To One Million Black Men

by Latorial Faison

October 16, 1995

On that blessed day you came from far and wide

the strength of a million black men standing side by side

after years of waiting for the first to become last

you sought atonement for your present and your past

on that day you were made stronger for your plight

of leading our people, our nations back to the light

one million black men who came to recognize

that in life one must fall before he can rise

black men who had been down for so very long

who had grown bitter and angry for the white man’s wrong

but on that day you were reunited and dedicated

to be everything that our Mighty God anticipated

you pledged responsibility, peace and brotherhood without strife

I looked on at a million black men with new hope and new life.

This

by Latorial Faison

This un-blue blood in darker skin
This youth & manhood trapped within

This un-grown seed beset with doom
This unknown soul locked up, entombed

This brown face, this topless bottom
This man-child approaching Sodom

This buried chest of un-cried tears
This proverb unspoken through the years

This dissonant experience
This scent of crime for innocence

This shoot-to-kill with both hands up
This birthright linking chains & cuffs

This countryʼs witness to its hate
This issue framed without debate

This urban trend & country woe
This poison root we plant & grow

This history we cannot bear
This melting pot we cannot share

This nightmare that we know is real
This voiceless blackness slaughtered still

(c) from Mother to Son: Poems by Latorial Faison (2017, CK Press)

This poem first appeared at The Watering Hole

www.latorialfaison.com

I Need to Know

by Latorial Faison

I need to know my original name.
I need to know without any shame.

I need to know about African slave castles.
I need to know about white slave masters.

I need to know about the slave trade.
I need to know how America was made.

I need to know about the Middle Passage.
I need to know about lynching and lashes.

I need to know my fathers, my mothers.
I need to know my sisters, my brothers.

I need to know about The Amistaad.
I need to know that Africans had heart.

I need to know about the dirty South.
I need to know about the plantation house.

I need to know about Brother Nat Turner.
I need to know about Sister Sojourner.

I need to know about the laws of Jim Crow.
I need to know about a minstrel show.

I need to know about emancipation.
I need to know about segregation.

I need to know about Madame C. J. Walker.
I need to know about Justice Thurgood Marshall.

I need to know about the ideas of Malcolm X.
I need to know what Dr. King's dream meant.

I need to know about my family tree.
I need to know about my history.

I need to know the color of my skin.
I need to know of the truth within.

(c) from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History Volume 2 by Latorial Faison

www.latorialfaison.com

Vote Black America, Vote

by Latorial Faison

Vote Black America, vote.
Without you, there is no hope,
Just other ways to make us cope
With politics beyond humanity's scope.

Loose the shackles upon our children's feet.
Send the "good ole' boys" into retreat.
Withdraw our men from terror's street.
Vote for honesty, vote for peace.

Vote Black America, vote,
For without you, there is no hope,
Just failed democracy on a slippery slope
And shattered dreams at the end of our rope.

Stand up for the cause of right.
Stand up proudly for those who fight.
Make a difference, make a change.
Vote for progress, vote for gain.

Vote Black America, vote,
For without you, there is no hope.
Vote this time for you, for me.
Vote now and ever for history.

(c) from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History Volume 2
by Latorial Faison
www.latorialfaison.com

Mama was a Negro Spiritual

Mama was a Negro Spiritual

by Latorial Faison

A Winning Writers' Poetry Contest Winner
First Prize, Tom Howard, Poetry 2018

She was a goodnight prayer, a moon that
Shined down on me through her bedroom
Window. She was the alphabet, a Sunday
School verse, a third Sunday gospel song to
Rehearse, a mostly misunderstood exchange
Of power, responsibility & commands.

She was a black '73 Ford LTD, a Nottoway
River crossing, a house filled with too many
Other folks' children, an orphan that life &
Death left behind to find some joy. She was
A funeral going, everybody in Southampton
County knowing, bad manner destroying
Pillar of strength.

She was a Friday evening ride to town, a
Saturday morning cleaning, a Sunday-go-to-
Meeting kind of human being. She laughed
Louder than Jim Crow's law & cried softer
Than God's peace. She was the secret I never
Told, sworn & born for the claiming, the
Carrying of some other man & woman's burdens.

She was rare & uncut, unpolished & ripped from
Some earthen mine, placed beneath a
Sharecropper's vine to bear witness, to bear it all
Deep down inside. She was a black hearse, a
Deaf man walking, a raising & waving of both
Hands. She was thunder; she was lightning,
A heavy rain that fell in spring.

She was an informal education, small town
Syndication. Her house a book & she the words
Penned fervently, permanently on all its pages.
She was a Ridley Road scholar, a kitchen where
Cooking was always done & well. She was Ms.
Shirley, the lunch lady, the bus driver, Daddy's wife,
Giver of too much self.

Mama was a Negro spiritual, a hymn hummed from
Inside a Baptist Hymnal in her old rocking chair,
From a corner of our living room. She was a
Wisdom no man could whistle, a fancy no woman
Could fake, a journey nobody living in the now
Could take. She was an old fashioned lyric
Everybody could lift their voice & sing.

www.latorialfaison.com

Copyrighted Latorial Faison. All Rights Reserved.

The Sounds of Blackness

The Sounds of Blackness
by Latorial Faison

In my heart there lies no defeat
But in my bosom a triumphant and rhythmic beat.
And while my spirit dances with gladness,
I am quick to recall the sounds of blackness.

I hear the moaning and the wailing
Of native Africans held captive on ships sailing
As though it were my youth of yesterday
Whispering truths to ears in dark dismay,

That long, persistent motherland call
Of anxious hope and justice for all
As though it beckoned from higher heights,
I hear the songs of steal away nights.

That disdainful whip, the startling crack,
The sound of fifty lashes to my brother man's back.
We listened to hate's hypocrisy and religion.
We prayed for deliverance complete with wisdom.

I hear Harriet's footsteps and her hushing sacred sounds
As she walked without fear in search of freedom's grounds
To lead as many captives safely to northern light,
Her savvy spirit vowed to never give up the fight.

The sighs of relief at a kingdom finally come,
Freedom at last for us, the worst of sins to some.
But to the surprise and shock of a divided nation
Came the lyrics of a long overdue slave Emancipation.

The endless cheering must have been loud
While those who stood free made our ancestors proud.
And the old Africans' dream really did come true
In a nation where their people were brought to be subdued.

Dr. King shouted "Free at last, free at last!"
And his dream of a promised land did come to pass.
The sit-ins, the marches, the demands for equal rights
Were necessary for those freed in darkness and deprived of light.

So, in my daily living, I do not dare ignore the sounds
But am honored that my ancestors were strong and freedom bound.
When fellowmen can't remember the truth about this sadness,
Pause to share with them one of the many sounds of blackness.

from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History by Latorial Faison

Copyrighted 2003 All rights reserved.

What is Black History?

What is Black History
by Latorial Faison

It is the dirt road our forefathers trod,

Memories of their lives branded in our hearts.

It is a word, a place, a state of mind.

Black history is a peek into our ancestors’ time.

It is a piece of fabric our grandmothers wore,

An old rope that our grandfathers lived to deplore.

It is a slave ship and middle passage over seas.

Black history is cotton fields and tobacco leaves.

It is a plantation overseer and back door crumbs,

Weeping and wailing, a beating of drums.

It is a troubling truth, an unapologetic past.

Black history is an entire race struggling to last.

It is a Mississippi burning in a Tennessee town,

An evil that lingered to bring Black people down.

It is a book or movie of strength, courage, and will.

Black history is the fate of young Emmett Till.

It is little Ruby Bridges, the exquisite Ruby Dee,

Carter G. Woodson, and Coretta Scott King.

A Mahalia Jackson song, a Michael Jackson routine,

Black history is the phrase “Let freedom ring!”

It is Cheney University, the Tuskegee Airmen,

The N. A. A. C. P., the Black Holocaust Museum.

It is a navy master diver named Carl Brashear.

Black history is our legacy of triumph without fear.

It is General Colin Powell, a Vaudeville drama,

Zora Neale Hurston, and President Barack Obama.

It is every single experience of our history.

Black history is the story of you and me.

Copyrighted February 2011 Latorial D. Faison

from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History Volume 3 (2012)

www.latorialfaison.com

A Slave's Revolt

A Slave's Revolt by Latorial Faison

It's a vision ever emblazoned in Heaven's 
truth of dismal days lived by men back 

then, times of stoop-side Sunday Schools 
in Southampton County. Brother Nat was 

preaching to a people caught up in a white 
man's deception he felt moved to rebel 

against.  He was more than a preacher without 
a pulpit; he was a slave with a calling to call 

his brethren to everlasting arms. "The white 
man's evil, and we want to be free, the signs 

keep a comin' and they a pressin' me." It was 
the heart of the black, Virginia, Jerusalem,

white way, till the blood of freedom appeared
and painted God's skies, miraculously in  

black Moses’ eyes. Anointed, sanctified, soul 
on fire, the slave was called to congregate, not 

abdicate. He was chosen, and the time had 
come for us to walk through the fire. Not a 

quest, but a calling, to leave none living,
none breathing. For the air God gave all, 

was stolen, stripped, taken and whipped out 
of us; they bled a dark people of life running 

through their veins, mocked them with 
husbands, wives, and mulatto baby cries 

until it was, to no surprise, justified rebellion, 
a righteous revolt, a song of silent amen's.

Copyrighted February 2005 Latorial Faison | www.latorialfaison.com

from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History (2006) by Latorial Faison