We Poets 

2008 Second Place Winner of Blue Mountain Arts Eleventh Biannual poetry contest

'Cause that's what poets do 

We look beyond what's obvious 

pulled into the spaces 

between the lines 

We look for the corners 

and the shadows 

drawn to trash-treasures 

and debilitating views 

We weave in wonder with waste 

We stand in front of the questions 

and chance a head-on collision 

with the answers 

we 

expose 

incinerate 

crash 

and create 

We're truth wearers 

We scream, cry, whisper, and sing 

the world's thinking 

The words turn us inside out 

throw us off cliffs 

and challenge us some more 

they hold us responsible 

for telling their stories 

for displaying their scars 

for shedding their layers 

for holding them in the night 

and promising daylight 

and they — the words 

deliver on miracles 

The words are mountains inside valleys 

illuminating abysses 

and sometimes shaking 

hands with them 

Our words slay dragons 

of misconceptions 

pull the blinders off perception 

and cut right through the grain 

Yeah 

our words stroll in Paris 

naked and unapologetic 

effective and unaffected 

'cause that's what our words do 

Poets welcome the edges 

and the unkept 

we eat the heels of bread 

and pocket eggshells 

We caress the discarded 

and hold mirrors up to humanity 

and we'd do best to keep 

that mirror on us 

for a gentle continuum 

of self-eval 

Healthiness 

Make sure pride 

doesn't tarnish the craft 

and heads stay small 

We are student 

as well as teacher 

we look on the words 

with amazement also 

We're healed by digest 

our own food 

feeds us too 

At times vulnerable 

other times anonymous 

too often synonymous 

with only happiness 

anger or sadness 

we 

are 

so 

much 

more 

We're a newborn's first breath 

and giggling high-school sweethearts 

We're seducing suns 

and pink beaches 

We are stage fright 

and therapy couch-dwellers 

We're apples and peanut butter sandwiches 

College kids choking on cigarettes 

We're gusts of wind that escaped 

through the cracks of windows 

We're leaky faucets that refuse to get fixed 

and 9 to 5'ers without deodorant 

We are sidewalks and stars 

Solomon and The Three Stooges 

We're Nyquil at dusk 

but wellness at dawn 

We're Tastykakes 

lemons 

and Sourpatches 

We're not always 

coming from honest places 

for sometimes we 

covet each others' light 

and try to wear 

another's skin 

instead of embracing our own 

We've got some growing to do 

We poets pray for 

courage 

strength 

and even acceptance 

Sometimes we're on pause 

sometimes just on empty 

and we don't always 

have a poem for you 

embrace us 

we need hugs too 

We'll keep on emptying 

ourselves out 

refilling 

risking and falling 

slipping and dancing 

soaring 

laughing 

living 

and 

writing 

For that's what we poets do. 

Copyright2005byJaz

TrAuMa

(inspired by Angie Greco)

Starved

for attention-

                                                  positive or negative

they hate

the skin

they’re in

so callous

because of

their situations

easier for them to

push me away

because of home

easier for them to

envy

than to compliment

easier for them to

slice the knife both ways

so they won’t be the only one wounded

easier to rage-

it’s better than being background noise

easier to act like drywall

To expose the heart is certain death

They

arrive

in

bits

and

pieces

trynna build

on the bricks thrown at them

“It ain’t personal”

Angie says

She’s a Salve

to where their

Word-daggers dig into me

Why do teachers do it?

Because

They Are Worth The Investment

Worth

Wholeness

Worth

Celebration

Worth

Intercessions

Worth

Agape love

Worth

Safe spaces

Worth the breaking of strongholds

And the healing of generations

They are worth the one that God sees…and…saves.

Copyright2023byJaz

To Snatch Black Gold from Sunlight 

2020 Community Finalist in the Temple University-sponsored Short Fiction/Poetry contest by French publishing house Short Edition.

Racism

You are

A breathing wound imprinted upon God's creation

Carved into the psyche of my ancestors

You are a brandished whip

Cross-stitched on the backs

Of my

Brothers

Children

Sisters

Racism

You are

The tombs which boldly traversed great oceans

To trade black blood for your profit, entertainment & privilege

Racism

You are an

Institutional

Systemic

Oppressive

Global

Pandemic

That rolls over & over into every century

To show your diseased face

Like the bloated body & bulged eyes

Of Emmett Till

Racism

You are a

Thief

of

Pulse

and

Purpose.

Of

Laughter

Dignity

and

Healing

Of

Home

Value

and

Humanity

Of

Unity

Of

Free

Of

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY TREE.

Racism you are the knee of Amerikkka which stole the breath from

George Floyd and Breonna Taylor

(YEAH...SAY ALL OF THEIR NAMES).

 Your wickedness is in high places and low

Racism

It is time.

Way past time to

Break your stronghold

Torch your interruption

And

Face

Your

History

I have

No

Answers

For you

Though...

That's your job.

I will no longer hold up your mirror with instructions on dismantling your poisons

And I will not give you what you can go (re)searching for.

No

I am spirit-weary and soul-tired of the reruns on the endless hashtags of my existence

Your creators must

Do. The. Work. Now.

Copyright2020byJaz

SPEAK!

Swallowing myself

In an endless

Tangle & tumble

Of touch and torque

Torrid.

Twisted.

I eat my tongue

while they feast on me

But I can’t bear to let it go unspoken

The body

Becomes the poetry.

Copyright2020byJaz

MINISTRY

LORD,

Somebody needs

Your WORD

wrapped around them

Your scriptures

Inscribed

on their cheek

to wipe out

the imprint of abuse

Your Psalms

in their

eyelids

Someone needs

The presence of your peonies

The Balm of Your aroma

Someone needs

The Great I AM…

And so, I write.

Copyright2023byJaz

I HEAR YOUR MOANING, PHILLY

Our hearts are a blaze

With the way evil breaks teeth

Scalps and scab’s kids’ knees

Children on a bus

Deserve providence and light

And pancakes at dawn

And so I lament

And ask the Holy Godhead

To destroy Strongholds.

Copyright2024byJaz

JAZ

Jaz is a jovial being rising early as the sun’s first customer

Amiable and accomplished with enough exuberance for all

Zealously putting the day to bed, while zestfully looking towards the promise of another sunrise

Copyright2024byJaz

P.O.E.T.R.Y.

Prolific, paramount, palatable, panoramic, peculiar

Obscure, offbeat, and observable

Ebullient, earthy, enigmatic and edible

Thrifty, tender, transient and teachable and tactile and tangible and temperamental!

Rambunctious, reliable, radiant and ravishing

Yearning, yearning, yearning.

Copyright2024byJaz

Please Don’t Drop The Children

Always

     once more

and again

       will I try

They deserve

someone not giving up on them

                      Scratching the face of help

Testing...against

       the spirit of rejection

Bucking

       against wounds

where familial word-swords landed...

                                             and bruised

    They bite and bully one another…

                                 but

their light bends behind the Cumulus

We’re all                                                          

                                             for the next generation.    

               pushing boulders

Copyright2023byJaz

FREEMAN

My Great Uncle has tales tall and wide as El Árbol del Tule.

I can’t tell where the blur ends and begins.

Every person walking down the street has been cast in his story

“Oh, I know her!

She dated my cousin, then skipped town for parts unknown, before emerging to get hitched with my brother’s brother at the Justice of the Peace. Shuuucks…ended up being my dentist!”

“Oh, I know him!

Met him in Mississippi. We were in the war together. Ran for our lives together

Wrestled alligators together. Went shopping for women, together”

The way he spins his words…Everyone feels and sounds famous to me!

Everydaypeople is his fodder

I don’t judge the shoes I may one day walk in

I just sit at his feet unraveling poetry

from the navel of his folklore.

Copyright2022byJaz

What Do The Crows Know?

Transient travelers

Screaming sojourners

house to lawn

line to pole

Bush to lake to concrete

Conversating

At the intersections of flight

Sleek wingspans in all their glory

Oh what do the crows know?

I witness

The ease and efficacy

Of their intricate choreography

Obstreperous concerts blundering on my ears

I hear some ant way below in her car bellow out,

“Oh, would you SHUT UPPPPP!”

While I long to caress thee Onyx

And cull sky secrets

From their caws.

Copyright2024 by Jaz

ENOUGH 

It’s

Time

Now

To

Outrun

Your shadows

And

Eat

The

Morning

Sun.

You are enough.

Enough of waning and wading in the shallows

Enough

You are enough.

Enough of living outside in-

The cheerleader is internal…they’ve always been there

Enough

You are enough.

Enough existing

Enough bowing low

and breaking in the bend

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Even if your family didn’t tell you

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Even if the words of humans shrunk you

YOU ARE ENOUGH!

Copyright2021byJaz

A GAPING EYE

This house-

Where the walls are weeping

The rocker’s

eating its own arms

and the colonial rugs

refuse to lay flat

They curl with corners towards heaven

in defiance

and in

earnest

of praying us back home.

Copyright2023byJaz

A Song For Kalief

Climb every mountain

Ford every stream

The boots tasted like old, cracked earth inside his mouth

Choking on

His denials of freedom

The aging of his dreams

Follow every rainbow…

Well, he followed every rainbow

And he followed every rule

But only nightmares found Kalief Browder

Inside

The

Mouth

Of

America’s

Noose.

Till you find your dreams

Oh, you didn’t know?

America eats its young

And swallows them whole.

(italics are lyrics from the interpolation of the song “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” by Oscar Hammerstein II)

Copyright2023byJaz

Spring 2022 Residency

Three months ago

Wind-cracked earth

took my face

The lava laden fissures swallowed my pen

I looked no more for ink

to consume the metaphors of morning

I lived outside of my poetry

where breathing hurt

and my heart could no longer trust a good-bye

Where were my words?

Didn’t I promise myself

that as an artist I would use it all?

The dust, the deafness, the bones, the dysfunctions

Why couldn’t I construct meaning

from the in-between?

Why didn’t the Sonnets save me!

Why didn’t I bend my ear a little closer to the page?

When did I stop listening to the white spaces?

Oh, silly poet!

How did I forget that

birth is in the dark spaces of the womb?

And the black of a butterfly’s wing

is needed as much as the light of it?

See I was becoming

the poetry that you now hear

So I’m thankful for the wilderness

And for now being on the other side of the wind.

Copyright2022byJaz

Betwixt Evening’s 8 and 9

As the last bit

of daylight slips

from the sun’s grip

The moon steps forth

extending fingertips

to

cut

and

paste

herself

into

the

night

sky.

Copyright2006 by Jaz

Belt of Truth. Breastplate of Righteousness. Shoes of Peace. Shield of Faith. Helmet of Salvation. Sword of The Spirit. Lance of Prayer & Supplication (Spiritual Warfare)

Even with shattered knees

Fight

Even with bowed and broken head

Fight

Even with the stain of memories

Fight

Even with the soul bloated, tipsy from pain

Fight

Even with the heart caved in

Fight

Even with the lie of no light on the horizon

Fight

Even with the guardians of your upbringing dropping you

Fight

Even with the maiming of your mental health

Fight

Even with shackles having tantrums

Fight

Take yourself off the enemy’s auction block

And

Fight.

Copyright2023byJaz

A Gift from Lucille (For Lucille Clifton)

The words

lightning

held me fast

to the belly of compression

I burned

right there

in the

spark of

its brevity

Copyright2023byJaz

HILLS BOW FOREVER AT YOUR FEET

Every blade of grass sings to you…

mirrors the colors in your voice

Oceans clap their hands

in white foamy waves

Their smiles skimming the edges of great

reflected off the glimmer of the surface

You smile back

Mountains are the earth’s arms

eternally raised in praise

Waterfalls crash in jubilant excellence

at the creativity of your hands

Creation’s song

bounces off of and resonates between sky and sea

The sun rests in your magnificence

It’s light, reflecting yours

Flowers with their faces lifted to you

shimmering under heavens dew

as the trees stand at everlasting attention

in your presence.

Copyright2004 by Jaz

SONKU 4 SONIA (For Sonia Sanchez)

The Wordsmith

          wondrously

  crocheting

              her bones of poetry

into me

Groaning For A Perfect State

darkness

of

night

coil

round

usurp breath

from tired skin

I summon

my

light

to push

thru

rise up

outta

ash

and

dung

to the

One

whose

arms

hold

me

above

my

broken

 places 

Copyright2004byJaz