For my friend Matt
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Mtan’omtanami
Child of my child
Mtan’omtanami
Fak’inhliziyo yakho esandleni sami
put your heart into my palm and
let me
hold it there for
a
while in a safe place
wothi ngikukhumbuz’uthando l’wam
let me remind you of love
wothi ngikukhumbuz’uNkulu Nkulu wethu
let me remind you of the love of the Big, Big One
Wothi ngikukhumbuz’ukuphila nsukuzonke
Let me remind you to be alive everyday
Gogo- What we have have left
after the stars begin to fade
after our mourning
yilokhu owasifundisa
To never sing a song without listening
to the sounds in between
To hear the wind’s breath
and remember to smile between gushes
blown in the spaces between sand
enhlabathini
in the shape of a face drawn from her womb
To enjoy seeing the colour (and shape!) of umumbu
lomxhanxha
lomnqutshu
lembabmbayila
ukukhanzinga amazambani
ukudla isitshwala
loxakuxaku
lamatshakada
lokuhluba infe
Gogo,
Namhla sizanatha itiye,
siza hlephuna isinkwa
We will break bread and drink tea
in a way as sacred as
communion.
Sophia wethu, Salu,Golide,MaTshuma
We are the shadow of the sun underneath the rays of your love
waiting to turn into light
after the sun’s rays turn gold into a dust that spreads
Siyinqaba
DumusaniBonganinkosiNtandoLindelweLindaAndile
NdabaNomatansanqaSandisiweSanelisiweSamkeliso
NtombiyolwandhleNomathembaMzingayeKwanele
TomutendaLabanye abazukulu bakho abanengi kakhulu.
Hamba uphethwe luthando lwethu.
Gogola
Paragraph: Something has to change
(For Ivan, for myself)
Something has to change
Like we are the survivors of love
Like we are the survivors of something so
Beautiful
That it is
Not
And
It is
so
Beautiful
A love so deeply felt that it
pulls hairs from skin
in honor of
the difficult
As you watch the sun rise
Let time
Shave your heart of its dark
Water it
then walk back towards the dawn
There is no controlling
the wind’s breath
She won’t blow anything into a fairytale
unless you
ride on her wings until past dusk
Your heart lies between splinters
Tug at them like work
then
stop bleeding.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- Maya Angelou
Fallen Soldiers, Boston Commons, June 2010
Independence
In
dependence
Day
Definition:
(n.) The day when the victory of one side over the other is celebrated in what was a two side battle fighting for the rights to a land which wasn’t theirs to begin with. The day freedom* is celebrated every year.
*Freedom (adj):
The ability to carry guns and other weapons around (to show who is boss).
Every year, as I’ve witnessed these celebrations, I have wished that July 4th was a celebration of our being dependent on one another as a community, as the descendants of a rich history, as a community of diverse humans.
I am not fond of fireworks (they sound to much like guns). Perhaps because I’m a pacifist, I wish we could use July 4ths to celebrate peace and reconciliation with one another… remember the importance of breaking bread with the other. What if we could use 4th of Julys to remember that freedom has other meanings too… and that perhaps independence really can provide a means to interdependence (which should be the ultimate goal, right?).
For so many reasons, these two illegal wars in afghanistan and iraq must be ended immediately and i wish that more Americans would emphatically tell their government to stop fighting fire with fire (history has shown us that few wars are ever “won” and what does victory mean anyway if so much blood is sacrificed (on both sides)?
What if we celebrated inter-dependence? After all, we all share this world, this temporary space between our mothers’ wombs and the earth. What if we collectively resolved to resolve our sibling conflicts with water (instead of fire and guns)? What if we took a collective breath and then a moment of silence, and then made a conscious decision to celebrate our differences rather than fight over them.
Don’t misunderstand me, friends: the pathological, systemic violence against others is not a uniquely American thing. So many places in the world deal with state violence. Just go across the pond and take a look at Palestine and Israel right now- Just imagine if their conflict were a transformed from a them and us/ ‘versus’ situation into a ‘let’s figure out how we can live together since we occupy the same space.’ They are brothers after all…
This rant is all over the place (and probably full of typos I won’t take the time to correct) and I apologize for that. The fireworks just sound too much like guns and it’s disturbed my spirit more than usual. My neighborhood has started its independence celebrations early this year.
i remembered the way she
Spoke
The way she
Moved
The way she sang her love songs to anyone who would listen at two past midnight
Songs to anyone with
ears to hear
She said to me:
Darling,
All the space here
is yours to fill
So long as you have the courage to take shape
Darling,
Cloathe yourself with sound-
The sound of ancestor footsteps
Here in these remnants of footsteps you are filling with your feet,
Clothe yourself
With the sound of your g-d’s fingerprints wrapping a shawl around and round layer by layer
The way only a mother can know how
For a six year old
Who is too excited about the snow
To remember that it’s cold
Outside.
‘We need, in love, to practice only this:
letting each other go.
For holding on comes easily;
we do not need to learn it.’
- Rainer Maria Rilke’s
Love is the dance of letting
go
then holding on so
tightly
that it feels so necessary to be held on
to
Let’s stay here for a while
in this mo
ment
on the bank of the riverside of
tomorrow
let’s relish what’s here
now
before we grow wings and fly away
tomorrow
to what’s next
together
before silver rain grows us into
dust
particles held tightly by
wind
let’s celebrate who we become
when when we are together.
Chanda Rule covers Nina Simone at Drom/ New York City
I want a little sugar in my bowl
Here Comes the Sun
clara engel at a house concert in philadelphia
the hit of light i long for
Julian
Julian, one of my oldest friends, is one of the most magical people i know.
