Poem 1: FOUND POEM
Bible Defense of Slavery
By: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
If Walls Could Talk
Take the darkest shroud
Servants on the ground
Holy Horror, Pale Fears
Stones speak, might melt tears!
Sorrow tone strain(s) God’s throne
Mockery,
Light guides youth
Brings Slavery truth!
Direst man, fearful word
Life give(s) God(s) lie(s)
Ye pray dark shores,
Remember Slavery’s doors!
Poem 2: Haiku
The Black Canon
By: Joyce A. Joyce
Black Words, White Eyes
Understanding words
Our skin changes the meaning
We must help them see
Poem 3: Elegy to Religion
Lies
Forced to read stories written by men
I slowly realized there and then
I don’t believe in you
Books of lies
I refuse to believe, I broke my ties
You are dead
Water to wine
A child so divine
He had no father
Splitting water
The Lotus slaughters
My faith is dead
The 5 Pillars
The Shaitan killers
The death of obligation
The 20thcentury, what is even right
My deeds are judged so very tight
Religion is dead
Now you are gone
Religion has left my brain and I cannot use brawn
To squeeze creation in my 3-pound brain
I want you to be real so very bad
But you are dead to me and I’m left to pick up the broken pieces I’ve had
Poem 4: Acrostic
L.I.E.S
Love is for everyone
In god we trust
Everyone is equal
Simulated happiness
Poem 5: Free Verse
HONESTLY
I was told life was easy
Clearly, I was lied to
They say you live once
I feel like I never got a chance to
Stretch ourselves out, the way rubber bands do
And get mad when we snap, like we really shouldn’t have to
–
Let’s get aggressive, get violent
I want to punch Stan in the face cuz he said a word,
N’ I put meaning behind it
But we get sad and try to hide it
Post a flick on the gram and hope our smiles can blind it
Look at Billy he drives a Mercedes,
Damn he got thick pockets
Call NASA on the phone cuz I’m higher than a rocket
Pass blunts as we stun flashing our cash
When it’s time to pay the bills,
you spent all that green on some grass
Leave scars on our insides
And wallow in silence
Call me rude,
Yea that seems fair
I’m being so real I stress you out, I’m growing gray ones in your hair
I think you live life wrong I’m just here to shed some light forth
But I didn’t expect to keep babies we didn’t set up lives for
We claim to have values
But we easily betray it
We lie cheat and steal
But that’s just not how you say it
We always have our reasons
To justify our action
The reason Devon left Alissa with a kid in 3 seasons
I want to do something I haven’t done before
Be honest, I mean that’s what were here for
I want to be real, not textbook off a shelf
To speak to you like I speak to myself
No filter no walls no way for defense
I think it’s all bullsh*t
I say that with no offense
We all just want meaning, and when we can’t find it
We swallow some pills and hope that solved it
Now I wish I could say, this is our problem
Point it our clearly so everyone can follow
I know we can’t solve it
But that’s not on us
We just ended up here fell asleep on the bus
Jesus take the wheel
I’m just kidding, even if Jesus took the wheel,
we’d all still be sinning