this night this day this celebration

.............................................

even the bartender’s dancing

i am also dancing my ass off

pronouncing GOBAMA!

uncaringly joyously, nerdily to everyone who passes my way

what’s happening here?

is it christmas’ true meaning coming early this year?

tomorrow today morning is barack-obama day-off!

a moment

from the plaguing questions

will he, won’t he?

to answer

this one precious night,

tomorrow’s one precarious sun and moon,

our troubles can be put aside

tonight the planet (at least) dances with us

how can I possibly overstate the nature of this day’s celebration?

this one which had to happen first, to dump the fear that it may never really happen

today's the day

who eye? i

call me anything you want to

negro, colored, black, sensitive

go on with your slurs – if you think even they’ll do anyone anything

the power our unity has rendered

today these words will never hurt us

we are drunk with the height of standing one inch taller*

high, our rainbowed spectrum spinning glittering joy

from all of the autumned hued peoples

we are, one night—

and for a change in the atmosphere—

in a healthier state of mind

this night morbid fiscal worries will wait...

what bombings wars ethnic cleansings

what scary terrorists stories?

what pain of injustice?

unemployment, urban sprawl,

what first what second class citizenship

which people criminalized

modern day slavery? what segregations?

what empty promises?

what, where’s my mule and can I perhaps maybe just get even the smallest acre?

though – surely – the circle has not been rounded

another, a significant layer of healing from that heinous institution

which anglo friends

with various and logically evidenced ideas of rigging, conspiracy

refusing to see that sometimes even

the powers that be

can’t dam this tidal joy

we muslim hindu buddist arab south asian hidden others
(especially muslim)

today forgive our new leader’s campaign’s little black lie

we get the joke

hopeful the hawk-stands are made of the same righteous cunning

today little black children AND little white children

tiny tell me who they are voting for – barack obama

today my gorgeous brilliant sisters and i

in silks and sexi-fitting jeans, highest heels

and love lives we can’t quite get right

look upon that wide smile

and, reminded of our lovers, brothers

let go the burden of regret bitterness disappointment

for a minimum of 56% of american females and 51% of her males**

even true love becomes possible this promising day

mothers fathers and grandest parents

express their hope through worry

uttering sheltering prayers of protection for their newly heroed son

giant on screen today michelle malia sasha

their triple-handed miracle
instantly evolves the whole world’s standards of beautiful, pretty, american, normal

today the lonely black girl fashion plate

is joined by sisters and sisters again – tokenized exoticized no more

today the royal fleet has been conquered

the dark chocolate covered golden ticket unwrapped

today let’s all disrobe our emperor’s clothes

unpunch a time clock

hug a many-flavored tree

today we are reminded again that nothing ever happens except

in its own time

in its own place

and when the purpose has perfectly ripened

tonight we let go our fears of thievery

tonight we are the champions (thank you freddy mercury)

tonight we are that which we have been seeking

the space

the deep and clear breath

……….

tonight on canal street by the chicago river

a man with an apparently cardboard reality

with needs far greater than what he is pleading

than what i have to give

dropped me

hypocritical and guiltily, to the usual wary state of mental existence

for a little while down

but still hopeful

and taking this one day off from

my own imprisoned cynicism

…………………………………………………………………………………………

*http://www.observer.com/2008/media/richard-belzer-every-black-kid-will-go-school-inch-taller-if-obama-pulls-it

** http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7709852.stm

when?

on the eleven and fifty seventh hour mr. olhmert states
that israel has been mistaken.
oh Ehud!
are you about to die?
does losing your golden spikey crown just feel that way?

and that’s why you finally say that israel has been mistaken
and that “the palestinians” have a right to have?*

when will it be – more than safe – heroic
for any leader to speak and act against the grandest injustices
no matter their popularity?

when will WE stop thinking in terms of
these mine ours!
those you yours!
and whether y’all are wrong for hoarding or
when are who gonna take that those what which
shoulda been mine ours
anyone’s but theirs

globalized corporatized governments
monetary resources
bailouts passed
hand to hand and hand and hand and hand and
again master’s indulgences forgiven through
the capture of slave-gland secretions
still we have the nerve to brag and bully
of mine and yours and ours and theirs

further still, why suffer when we are about to die?
the questionable wisdom of agism says
let the problem be solved by the young
and the younger after that
so long as my stock are stocked in that false god’s resources
wait till I get off (this planet)
till then postpone the great depression part two
no matter this means pretending that we’re not
already in world war three and four and five and etc

think of this as a call to action
for our youth and for everyone
who has dis-allowed the shriveling gods
of our resource hoarding system to
permanently distract the last heart in our minds

when will america’s politicians
the beloved saviour-types and
the cartoonish alike
give their word
use their over-exposed images to turn our eye towards the
people whose struggle-laden lives
can’t be mytho-euphemized into the generic middle class

when will our imported yogic advaitic** teachings steer our hearts
out of petty-eyed I-nsecurities and up
through the light and free-state of WE-consciousness

this is a call to action
let go of national and racial and sexual and religual
and all other jealousies

and replace owning with loving
eyes and minds renewed daily

………………………………………………………………..
* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-will-have-to-reinstate-pre1967-border-for-peace-deal-olmert-admits-946124.html
**advaita philosophy promotes absolute non-dualism

community organizers- a letter to the editor

martha burzynski
http://flickr.com/photos/marthaburzynski/473666957/

September 5, 2008

Open Letter to Governor Sarah Palin and Mayor Rudy Giuliani,

In an apparent effort to generate a few laughs at Senator Obama’s expense, you chose to disparage a large and honorable group of working citizens. With this low-rate amusement, you brought the intellectual vibration of the RNC several stages lower.

Community organizers are the wheels through which marginalized people enact social change all over this country. Representing all ethnic, religious, political, and economic sectors, they work compassionately and tirelessly, usually with little or no wages, to address the needs of their communities.

But I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you are unaware of the great progress that has been made through the sweat of community organizers. Working directly with their community, they are held responsible long after they have been hired for their job. They are a grounding force, linking politicians who have become disconnected with their primary motives with the people they originally swore to serve.

Jane Addams, a Victorian woman, founded the then-revolutionary Hull House. This countries’ first settlement house continues to address the needs of the urban poor through physical fitness, art, and innovative adult education programs, uplifting the nation’s humanitarian consciousness.

In the violently segregationist 1950s southern America a young Black man organized community into the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Would you dare to publicly criticize, much less mock, Martin Luther King?

By connecting Senator Obama with these champions of our society, you have reminded all of us, thinking republicans included, of the continued need for these advocates of peace and justice. You did the Democratic party’s campaign a service in highlighting this achievement in Mr. Obama’s resume.

Governor Palin and Mayor Giuliani, you are both people gifted with eormous personal charisma, but with your ill-planned shots you showcased the mob mentality through which you are attempting to gain political power. Is this really the level of thought you want our nation be operating on?

Sincerely,

Hanan H.D. Hanna

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Personally, I wish that you would take the time to hear, as I offer respects for more than this tiniest fraction of the great needs that are filled by community organizers.

I’d mention Majora Carter – the founding organizer of Sustainable South Bronx – works to uplift the economic, environmental, and physical health needs of the people of the South Bronx. The successful evolution of this formerly reviled community has inspired sustainable self-empowerment projects towards truly renewable urban neighborhoods for other formerly disenfranchised places around our nation and the planet.

And Camille Odeh, who is a visionary Arab American woman transforming the power of the grief surrounding the severe injustices in Palestine through organizing community in Chicago. She founded the Southwest Youth Collaborative to organize and unite young African-, Latino-, and Arab-American people -and all people - in Chicago’s southwest side. In the last 17 years the hands-om educational empowerment initiatives of Ms. Odeh have literally saved the lives of hundreds of young people and their families.

WHATEVER IS GIVEN ME IS ENOUGH

whatever is given to me is enough

but

if what is given me is enough

then why fight against injustice?

why expend that energy?

if i am fighting just for me it's a waste of that which is given to me

abusing these gifts for a little and limiting ego

if the fight becomes for we to the extent that this littling belittling thing flies away

and simultaneously becomes the effulgence

of love that is Goodness

then what is given to me is the reality that all things truly happen for a damn good reason

shedding the small i's fears

for the emancipating bliss of union

...................................

then that purpose which is given is enough

and again enough

and again

again

many places

my heart is in many pieces

am i the juggler or the balls?

items fly one hand to an-other

apparently a continuous arc

laughterous memories replace

tears

fullness

content

next anguished anger

devastation upon first-touch witness

injustice to the extreme

malnutrition starvation

air destruction

diminished breath

dehydration of an entire land

stateside

in this other home-place
i am again an other

projecting guilt anger loss

into personal drama

pointing finger away from source

project the ball-item into space

hand one hand two and back

my heart is in many places

the last night for the program

my friends in haiti
of the huge and open hearts

you call to me

upon meeting kindness

in a stranger's face
here in the place
convention has me call home







i am reminded of you