In the still of the night

In the still of the night

God lays before me

a body empty of bed

But there is wanting

of body, of bed

of all bondings 

the Spirit moves

God calls me;

I hide

while all wanting clings

perfume from a flowering stem

for God is more than good

more embrasure than the heart can bear

more than a body bears

in the still of the night

*There are those like Osama bin Laden - who was raised as an upper class Saudi in Geneva - who will seek the sweetness of a pure line.  One sensed the same desire in the Columbine massacre in Colorado, where the grandson of an observant Jew chose Hitler's birthday to charge into the cafeteria. These are children who want one  pure thing in a world in which they suddenly realize there are only mixed things.

-Richard Rodriguez

*I probably overuse the term (Puritanism), but in Brown I use it most successfully in considering the closing of the playhouses in England in the seventeenth century, where it reflects a fear of the imagination.  I began to detect a Puritanism in the racial politics of the 1960's I was raised in.  I describe in Brown how an American Indian was not allowed to impersonate himself precisely because the Puritans at the university I attended, Stanford, insisted that they knew what reality was and that reality only had one face.  The Puritan impulse for me is an attempt to find clarity or even the handspring of God within history in a way that does not admit to the unpredictable or even the playful.  It is strongest precisely in those areas in our culture where we think we are free of color, free of Puritanism.  I have described the sexual excess of the gay community in San Francisco in the 1970's as very Puritan, and in many ways there was this kind of sexlessness to all sexual license.  It was not joyful.  It was manic.  It was an attempt to identify as gay in a way that our Puritan ancestors would have acknowledged - being one thing to the exclusion of being other things.  The idea that as a homosexual man, I can write in ways that are not at all homosexual, that I have other doors in the hallway of my imagination, remains very puzzling to a number of gay Puritan friends of mine.  They would call it a kind of oppression, because I do not see everything through one lens.

-Richard Rodriguez 

Daddy Said

Daddy said

"Niggas be mean

spittin' poison like vipers

twisted in love"

Been Nigga watchin'

catchin' ev'ry twitch of lips

ev'ry blinkin' eye

Niggas cuss like a mothafucka

with cadence and venom

in a dance that sparkles

with laughter and fear

Their eyes stalk ev'ry doubt

ev'ry chick and dick in stride;

snatch all like owls and lions

on the night prowl of prey

Niggas shoot deadlier without thought

The young lay dead as puddin' proof

A sorry sight, the pints of blood

drunk by the street, not the ill

Too soon buried and forgot

anotha obit thrown to the waste

*Black Woman

Th day I met u I saw strength

and I knew from that point on

that u were pure woman 2 me

possessing a spirit that was strong

I want smiles 2 replace the sorrow

that u have encountered in the past

and since it was strength that attracted me 2 u

it will take strength 2 make it last

My negative side will attempt 2 change u

but please fight that with your all

it will be your strength that keep us both standing

while others around us fall

-Tupak Shakur

*...seventeenth-century Mexico calls the children of Indian-African marriage "Chinos."  Latin America is extraordinarily playful with matters of sex, which is to say of matters of blood, whereas the United States is severe and Puritanical about notions of blood precisely because we are insecure about issues of eroticism.

-Richard Rodriquez 

Christ of my broken self

of a cruciform, torn apart

glue me with your Spirit

set me on your cross

*Since our birth, the one experience assured us is our death.

*When we are too tender about something we can easily become too violent in seeking to defend or preserve it.

-Gregory Wolfe

*Christ 's message was not to pretend the world isn't fallen but to take our crosses and follow him through the suffering and sacrifice.  To create a body of work illustrating a world without the Fall is, for a Christian, to render Christ superfluous.

-Gregory Wolfe 

God of the piecing Quiet

You say more in silence

than we in noise;

speaking to us in gentle language

we shout at You our words.

When will we enclose the din

with the list'ning sound of silence?

When will we echo Your noise

with the tumult of the Quiet?

*A friend told me: "Sometimes we stumble into the will of God".  And I added: "Sometimes, through that, we fall into the well that is God.

*When the parousia happens, there will be somebody cleaning up the shit.

*You need not leave your room.  Remain sitting at your table and listen.  You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary.  The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmarked.  It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy, at your feet.

-Kafka

I have looked upon the Host

I have looked upon the Host

the Body of Christ:

have seen the works of Man

baked in it

have seen the folk of earth

pressed in It

have touched the joys of all

in the taste of It

I have looked into the Cup

the Blood of Christ:

have seen the dreams of Man

stir in It

have seen the pains of folk

squeezed in It

have savored the tears of all

in drinking It

I have looked upon the Christ

in His Eucharist:

have heard His freedom

while eating It

have yes'd His promises 

while drinking It

have said my thanks

while feeding It

*Tecum

With You

inside

a steady stream

of living light

we meet

in the presence

of nothing

more than

yes

we welcome

each other

unceasingly

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

*Carry

it does not

matter

so much

how well

you carry

a note a melody

but how

consciously

you

carry

this 

instrument

of 

presence

of

mystery

you

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

Extinct volcano!?

Old Ruth staked a spot deep in her lava pit today.

One would have thought it was extinct

but I saw it gush as her ripened frame shock

as the earth and mountains of flesh rocked

and she moaned for a god like a priestess of Delphi

*When Sister Death arrives, we'll be ready. She's the only way to go.

*All our heroes have mud on their feet.

*Behind every story is a story.

*We human beings ares so interested in proving ourselves to be gods and goddesses that we end up proving ourselves to be devils.

*Things That Make Hearts Break

pretty smiles

deceiving laughs

and people who dream with their eyes open

lonely children 

unanswered cries

and souls who have given up hoping

The other thing that breaks hearts

R fairy tales that never come true

and selfish people who lie to me

selfish people just like u

-Tupac Shakur

Having the fire of some strong passion blazing in my head

the weight of some red anger hanging over me

my heart rocks back and forth

like a metronome mocking time

pacing the rage bathing in the heat.

My flesh rashed pink with an itch

that, bothersome, under-my-skin's embrace

bore through my veins as unnerving depression

Tis the potion of the forsaken

the elixir of the long-abandoned child in flight

the cocktail of the well-spoke Jesus out of sight.

Rapids of rejection long forgot

soak the soul as if drowning by baptism

a weighted spirit  desiring to be selected

yet sinking under sea like a rock without legs.

In this night-walk of feelings a thought enters in:

it's the dark-wood crossing where Dante meets Virgil

journeying to Beatrice on the Sun-side of Hell

to the Light-side of sadness crawling in his soul. 

*...R.H. Blyth once noted: "We are being sentimental when we give to a thing more tenderness than God gives to it."....Oscar Wilde hits closer to the mark: "a sentimentalist is one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it."

-Gregory Wolfe

*When we are too tender about something we can easily become too violent in seeking to defend or preserve it.

-Gregory Wolfe

*...Christ's message was not to pretend the world isn't fallen but to take up our crosses and follow him through the suffering and sacrifice.

-Gregory Wolfe

*If There Be Pain...

If there be pain

    all u need to do

is call on me 2 be with u

And before u hang up the phone

u will no longer be alone

Together we can never fall

because our love will conquer all

If there be pain

    reach out 4 a helping hand

and I shall hold u wherever I am

Every breath I breathe will be into u

4 without u here my joy is through

my life was lived through falling rain

so call on me if there be pain

-Tupac Shakur 

We are half-persons with quartered  faces drugs

lacking balance in our lives;

leaning on the edge of collapse

we embrace Hopes' escape from despair

We cry with muffled tongues

a Word swallowed in each sound;

thirsting for the Wine of Peace

we imbibe Life's oblivion drugs

We long the Physician come to patch our broken parts

to hear our garbled response through desiccated throats

We languish on the banks of Eden

peering at the Tree across the Way

awaiting the cherubim to sheath the sword

and Christ to ferry us in

*To engage art is to use it, and it will do something to or for you, even if it does not cause you to go on a buying spree.

-Theodore L. Prescott

*One aspect of receiving and having faith is some fundamental reordering of the way one looks at the world.  Faith begins to de-fang that hungry, omnivorous creature within each of us, the one that so easily turns people and things into objects to satisfy our appetites.

-Theodore L. Prescott

*My Dearest One!!

There R no words to express

how much I truly care

So many times I fantasize of

feelings we can share

My heart has never known

the Joy u bring 2 me

As if GOD knew what I wanted

and made u a reality

I'd die 2 hold u or 2 kiss u

or merely to see your face

my stomach quivers my body shivers

and my heart increases pace

2 give me $ or lots of gold

would not be the same 2 me

I prayed and watched the distant stars

and finally u came 2 me!

-Tupac Shakur

Death in family earlier today(Sunday).  Will need to be away from blog for several days, at least.

Thanks for your understanding.

i sit with You

but it's You 

Who sit with me

not only sitting

but preparing the space

arranging chairs

providing food

for our conversation in silence:

interiority swept clean 

calmed to tiredness

for spiritual rest

the emptiness packed

with peace and solitude 

*Our discovery of God is, in a way, God's discovery of us.

-Thomas Merton

*We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.

-Thomas Merton

*In order to know and love God as He is, we must have God dwelling in us in a new way, not only in His creative power but in His mercy, not only in His greatness but in His littleness, by which He empties Himself and comes down to us to be empty in our emptiness, and so fill us in His fullness.

-Thomas Merton

*Nothing Can Come Between Us

let's not talk of money

let us forget the world

4 a moment let's just revel

in our eternal comradery

in my Heart I know

there will never be a day

that I don't remember

the times we shared

u were a friend

and being a friend 2 me

was not easy or fashionable

regardless of how popular

I become u remain

my unconditional friend

unconditional in its truest sense

did u think I would forget

did u 4 one moment dream

that I would ignore u

if so remember this from here 2 forever

nothing can come between us

-Tupac Shakur

Purple Madness

Purple, racing through each vein of blood

taps the passion-points of desire on course

that I am mad with wild-want

of want for you like Spring for flow'rs.

Blooms form 'long the breathe of my lips

flow'ring to smile at rhe smiles of your face

which my hand cups like hot black tea

being sipped with pleasure, English-style.

Your words are filtered steam cov'ring my face with warmth

as your chin hooks my arm closer to your neck.

I speak and laugh with the the madness of want

as you butt your way to my thighs at rest.

Tis a strange purple-passion oozing 'tween us:

respectful play and controlled desire seeking caress

all in the press, the poise, the silent interludes

all a holding-in what the heart knows is true

*Imagination should be a probing into truth, a penetration, not a fabrication of something that we want to believe.

-Gil Bailie

*We live in a world that has calloused our sensibilities, a world where we are bombarded visually, ravaged by stimulation until we can't see or hear or taste or feel or touch anything, and in this world the artist is charged with bringing us to our senses.  This is the sacramental sensibility.

-Gil Bailie

*Rene Girard has said many times that we want to talk about language instead of using it - we have a sort of postmodern hermeneutics of hermeneutics of hermeneutics.  "In the room the women go, talking of Michelangelo" is the condition from which the visual artist must save us, and the great mainstream of art in the twentieth century has abandoned that task.

-Gil Bailie

Who Are U?

I am on the wall

in flash of colors and

Black and white

I am nude odalisque

laid upon a chaise

eyeing eyes that search

I am caterpillar

inching toward the chrysalis

eating green as nurturance

I am ritual, dance

movement in 40 parts

spinning out a question mark

I am poetry in lines

scribed in foreign script

spoken accents, nondescript

I am woman-to-be

a man hung in doubt

where vaginas open as caves

I am persona salad

of van Gogh, Ifo, Pompeii, Egypt, too

Rivera, Lawrence and plastic's speak

I am more than all I know

an iota of what I know

a myst'ry verse of song

I am...

I Luv the Field of Flesh

Male flesh, woman flesh

young flesh, aged flesh

baby flesh, youth flesh:

I luv the field of flesh

Smooth flesh, wrinkled flesh

brown flesh, white flesh

hilly flesh, flat flesh:

I luv the field of flesh

Quiet flesh, busy flesh

breast flesh,bun flesh

passion flesh, plain flesh:

I luv the field of flesh

Your flesh, my flesh

his flesh, her flesh

their flesh, all flesh:

I luv the field of flesh

God-flesh, personed flesh

giving flesh, saving flesh

loving flesh, each flesh:

I luv Your feel for flesh

*God

when I was alone and had nothing

I asked 4 a friend 2 help me bear the

pain no one came except...GOD

when I needed a breath 2 rise

from my sleep no one could

help me except....GOD

when all I saw was sadness

and I needed answers no one

heard me except....GOD

so when I am asked who I

give my unconditional love 2

look for no other name

except......GOD!

-Tupac Shakur

might a dream-talk

speak a word in my night-mind

open some window in my deep sleep

and lead me from the dark to light?

*Some thoughts from Thomas Merton:

     -Contemplation is no pain-killer.

     -There is "no such thing" as God because God is neither a "what" nor a "thing" but a pure "Who."

     -God is the I Am before whom with our own most personal and inalienable voice we echo "I am."   

The Fear in the Heart of a Man

against an attacker I will boldly take my stand

because my heart will show faer 4 no man

but 4 a broken heart I run with fright

scared 2 be blind in a vulnerable night

I believe this fear is in every man

some will acknowledge it others will fail 2 understand

there is no fear in a shallow heart

because shallow hearts don't fall apart

but feeling hearts that truly care

 are fragile 2 the flow of air

and if I am 2 be true then I must give

my fragile heart

I may receive great joy or u may return it

ripped apart

-Tupac Shakur

two darkfigures

am I

leaninginto

the

abyss of

mysoul

burnt by

sin gonewild

and stale

awaitingjudgment

or 

light

ofmercy

above

mysorrow

*Seeing is a neglected enterprise.

-Saul Leiter

*I like the idea that simple and unimportant things can be a source of great beauty.

-Saul Leiter

*Art ain't about paint.  It ain't about canvas. It 's about ideas.  Too many people died without ever getting their mind out to the world.

-Thornton Dial

-We are weak and fallen human beings who continue to murder by word and deed.

-Today we honor the dead to whose numbers we add by killing others in the name of peace.

I'll ferry you to rest with me

beside the sperm bank, rich for robbery

beneath the ocean swells

rising on the beach of my flesh

on skin so gentle, a poetry of love

that you'll wed the heat, ocean and all

and rob the bank of its whited gold

so soft, moist, warm and long

in bolting hugs that guide with each embrace

till passions' sleep soothes us to its hour

*If I Fail

If in my quest 2 achieve my goals

I stumble or crumble and lose my soul

Those that knew me would easily co-sign

There was never a life as hard as mine

No father - no money- no chance and no guide

I only follow my voice inside

if it guides me wrong and I do not win

I'll learn from mistakes and try to achieve again.

-Tupac Shakur

*What Is It That I Search 4

I know not what I search 4

But I know I have yet to find it.

Because it is invisible 2 the eye

My heart must search 4 it blinded.

And if by chance I find it,

Will I know my mission is achieved?

Can one come 2 conclusions,

Before the question is conceived?

Just as no no one knows

what lies beyond the shore,

I will never find the answer 2

what it is that I search 4.

-Tupac Shakur

-If death doesn't get you, something else will.

*The dangers of life are many, and safety is one of those dangers.

-Goethe

The unadorned Christ

Splattered with sin

the servant-God in flesh

of human nature's gifts

you stand, bare-assed

head caressing the whipping post

where soldiers' blood-letting strokes

release health upon the human race

 You are the sorry-sight of us

the sullied grace of God

deserving life into Hells upon Hells

moaning now the saving prayers of death

facing the tree barren of its fruit

You are the apple, pealed

nailed to Our Parental curse

shiv'ring neath the Eclipsed Sun

the Spirit-seed released from your core

You are a naked-nothing

full with All we'll ever need

*Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt.  On the contrary, the deep, in expressible certitude  of the contemplative experience awakens a tragic anguish and opens many questions in the depths of the heart like wounds that cannot stop bleeding. For every gain in deep certitude there is a corresponding growth of superficial "doubt."  This doubt is by no means opposed to genuine faith, but it mercilessly examines and questions the spurious "faith" of everyday life, the human faith which is nothing but the passive acceptance of conventional opinion.  This false "faith" which is what we often live by and which we even come to confuse with our "religion" is subjected to inexorable questioning.  This torment is a kind of trial by fire in which we are compelled, by the very light of invisible truth which has reached us in the dark ray of contemplation, to examine, to doubt and finally to reject all the prejudices and conventions that we have hitherto accepted as if they were dogmas.  Hence is it clear that genuine contemplation is incompatible with complacency and with smug acceptance of prejudiced opinions.  It is not mere passive acquaintance in the status quo, as some would like to believe - for this would reduce the level of spiritual anesthesia. Contemplation is no pain-killer.  What a holocaust takes place in this steady burning to ashes of old worn-out words, cliches, slogans, rationalizations!  The worst of it is that even apparently holy conceptions are consumed along with all the rest.  It is a terrible breaking and burning of idols, a purification of the sanctuary, so that no graven thing may occupy the place that God has commanded to be left empty: the center, the existential altar which simply "is." 

-Thomas Merton

naked child

naked child, where are you:

on a path running

dashing toward childhood

to an innocence lost?

guide me to the inside

the safer side of fear

far from the trembling fright

the echoing noise of night

i yearn for tattered Eden

but cherubs block return.

i scour the streets for heaven

and devils chase me in

*The Shining Star Within

                         Dedicated 2 Marilyn Monroe

Secrets R hidden with the clouds

of Darkness.

And in this place no one Dares 2  Breathe

in Fear of self-expression 

It has been this way

forever and a day

until she came 2 shine

with a spark of innocence and questions

only 2 be answered with Darkness

Not just Darkness but the silent kind

that steals your soul and kills your mind

There was no compassion

for this thriving star

only exploitation

and confused jealousy

u saw no hope and brought the end

Never acknowledging the star within

-Tupac Shakur

*Starry Night

                                 Dedicated in Memory of

                                           Vincent van Gogh

a creative heart, obsessed with satisfying

This dormant and uncaring society

u have given them the stars at night

and u have given them Bountiful Bouquets of Sunflowers

But 4 u there is only contempt

and though u pour yourself into that frame

and present it so proudly 

this world could not accept your masterpieces

from the heart

So on that starry night

u gave 2 us and

u took away from us

The one thing we never acknowledged

    your life

*Tupac Shakur

Wrestling angel

Myst'ry angel of Jacob

brown angel of mine

both angel and Jacob

tussling in myself

on the rocky desert floor

minus comfort, minus rest

for my sore, naked soul

Kneed to my side

my nerves ache for balm

that God soothes o'er wounds

had in the struggling feud

Tis God who is the balm

masseuse, physician, friend

wrestling angel of Jacob

wrestling angel of mine 

*It is not we who choose to awaken ourselves, but God Who chooses to awaken us.

-Thomas Merton

*Contemplation is not trance or ecstasy, not the hearing of sudden unutterable words, nor the imagination of lights.  It is not the emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltation. It is not enthusiasm, the sense of being "seized" by an elemental force and swept into liberation by mystical frenzy.  These things may seem to be in some way like a contemplative awakening and control exercised by our empirical self.  But they are not the work of the "deep self", only of the emotions, of the somatic unconscious.  They are a flooding up of the dionysian forces of the "id". Such manifestations can of course accompany a deep and genuine religious experience, but they are not what I am talking about here as contemplation.

-Thomas Merton

What of Fame?

everyone knows ure Face

The world screams ure name

Never again R u alone

-Tupac Shakur

Finding one's place in the sky

can balk ones movement midst the stars.

Their lights beam bright about;

one's own, a flickering match, it seems.

Yet, an ardent match can set aflame

the wood which firemen sweat to tame.

*Moment

at any given

moment we can

become transparent

without the wind stopping

or the waves counting on

themselves to be waves-

a naturalness in

the way change

and change again

rises from a thousand

campfires on an endless

plain before the oldest

battle to discover the brilliant

emerald valley at the end

of a moment of

nothing but breath

I hang on

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

*Out

of light

of darkness

of every

I am

at play

on the edge

of the deep

I miss

being

in

but more

and more

I miss

being

out!

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

Heaven is

Heaven is
   a long-awe
   endless wonder
   'tinous delight
   child, leaning back
   on pitched arms
   struck that Such
   can so enrapture  
   that one's all-pleasure
   is being-still
   absorbing All

Reflections on a day meandering

My heart is a zillion whirlpools

spinning in a symphonic chaos.

I race 'tween doubt and doubt

to touch one second of assurance

enough to push me through the gate

The twisted road of hist'ry

where the sure and lame are halt

is the only trail to Home

where You stand at the door.

There I'm Yours, all Yours

A tattoo upon Your arm

written, "Mine, all Mine",

my name inked in red

No mad eyes rolling out of sight in their sockets

nor perfumed anger torching the toxined air

but a Doorjam-Daddy eyeing the distant street

awaiting my return from the stockade of The Found

where I fashioned a home of filth

midst the stick horses loose in the world

Tis there You stand, searching the distant scene

as bedraggled I walk, rememb'ring

those tattoos writ in red

*The Eternal Lament

From my mind 2 the depths of my soul

I yearn 2 achieve all of my goals

and all of my freetime will be spent

on the 1's I miss I will lament

I am not a perfectionist 

but still I seek perfection

I am not a great romantic

but yet I yearn 4 affection

Eternally my mind will produce

ways 2 put my talents 2 use

and when I'm gone I'm done no matter where I've been

I'll yearn 2 do it all again

-Tupak Shakur

*Contemplation does not arrive at reality after a process of deduction, but by an intuitive awakening in which our free and personal reality becomes fully alive to its own existential depths, which open out into the mystery of God.

-Thomas Merton

*For the contemplative there is no cogito ("I think") and no ergo ("therefore") but only SUM, I Am.

-Thomas Merton

We're in

We're in

We're in

We're in You

imaging

imaging You 

at ev'ry corner

imaging You

on ev'ry street

in the maze of written hist'ry

in ev'ry strange

and not so strange

us

whom You mother

on the breast

the abundant breast 

of Your Spirit

Grace-juice

spilling free

a niagra flowing

moistening open mouths

a-ga-pe with credos

and manna for the soul

*The only way to get rid of misconceptions about contemplation is to experience it.

-Thomas Merton

*Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self.  There is an irreducible  opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular.  We must remember that this superficial "I" is not our real self.  It is our "individuality" and our "empirical self" but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God.  The "I" that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reactions and talks about itself is not the true "I" that has been united to God in Christ.  It is at best  the venture, the mask, the disguise of that mysterious and unknown "self" whom most of us never discover until we are dead.  Our external, superficial self is not eternal, not spiritual.

-Thomas Merton

*Untitled

Please waken me when I'm free

I cannot bear captivity

where my culture I'm told holds no significance

I'll wither and die in ignorance

But my inner eye can c a race

who reigned as kings in another place

the green of trees were rich and full

and every man spoke of beautiful

men and women together as equals

War was gone because all was peaceful

But now like a nightmare I wake 2 c

That I live like a prisoner of poverty

Please wake me when I'm free
I cannot bear captivity
4 I would rather be stricken blind
than 2 live without expression of mind

-Tupac Shakur

Moving to old age

How quietly I moved to old age, 

a snail sliding toward the wood!

How could Time walk me to Death

grey me without my permission?

Zero could expand this fast

like  nightfall for some child

playing through the supper hour.

This creeping, crawling process

seducing me to view ME at prime

holds me in procession

while my flesh flakes away.

What wonder at the play

of Time, Flesh and Sister Death

the tide-in, tide-out of living

of being born at the Breaking Day.

The trip from womb to "slow-down"

is sure a subtle leap;

on this I've reached my "Senior Years"'

chauffeured by mem'ries growing dim.

*To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life.

-Thomas Merton

*...contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awareness to the Real within all that is real.

-Thomas Merton

*...we are words that are meant to respond to Him, to answer Him, to echo Him, and even in some way to contain Him and signify Him.

-Thomas Merton

*...the contemplative is at the same time, question and answer.

-Thomas Merton

The Light Is More

The Word became flesh as a word of terror

knocking hell from the Prince of Dark

bringing light to the crannies of doubt

where earthlings despaired at the thought of loss

Bleakness held our hopes in bondage

war upon war the prime vision for life

death after death seemed the glory died for

in the name of god or country or lot

Crying aloud for an unknown something

"Peace", a term, sometime slipped from our lips

we shivered in the cold of its mention

shook with the trembling earth underfoot

Then in the night-course of a quieted sky

when sleep engulfed the tensioned horde

he lept from heaven with arms worldwide

and clothed himself in a virginal womb

The word became flesh, pitching his tent amongst us

setting us on an unimagined course.

The journey continues but it is different:

hope's more firm than what's been lost

Though Dark be there the Light is more;

with outstretched arms the Light is Sure

*Under the Skies Above

My child is out there somewhere

under the skies above

waiting anxiously 4 u and me

2 bless it with our love

A part of me a part of u

and a part of this love we share

will protect my unborn child

who lives dormant out there somewhere

Sometimes in my dreams

I imagine what it would be like

How could I properly guide him

when even I don't know what's right

Whether he is born in wealth or poverty

there will be no deficiency in love

I welcome the gift of life

given from GOD under the skies above

-Tupak Shakur

*Life Through My Eyes

Life through my bloodshot eyes

would scare a square 2 death

poverty, murder, violence

and never a moment of rest

Fun and games R few

but treasured like gold 2 me

cuz I realize that I must return

2 my spot in poverty

But mock my words when I say

my heart will not exist

unless my destiny comes through

and puts an end 2 all of this

-Tupak Shakur

Provocateur

I paused this morning to peer through the mirror

to gaze through eyes both green and grey

to plumb the visage upon the glass

I stared to see beyond beyond

to cross into heart and soul

to touch The Face upon face

my face, Christ's face facing

The image stands curious

on a morning after bath

as the world awakes to day

and I to the questions of Life

This icon I bear, is it Christ's?

Is he the one staring back at me?

If he's the one, then who're the others I see?

Is it his face I face in the mirror of their eyes

                                     the molding of their lips

                                     the coloring of their skin

                                     the silence of their cries

                                     the laughter of their heart?

*The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack

in the concrete

Proving nature's laws wrong it learned 2 walk

without having feet

Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams

it learned 2 breathe fresh air

Long live the rose that grew from concrete

when no one else even cared!

-Tupac Shakur

*Sometimess I Cry

Sometimes when I'm alone

I cry because I'm on my own

The tears I cry R bitter and warm

They flow with life but take no form

I cry because my heart is torn

and I find it difficult 2 carry on

If I had an ear 2 confide in

I would cry among my treasured friends

But who do u know that stops that long

to help another carry on

The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by

than 2 stop and c what makes u cry

It's painful and sad and sometimes I cry

and no one cares about why.

-Tupac Shakur

I hold you, scarred one

as your press against my breast

a John against a Jesus

a needful youth of twelve

for warmth, embrace, certain

of unpainning love and care

Your bereft hands finger

those of mine and arms as well

affirming that flesh's soft

in a zoo of rhinos on the prowl

You slouch like a new champion

who's run the course of life

in want of some elusive prize

so long slipped from your grasp

But now, for one moment

however brief or short or long

your heart has banished panic

your face bright-full of calm

while comforting peace enfolds you

your frantic frame in search of home

You're held secure 

*In the Depths  of Solitude

                                        Dedicated 2 Me

I exist in the depths of solitude

pondering my true goal

Trying 2 find peace of mind

and still preserve my soul

CONSTANTLY yearning 2 be accepted

and from all receive respect

Never compromising but sometimes risky

and that is my only regret

A young heart with an old soul

how can there be peace

How can I be in the depths of solitude

when there R 2 inside of me

This duo within me causes the prefect opportunity

2 learn and live twice as fast

as those who accept simplicity

-Tupac Shakur

*Life Through My Eyes

Life through my blood shot eyes

would scare a square 2 death

poverty, murder, vilonce

and never a moment 2 rest

Fun and games R few

but traesured like gold 2 me

cuz I realize that I must return

2 my spot in poverty

But mock my words when I say

my heart will not exist

unless my destiny comes through

and puts an end 2 all of this

-Tupac Shakur