near mental's edge i sit
waiting
like an elongated thought
wanting its essence to fructify
and shape music with dry notes
hung with penultimate grace
wallowing in emotions
and hoping to be set free

Obama's at the helm.

we struggle to be ourselves
her and now
with our his'try of pain and loss
of joy and grace
of sin and evil
weaning
as we toil for the freedom to be
American
without barrage of spite and hate
neglect or death
that mothered us along the way
to where we stand
today

perhaps
we could not stand
with a curse on our lips
or joy in our heart
if the journey had not been ours
and we were running
forward
to the outside of our dilemma
to the inside of our dreams

but ran we can
hoping to break class
and caste
to set our toes an inch ahead
from where we stood
till the new tomorrow dawns
without wires or blood
or the bright new dreams
of those who'd hold us dead
beyond the spot our ancestors stood
pushing is to where we stand



*Naturally, God doesn't need prayers.  Let us stop turning him into a potentate anxious for homage.  It's you and I who need prayer so that we no longer be alone, in order to get out of our shells and rejoin the universal body of love.  We can't link up with others without passing through what is furthest away; to get there it's necessary to lose one's identity. It's in that loss that I can find you, that you can find yourself.  To pray is therefore to introduce love, humor, and death into every action and ideology.  Hence prayer is the revolutionary act par excellence, the very opposite of alienation.
-Jean Sulivan


*Politeness is the surest way of keeping one's distance.
-Jean Sulivan