April Is National Poetry Month!

April Is National Poetry Month!

A powerful poet and Civil Rights Activist. A dancer and thespian who has worked with The Karamu Theater, The Free Southern Theater, The National Black Theatre, and The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company. Her poems have appeared in numerous Black Publications and anthologies.

THE GOSPEL TRUTH #1 AND #2

Jackie Earley

#1

The Gospel Truth is that
The blacman can not be destroyed.
I sed
The blacman can not be destroyed.

He has a force, a Spirit honey
That can not be killed. He has
A Force, Energy, and Mission
To be/the Creator.

Who else could be a blacman?
Be branded a savage
Be stolen from your home
Be chained
Be broken down, destroyed
‘N sold into slavery.
Be raped, castrated,
Prostituted and brainwashed
Then go be lynched.

Tricked into separation
Poisoned with pig, and wine and dope
And in spite of all that
Survive/to sing the blues.
Survive/to holler in some cotton field
Jump Jesus! Shout for joy.
Go get clean on Setday night.
Get your hair did.

Carry your dead in some Cadillacs.
Create a language that moves a country
‘N a rhythm that won’t let ’em quit.

Then be the worlds fastest runner-
The worlds greatest fighter-
Keep, you some money
And cities full of kids.
Run up against a Sherman tank
With just an ‘ole empty bottle;
Survive all of that
‘N give birth to a daughter
who creates poetry
about what you been thru.

That is when you will know for yourself
That/the blacman can not be destroyed.
He has a Force, a Spirit honey
That/can not be killed….

#2

The Gospel Truth is that
The blacwoman can not be destroyed.
I sed
The blacwoman can not be destroyed.

She has a Force, a Spirit honey
That can not be killed, She has
A Force, Energy, and Mission
To be/the Creator.

Who else could be a blacwoman?
Full of amazing grace!
With the face of eternity,
Queen of the Human Race.
Who gets sold into slavery
Crushed, clothes torn
Raped, yet refused to mourn?
Be calling for your man
And be looking for your son.
Be greeted with a face of white
Be beat and stripped, then sold.
Have your fetus robbed each year.
Watch your mutilated baby die
Yet sing some cracker’s “lullaby.”

Be worked worse than your man.
Watch him beaten, see him cry.
Know/that he disappeared one night;
Yet/send your kids to school on time.
Keep all of them alive.
Survive to be a grandmother.
Build a church before you die.
Leave a gleam in some man’s eyes
That creates a daughter who poets
Who writes glory in the sky!
Just for you to understand
Why/the BlackOnes will survive.
And that’s the Gospel Truth…