SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

i hear her voice. (Dr Maya Angelou!) -is with (me!) sandra, tvgp

this is a poem I wrote in response to Dr Maya Angelou's poem, On The Pulse of the Morning.  It was a featured poem in the longer piece I wrote and co-starred in at the Firehouse Art Center in Feb of 2014:  Kissin' The Chocolate Blues.  As ive mentioned before,  -took me some 30+ years to write this poem in a couple days.     #firehouseartcenter

***


when i heard my doctor


recite her poem at the inauguration of president bill clinton in 1993

i listened
  
       with the methodical heart beat and limited attention span of a chronically ill patient

we've heard it

ALL

starts to sound the same,
doesn't it

not hard to read my indifferent pulse on this blanduary morning   -doctor

Maya Angelou

i surrender

one more time.   what did you just say?   can you

Write that down.

so i can look (that) up

i'll never remember

         -on my own,

what does that even mean, doctor

Maya Angelou?  you are talking

over my head  -no less to midas than the

What?! is she tryin' to say exactly?    "Good Morning?"

very simply?

with hope    -you want me look in my "sister's" eyes?!  doctor
Maya Angelou

in my "brother's" face

that's awfully optimistic Mz. doctor..

'do not be wedded forever to fear,'    you say

'yoked eternally to

Bruitishness is all i've ever known doctor
Maya Angelou.     Bruitishness is all i've ever known.

from the middle eastern "brother" who kidnapped me from my own bedroom

to the mexican "sisters" that bullied me until

i changed schools.    i had to change schools
 doctor
Maya Angelou

how can i say "good morning" to anyone?!  when a black man raped me at gunpoint

and another held a gun to my head in a bank robbery   -when a giant white man abused, controlled,  and dominated the little white child, me

speakin' of oppression..  and slavery..  did you think you had a monopoly on this?

all i've ever known is bruitishness    - pirates desperate for gain

starving

pillaging my dreams, bombing my family with nightmares.   that's all i've ever known

cynicism and blood and fear

and nothing.

seems to matter  -evil lurks everywhere and   -ask me who   -ask me who

because evil lurks inside the asian, the hispanic, the african and jew
 indian, irish
catholic, muslim, atheist too

say 'good morning' -i will not!
to the turk, the swede, the german  or scot

that's one slippery rock doctor
Maya Angelou.
that's one toxic river; and one question for the tree...

when were we all one?

once upon a time... we're we really all one
doctor
Maya Angelou...

your words, your voice, your presence

dares me       -you dare me?   you dare me     -to climb back on that slippery rock and find my balance

 to clean the river with my own two, fully functioning, hard workin' hands

 dare me:     to swim against my own current
circumstances

 toward that forward leaning horizon and mythical unmoved tree


is that where i find courage doctor
Maya Angelou?

or do i need it to get there?

where all my dreams that were murdered, and hopes that committed suicide
are resurrected

over

years it took me

to heed your advice doctor
Maya Angelou

"too good to be true"

common for chronically ill patients to

say

simply

very simply

"Good Morning."

a piercing need?   THAT is your prescription for our country?   -are you serious

ly.     -it IS a piercing need; how did you know?

"good morning."

i whispered it to a perfect stranger today doctor
Maya Angelou

and he said 'good morning' back.   check my pulse!

"Good Morning."

i said it to a mexican today doctor    -she said 'Good Morning' back!

Oh! doctor
Maya Angelou!   "GOOD MORNING!"


i said it to a black man, a gay man, a priest!  
i said it simply  -very simply.  it's like a  "Good Morning!" feast

to a lesbian, a blind child, a store owner; his  labor
i even said 'good morning' to my republican neighbor!

check my pulse!  it's one fine morning

doctor
Maya Angelou...

-something tragic happened.

over

 the years its taken me to heed your advice

something tragic has happened and grown worse every year

that's one slippery rock doctor
Maya Angelou

i haven't said "good morning"

for months 

i've been silent.  unnoticed, unheard

not one simple, very simple, not one simple word


"GOOD MORNING!"  i say, but not one of them hears

they've all got those friggin' phones in their ears!

i look out and up, but my sisters
and brothers look down

what good, doctor
Maya Angelou

posted by SHE @ 6:17 AM