"The Up Side Of Down”
YOU KEPT ME ALIVE
You
were so busy looking up to me, being appreciative of all that I have done for you and being thankful that I am your mother
that you did not notice that I was looking up at you. You see, while you were busy looking up to me, I was being appreciative
of you. Without your knowing, you saved my life. It was thoughts of you that kept me from committing suicide years
ago when your father beat me merciless for years. Thoughts of you kept me from the grave and hell. The thoughts of what
would happen to you if I died kept me holding on to complete college, put one foot in front of the other daily and refuse
to give up or in. More than you know, it was you, all of my children that kept me alive. My children
and I are very close. We have endured much together. “You Kept Me Alive,” was written to express to
them just how important their presence has been in my life.
1997 MILLION WOMEN MARCH IN HONOR OF THEIR PRIDE
Today I pause to pay tribute to one of the greatest wonders of this world. This wonder
has rocked many cradles, saved many lives, bore many sorrows and soothed many hearts. This wonder whisper with the strength
of the wind, “You can make it”. With loving hands, this wonder continues to pull to safety those that are
forgotten, weakened and lost. Late at night when cold whispers through the house, this figure rise to provide heat for
those that sleep. This piece was written at the request of Mrs. Mary Adams of Roosevelt, New York. It was on behalf
of Patrick Williams, who was in the race for and later became District #1 in Nassau County, New York’s Legislator.
Do You Remember
With eyes closed, let us journey back through our History. It is a place of years of hard toil, enslavement,
defeat, pain, rejection and denials. The place from where God brought us. He personalized the relationship of
His being Father and our being His children. Claimed by faith before a here, now, then, there, who, when or where.
Do you remember? Come go with me to a place where syrup, biscuits and water was breakfast. Fatback, collard greens,
cornbread and chicken feet were dinner. Go back to the past with me and remember when cardboard with strings replaced
the soles of shoes on your feet. Two dresses was a blessing and three pairs of coveralls were Christmas. Was written
as a reminder of where God has brought many of us from and a reminder to be thankful what we have today. It was presented
at the Harriet Tubman Celebration, Albany, New York in 2004.
Meet Me In The Cracks Of Life
Life is more critical than death, as is the cracks verse the limelight. Most people will walk with you when the
lights of Broadway are shining, but when you hit the valley, they disappear. I need to know today; I mean right now
and not tomorrow, can you meet me in the cracks of life? I was waiting outside of a church one night for my daughter and granddaughter. As I
sat there watching the light shining through the cracks in the window curtains, I wondered if I could identify them through
the tiny cracks. Sitting there I heard, “the cracks.” Then I heard, “the cracks of life.”
Lastly I heard, “Meet Me In The Cracks Of Life.”
HE STOOD UP
Madness swept
people whose only power was found in destroying their own. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely and forced
power destroys even the soul. Paul Rusesabagina was forced to watch the genocide of his people by his people. With the world pretending
that they were not watching, he saw from the inside what self-hatred, intolerance and ignorance could and did do. He
saw thousands of bodies, held bodies, rode over bodies and housed bodies to the saving of lives. Yes, he sat there for
a while stunned and trying to wrap his mind around the insanity, but then “He stood up”. He became
sanity in insanity, a Hutu that sought to keep both Hutu and Tutsis safe. God used him in the saving of
over 1,000 lives. This piece was written after watching the movie “Hotel Rawanda.” It was presented to him
at his visit to Nassau Community College on April 27, 2005.
CHERRY LANE
Questions, questions and more questions
are asked when the name Cherry Lane is mentioned. What is it? Where can it be found? Who lives there?
When does it appear and how can one gain access to it? It is the popular, cool and in place to be. It is a state of
readiness and togetherness. Everything is done today, tonight, in one hour or right now. This piece was written about
my friend Cherry Ann Weinstein. She keeps me on my toes because everything she request of me is last minute. I
love my girl.
THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF MANKIND
Winds that are profound, astonishing, moving and ferocious can least describe hurricanes. Men under pressure
that are depressed because of repressions and have become incarcerated for the crimes of others are affected by hurricanes.
Omissions and commissions that have been hidden that the evil of mankind may not be discovered and the valor of the right
may remain hidden. Fixed trials yielding guilty verdicts, that the innocent may lose their freedom. Years, physical
and mental of incarceration cannot make the innocent guilty. All the plotting, all the ducks lined up and all the kings’
men cannot keep a ray of truth from breaking through darkness.
This piece was written after viewing “The Hurricane.” It too was presented to Ruben Carter,
also known as “The Hurricane.”
