All The World's A Stage
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Mandela - The Immortal Icon
The Peace Warrior Of Mzansi, among heroes - a colossus!
Sun Of The Nation; a rare gift of Providence.
Once, entangled in the web of racist succubus;
Unruffled he declares before High Justice:
'[I]t is an ideal for which I am prepared to die! ' Silence -
Pregnant with dreadful menace in court ensued.
A beast of burden consequent of unshakeable stance.
In the slammer Symbol Of The Struggle he attained;
But Apartheid demon persisted in its Treachery.
'Coalition Of Conscience' inspired outcry for Liberty;
The British
Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Children's Rhymes
By what sends
the white kids
I ain't sent:
I know I can't
be President.
What don't bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
ain't free.
Justice
That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.
The Race Industry
The coconuts have got the jobs.
The race industry is a growth industry.
We despairing, they careering.
We want more peace they want more police.
The Uncle Toms are getting paid.
The race industry is a growth industry.
We say sisters and brothers don't fear.
They will do anything for the Mayor.
The coconuts have got the jobs.
The race industry is a growth industry.
A Poet's Voice Xv
Part One
The power of charity sows deep in my heart, and I reap and gather the wheat in bundles and give them to the hungry.
My soul gives life to the grapevine and I press its bunches and give the juice to the thirsty.
Heaven fills my lamp with oil and I place it at my window to direct the stranger through the dark.
I do all these things because I live in them; and if destiny should tie my hands and prevent me from so doing, then death would be my only desire. For I am a poet, and if I cannot give, I shall refuse to receive.
The Quality Of Mercy
The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
Poetic Masterpiece
Poetic Masterpiece: A Childbirth Of Profundity.
Like delivery of Divine Revelations
which favours calmness of wilderness;
It's brought forth in Creative-Glory-Of-Solitude:
an abode of Enlightenment in whose mirror of grace,
purest passions reflect out from shady reality —
to gratify inflamed curiosity of Inward-Eye,
as it wanders around source of enchantment,
seeking in expanded awareness to capture
the essence of a phenomenon shrouded in mystery.
Crime And Punishment Chapter Xii
Then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, "Speak to us of Crime and Punishment."
And he answered saying:
It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.
~if There Be No God
~ If There Be No God
If there be no God,
Then all the stars, that in their place
Have aeons roamed abroad,
Would long ago have lost the trace
Of orbits-if there be no God.
If there be no God,
Then justice in the heart of man
A Thousand Desires
Thousands of desires, each worth dying for...
Many of them I have realized...yet I yearn for more...
Why should my killer (lover) be afraid? No one will hold her responsible
For the blood which will continuously flow through my eyes all my life
We have heard about the dismissal of Adam from Heaven,
With a more humiliation, I am leaving the street on which you live...
Oh tyrant, your true personality will be known to all
Hall Of Universal Peace
This midnight bids farewell to parting year
Who then, on chariot Time, his seat vacates.
The New Year succeeds him as Charioteer:
To drive us on, he's waiting at our gates.
But OURS the choice of paths and destinations:
The Charioteer obeys but our instructions.
We must, to reach the most coveted station
Of PEACE, choose well-lit roads sans obstructions.
The Answer
Then what is the answer?- Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.
To keep one's own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
Buying And Selling Chapter Xi
And a merchant said, 'Speak to us of Buying and Selling.'
And he answered and said:
To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.
It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.
Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.
Justice Delayed
Can justice be delayed under any circumstances?
Numerous cases can be sighted for instances
Can that not be amounted as justice denied?
Well, conscious should always bite if it is laid
Constitution enshrined for liberty and freedom
Forefathers too considered and thought it as wisdom
Sacrifice made for freedom struggle should not go as waste
To live with true freedom was need of an hour and taste
Incantation
Human reason is beautiful and invincible.
No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,
No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.
It establishes the universal ideas in language,
And guides our hand so we write Truth and Justice
With capital letters, lie and oppression with small.
It puts what should be above things as they are,
Is an enemy of despair and a friend of hope.
It does not know Jew from Greek or slave from master,
Giving us the estate of the world to manage.
Colossal Miscarriage Of Justice
Kind face contorted by torture of severe whipping,
His body a mass of torn bleeding tissue.
Cruelty stretched beyond limits of endurance,
scouring was halted on the brink of death.
Numb hands unshackled from post,
He collapsed on a stone pavement.
'Crucify Him! Crucify Him! ' Jarred the frenzied pack.
Paroxysms of rage that would pull down the fortress
of Justice. Roughly, He's brought back to consciousness.
A Nation Of Cowards
(Dedicated to you, my Brothers and Sisters)
Powerful words,
Truthful words,
Honest words,
Brave words;
This is exactly what the Doctor orders,
For a nation, who's trying to fight the horrors
Of blatant racism,
Unfairness, injustice,
The Predator
You have a razor-sharp mind
And a barb wit
You speak eloquently
It matches
Your long black damask robe.
In your court
You have a zest for verbal combat
And strongly worded views
On all issues.