Hard to believe we need protest poetry again this year, and we are only four months in. Today’s Thoughtful Thursday salutes Haki Madhubuti, poet and member of the Black Arts Movement. Madhubuti’s work with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) informs his activist poetics. As he said in a 2006 interview, “If an artist, or any person, actually understands the condition of the Black world, it will be a dereliction of duty to not write about that world and expose the injustices that exist in it—injustices imposed upon the weak by white, Black and other cultures.” Two poems by Haki Madhudbuti are below.
We end with the lyrics of “Mighty Mighty” by Earth Wind & Fire. As we soberly watch events unfold in Baltimore these days we must remember that we are a mighty people. Enjoy.
For the Consideration of Poets
where is the poetry of resistance,
the poetry of honorable defiance
unafraid of lies from career politicians and business men,
not respectful of journalist who write
official speak void of educated thought
without double search or sub surface questions
that war talk demands?
where is the poetry of doubt and suspicion
not in the service of the state, bishops and priests,
not in the service of beautiful people and late night promises,
not in the service of influence, incompetence and academic
clown talk?
Haki Madhubuti
Rwanda: Where Tears Have No Power
Who has the moral high ground?
Fifteen blocks from the whitehouse
on small corners in northwest, d.c.
boys disguised as me rip each other’s hearts out
with weapons made in china. they fight for territory.
across the planet in a land where civilization was born
the boys of d.c. know nothing about their distant relatives
in Rwanda. they have never heard of the hutu or tutsi people.
their eyes draw blanks at the mention of kigali, byumba
or butare. all they know are the streets of d.c., and do not
cry at funerals anymore. numbers and frequency have a way
of making murder commonplace and not news
unless it spreads outside of our house, block, territory.
modern massacres are intraethnic. bosnia, sri lanka, burundi,
nagorno-karabakh, iraq, laos, angola, liberia, and rwanda are
small foreign names on a map made in europe. when bodies
by the tens of thousands float down a river turning the water
the color of blood, as a quarter of a million people flee barefoot
into tanzania and zaire, somehow we notice. we do not smile,
we have no more tears. we hold our thoughts. In deeply
muted silence looking south and thinking that today
nelson mandela seems much larger
than he is.
Haki Madhubuti
“Mighty Mighty”
Walk around, why wear
a frown
Say little people, try to put you down
What you need, a helpin’ hand
All the strength, at your command
How’s ya faith? Cause ya faith is you
Who you kiddin’, to yourself be true
Spread ya love, for a brighter day
For what ya search, you’ll find a way
We are people, of the mighty
Mighty people of the sun
In our hearts lies all the answers
To the truth you can’t run from
Eagle flies, every seven days
Still cryin the blues, all about ya pay
What ya gonna do? Bout your living thang
Will ya make it better, or just complain
Everday is real, don’t run from fear
Cause better days are very near
There are times when you are bound to cry
One more time, head to the sky
We are people, of the mighty
Mighty people of the sun
In our hearts lies all the answers
To the truth you can’t run from
Maurice and Verdine White
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