitsch
but I do not see the wisdom
in so many superrich
Faces buried in the bosoms
that ‘re inflated by a switch
… throwin out buffets
while people starve for a sandwich
half a world away
or in your city’s every niche
people sittin in soup kitchens
eatin up the CARTILAGE!

So ya wanna know what I thinka money
…and the poor vs the rich
yeah I’d drop another fuckin HOUSE on that GREEN
WICKED WITCH!

~~ da video version!~~

The System is a B-I-T-

Hot off the press! This is somethin I started playin with in my head on the way home from seein that IN TIME movie. Really cool flick. But I didn't sit down and try to write anything til a couple hours ago. But I did it! Just somethin fun, but I like it, so I'll share.

I've been wanting to write a new rap. Been kinda lookin for a topic or just a good line I wanna rhyme and jump off of. But I haven't found one/thoughta one. Sometimes I literally get thirsty for a new rhyme. There's nothin quite like the feel of a homemade flow fresh on your lips. That day it all kinda came together, finally. The other main ingredient/source of inspiration was Lupe Fiasco, a pretty amazing musician/rapper/lyricist who's been raisin the bar for me in terms of content and quality. I just discovered him a few months ago and he just impresses the hell outta me, makes me miss writin raps.

So yeah, that's what this is. A rap, or at least mostly. It's about 3 parts rap, one part performance poem. So it's not straight up made for a beat or anything; just a mic and some ears. But yeah, it is meant to be read FAST. There's little punctuation cuz there's not really any stoppin, just a couple pauses in there and one or two breaths :). It is "metered," or at least it is how I read it, lol. Good luck with that, I have no idea what it would sound like if you read it out loud. I guess I should try that on one of my friends some time just to see. How much you would butcher it ;).

The other reason for this is cuz I've been wanting to share some poetry with you guys! It's been ages and it's not because I'm not writing. I'm writing quite a bit, but it's ALL performance stuff. And I'll never post that stuff in written form! :) Sorry. There's just no way I'm going to spoil those pieces for you, even if you have to wait years to hear em. So I intentionally made this one more for the page, but....I also don't think it's done. Think I'll probably add to it, a beginning and a whole nother verse on the end. But another day, this is good enough for now. Enjoy.

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Whenever I look at the system I think there must be a glitch
most the world lives in a prison that was built by the rich
and the poor live with this mission as they stretch every stitch
to get up on that bridge instead of livin in this ditch
but da whole world’s like a game that is full of bait and switch
and I don’t know the system’s name but it really is a bitch
fulla pretty rocks that glisten and pleasures that make ya itch
fulla ears that never listen and eyes that look bewitched
or bewildered by the isms that make everybody twitch
capitalism….consumerism….commercialism, which
are the trains on which
everybody’s lives are hitched
you might think it idealism
you might even call it kitsch
but I do not see the wisdom
in so many superrich
faces buried in the bosoms
that ‘re inflated by a switch
…throwin out buffets
while people starve for a sandwich
half a world away
or in your city’s every niche
people sittin in soup kitchens
eatin up the CARTILAGE!

so ya wanna know what I thinka money
…and the poor vs the rich
yeah I would drop another HOUSE on that GREEN
WICKED WITCH!

The Power of a Picture

10-26-10

The power of picture
is empowered by a mixture
of glowering fixtures.
The souring tincture
and the sweetest licks ensure
a towering fissure
in the form of contrast.
The storm born in a frame of composition
and born to last.
As if it were torn right out of the past
so it could be sworn in at last
to a court of frozen bomb blasts.
Locked in a glossy cast
so it could be passed but rarely passed by
without it catching the apple of your eye
and making it feel harassed until walls break down
until you cry.

This is only possible if you care.
If you dare to bear witness
to your fair share of the pain AND the pleasure
depicted everywhere.
From your 3rd round of blue kamikazes
to seeing FDR lead the world in a wheelchair.
From the burning fields of Nagasaki
straight into Tienanmen Square.

A picture is like a tank.
Once it is here it is here.
But if you never truly see it,
if you never stand up and stop it and look down the long long barrel
of its might, then it might as well roll by you like you’re not even there!