Inspirational Shorts - Poetry Corner - Ntozake Shange - Mood Indigo

Inspirational Shorts

Welcome to Inspirational Shorts in todays recording we look at the poet/writer Ntozake Shange.  

Ntozake Shange was an American playwright and poet. she addressed issues relating to race and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She also penned novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982), Liliane (1994), and Betsey Brown (1985)   Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother a psychiatric social worker. Cultural icons such as Dizzie Gillepsie, Miles Davis, and W.E.B. DuBois were regular guests in the Williams home. more HERE

Listen to the Podcast HERE

She is one of my favorite writers and today we look at her poem Mood Indigo.  I encourage you to look at some of her other work, and you can find additional links to books on Amazon

Mood Indigo - 

it hasnt always been this way

ellington was not a street

robeson no mere memory

du bois walked up my father’s stairs

hummed some tune over me

sleeping in the company of men

who changed the world

 

it wasnt always like this

why ray barretto used to be a side-man

& dizzy’s hair was not always grey

i remember            i was there

i listened in the company of men

politics as necessary as collards

music even in our dreams

 

our house was filled with all kinda folks

our windows were not cement or steel

our doors opened like our daddy’s arms

held us safe & loved

children growing in the company of men

old southern men & young slick ones

sonny til was not a boy

the clovers no rag-tag orphans

our crooners/ we belonged to a whole world

nkrumah was no foreigner

virgil aikens was not the only fighter

 

it hasnt always been this way

ellington was not a street

BY NTOZAKE SHANGE

Check out Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo

Arts and Wellness - Stitched Play

Come and check out the Arts and Wellness video where I look at some stitched projects as well as reflecting on current events.

Let me know how you get on and which is your favorite wall hanging.  Will be finishing them and adding to my Etsy store - (details to come)  Or just contact me for prices if you would like to purchase sooner.

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Affinity - Creating in Faith - Podcast

I talk about the affinity that I have with the land.  Over time working out in the garden I have been able to see my landscape change by planting tendering and nurturing the land that I have around me.  I grew up with house plants and had a big learning curve in transferring the knowledge that I have gained.  It has all come together as I step out of my comfort zone. 

Listen to the podcast

I mention gardening and I would love you to check out my Creative Gardening platform and YouTube Channel

Creative Gardener

Inspirational Shorts - Gwendolyn Brooks - Sermon on the Warpland

Gwendolyn Brooks

Welcome to the final week of poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks as part of Inspirational shorts Episode 223 on the podcast. 

The word today is Helpful - Think of a time where you helped someone or was yourself helped and how did it make you feel

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The Sermon on the Warpland

And several strengths from drowsiness campaigned

but spoke in Single Sermon on the warpland.

And went about the warpland saying No.

“My people, black and black, revile the River.

Say that the River turns, and turn the River.

Say that our Something in doublepod contains

seeds for the coming hell and health together.

Prepare to meet

(sisters, brothers) the brash and terrible weather;

the pains;

the bruising; the collapse of bestials, idols.

But then oh then!—the stuffing of the hulls!

the seasoning of the perilously sweet!

the health! The heralding of the clear obscure!

Build now your Church, my brothers, sisters. Build

never with brick or Corten nor with granite.

Build with lithe love. With love like lion-eyes.

with love like morningrise.

with love like black, our black—

luminously indiscreet;

complete; continuous.”

 ***********************************************

The Second Sermon on the Warpland

This is the urgency: Live! and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.

Salve salvage in the spin.

Endorse the splendor splashes;

stylize the flawed utility;

prop a malign or failing light–

but know the whirlwind is our commonwealth.

Not the easy man, who rides above them all,

not the jumbo brigand, not the pet bird of poets, that sweetest sonnet, shall straddle the whirlwind.

Nevertheless, live.

All about are the cold places, 

all about are the pushmen and jeopardy, theft–

all about are the stormers and scramblers, but

what must our Season be, which starts from Fear?

Live and go out.

Define and

medicate the whirlwind.

The time

cracks into furious flower. Lifts its face

all unashamed. And sways in wicked grace.

Whose half-black hands assemble oranges

is tom-tom hearted

(goes in bearing oranges and boom).

And there are bells for orphans–

and red and shriek and sheen.

A garbageman is dignified

as any diplomat.

Big Bessie’s feet hurt like nobody’s business,

but she stands–bigly–under the unruly scrutiny, stands in the wild weed.  In the wild weed

she is a citizen,  and is a moment of highest quality; admirable.

It is lonesome, yes. For we are the last of the loud.

Nevertheless, live.

Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.

Find her books on Amazon

You can check out more about Gwendolyn Brooks, her life and other poetry on the Poetry Foundation Website - HERE

Join me each week on the podcast - HERE

Thank you for joining me, stay blessed and be a blessing!