I knew you
Long before
I experienced you
I knew
How soft your lips
How tender your caress
How captivating your gaze
I knew
What it would be like
Inside of you
Long before
I knew
The vastness of your soul
Matched only
The depth of your intellect
I knew
Your compassion ran ying
Life taught you
The hustle
Life gave you
Impeccable yang
I knew you
Long before
I experienced you
I understood
I knew nothing.
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
Swiftly
We knew eachother
Sharing
Ups and downs
Highs and lows
In and outs
Whatever the dimension or degree
Whatever the plane or angle
Swiftly
We forgot eachother
©Christopher f. Brown 2012
Life
Can be
without freedom
Life
Can be
without purpose
Life
Can be
without joy and
Life can be
without love
Without
Freedom
Purpose
Joy
Love
Life
Would seem to be
Death
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
Do you know what its like
To know
No one understands
You tell people
you feel as if you belong to a different time
To a different place
You explain the truth of the one human race
They focus on the color of your skin
If they could prove there was a way in and out of dimensions
Then you could see how it all makes sense
Maybe you slipped through a crack
Fell through a hole
They claim to understand
The ones that do
Have some similar problem
You give up on the mythological
One
Even though you have met a perfect few
They just did not workout
Or were not
For you
That's really not the point here
The point here
Seem to be pointless
As if stranded on a small desert island
With talking animals only you can understand
The nearest place with other civilization
is too far to swim
none of the animals have ever heard of a boat
they think it unreal
So wear your difference proud
Shine your awkwardness badge of particular honor
Show them that what they have labeled
Strange
Was and is set apart from birth
By rite
Not practiced ritual
Show them
There is life where you dwell
Show them on Earth
what it is to be
Martian
©Christopher f. Brown 2012
I really don’t write about love
It hurts you know
You don’t use ink
You open a vein upon a small canvas
Shedding essence of life
Bleeding current or past
Contorted, awkward phases
Where
What was said
Was not meant
Where
What was done in an instant
Meant more than an a thousand infinite lifetimes
A lie about love received in ones ear
Deafens said ear to the truth
A lie about love spoken
Shapes ones mouth well to hold a particular poison
The most malicious of all
The memories you and love bring into being
They never die
They age and can grow stronger
Testing your will to overcome
Taxing your determination as to
Not
Allow them to turn into emotional scars
For someone else to step parent
You see
I really don’t write about love
©Christopher f. Brown 2012
Challenge to an old soul
Experience life
Without the invisible familiar
Without reverting to French to say
I’ve:
Been here
Done this
Felt this
Tasted this
Said that
Before:
Daredevils
Some
Wise beyond their years
Others
Everything seems a bit
Familiar
Headlights through a fog
Speech slightly undecipherable
Familiar
Everything seems a bit
Never
This thing called
New
The ones physically, mentally older say:
“Cause you been here before.”
Even way back then you said,
“If that was true,
I know me
I would remember.”
They all laughed
Every one of them
“And that’s why you still here.
Why you keep coming back.
You forget
To. . .”
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
Seagull
Somewhere
Twixt heaven and hell
The hearth lay
Shades of Green and Blue
Most ancients knew them the same
Neither A
Neither B
A mixture tween
We look for the lines
We ask for the margarines
We deny the emulsifiers
We deny self
We invent only to re-
Maybe
It is ourselves
Maybe
It lay in the blindness
When you see no reds
No blues
No yellows
No greens
You are forced to deal with
Gainsboros
Battleships
And even ashes
You are forced to see the middle
You are forced to see the truth
The rest remain polarized
The rest call you
Blind
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
I have friends
We sit at the café
Drinking wine and coffee
Eating cheese
Grapes and blueberries
I have friends
We praise god together
Pray and dance
Discus the word of god
Grow angry at how man tries to make it his
I have friends
We scrutinize Kafkaesque nuances
Cringe at Orwellian accuracy
Debate in a Kierkegaardian fashion
I have friends
We laugh till we can not breath at Good Times
Memorized entire episodes of The Golden girls
At a moment’s notice can act out every scene from
The Color Purple or Legally blonde
I have friends
They are few
They are unique
They are very special
They are the bear minimum
The starting point if you will
If you would like to be more
I have friends.
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
Let me
Sew a seed of creativity
In you
Infect your blood with inspiration
Contaminate your bones with cunning and wit
Let me
Watch it grow thick and strong
Watch it take root and spread
Taking hold of every part of your being
Let me
See it distorts and crack
The concrete slabs of
Monotony
Mediocrity
Mundaneness
Laid thick over your mind
Laid thick over your imagination
Laid thick over you.
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
Man sits in awe
Of himself
Marveling
At his intelligence
He questions his questions
Answers
With more questions
Only those that confuse him more than the first
Are worthy
Man sits in awe
Of himself
Marveling
At his creativity
He builds buildings
That remain ageless like the mountains
Forgetting they are there
Giving them to nature
Only to find them again
After trying to bring
Nature into submission
Man sits in awe
Of himself
Marveling
At his compassion
He realizes that he could
If he so chose
Destroy the world
Thousands of times over
In the name of peace
Man stands ashamed
Of himself
He becomes conscious
His knowledge was idiocy
His production were re
His definition of peace was defined by the absence of war
When Man became humble
He knew
One thing
© Christopher F. Brown 2012
Everything
You say about me
I know
To be a lie
You say
I have no personality
No character
I’ll tell you
I'm a poet and author
Every now and then
A comedian
You say
I should to this
Do that
To be more like you
I offer you one book
You are still
Pondering page two
I offer you one play
You are still
Muddled in the mystery of act two
I offer you one symphony
You are still
Motionless in the second movement
You do not like yourself very much
I can see that
You do like most others like you
Ive come to know that
You really do not like me at all
I know why
I could explain it to you
In great and expansive detail
But then
That would not help you at all
No
The more you attack me
The more of me I shall be
When you realize
You cannot break me
You’ll question
When and where
And whom
Broke you
©Christopher F. Brown 2012
I’ll try to keep this review to a small percentage of the size that is the original book. After deciding that I find myself questioning, where do I begin to unpack this diminutive in size, yet far exceedingly, more worthy than the value of the words classic epic? Truly, this books size does not speak to its significance. If you are American, or have studied American history, then you know some of the details pertaining to the inhuman savagery called the slave trade between the fifteen-hundreds and the eighteen-hundreds. What is rarely discussed today is how the attitude in regards to the entirety of the slave trade as being just such, and a very intricate part of American economics. What is also not discussed today is how this practice of some three hundred years set up the basic model for modern America’s wage slavery and is the substratum for American capitalism. Though some like to use the term Antebellum (pre and post), its true name was and still is slavery, Its true nature is the ultimate goal and the ideal procedure for modern capitalism; to receive the highest amount of profit and most amount of gain while imputing the least amount of effort and least amount of overhead. Human life was and still is a commodity.
I first heard of this book on an episode of Different World, I remember somebody said something about it and ever since I’ve heard it mentioned sporadically in random poems. There were times, when listening to a friend speak, or watching a show about black consciousness in the new era, someone would refer to this book. I know that there has been speculation about the speeches authenticity. There have been calls for the author to provide proof of an original or show any historical documents that mentions said speech. People have also said that the only person that could have been in the right place and at the right time to be the noted William Lynch was not born until some thirty years later. Rather if the author wrote them in nineteen-ninety-two or they were spoken some three-hundred and eighty years earlier, they were and are still relevant. I believe that this mentality and this strategy survives in many different forms today.
“I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use FEAR, DISTRUST, and ENVY for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies, and it will work throughout the SOUTH. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On the top of my list is "AGE" but it is only there because it starts with an "A"; The second is "COLOR" or shade; there is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZE OF PLANTATION, ATTITUDE of owner, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east or west, north, south, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action- but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST, AND ENVY IS STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION.”
It is often written, in various literature, when looking for the perpetrator of a crime, one should find whom would benefits from said crime. Here the only one that profits is the slave owner.
Sowing the seeds of distrust amongst the slaves while having them believe they were better or worse than one another based on something frivolous not only let the slave master sleep soundly at night, but one could theoretically extrapolate that the larger the plantation in size and number of slaves the more effective these tactics. Again in the interest of keeping this review small and confined to a review, I won’t get into discussing all of the obvious psychological and sociological effects and numerous studies that would supports such claims effectiveness. I will say that if you have worked, in America, for a major chain retail company that has zone managers, regional managers, assistant zone managers, and assistant regional managers, and have often felt confused at how these people obtained their various positions and titles when they seemed to be very inept and really do nothing but cause confusion and turmoil, there are reasons.
The book goes on to discuss how a black man (not the word they use) must be mentally, and physically broken from his natural, free state of independence and self-reliance to that of servitude and total dependency on his master. This dependent state must be done to such an extent that if said black man (not the word they use) were given the option of freedom, after being broken, they would have no idea how to provide for themselves or for a family if they chose to have one, said black man would opt back to a state of servitude to his master. In essence, the broken black man (not the word they used) would be the equivalent to a crippled and mentally disabled child which when offered freedom would cry for the controlling hand of the master just as a confused child cries for the hand of its mother. The book later speaks of the greater importance it is to breaking the black woman (NOT the word they used)
The breaking of the black woman was of such great importance because she was the key in perpetuating they cycle unto and upon the next generation of black men and women. She, if properly broken herself, would innately break her children of her own accord. This breaking would be so great it would be as strong as her own maternal instinct.
“THE BREAKING PROCESS OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN
Take the female and run a series of tests on her to see if she will submit to your desires willingly. Test her in every way, because she is the most important factor for good economics. If she shows any sign of resistance in submitting completely to your will, do not hesitate to use the bullwhip on her to extract that last bit of [b----] out of her. Take care not to kill her, for in doing so, you spoil good economics. When in complete submission, she will train her offsprings in the early years to submit to labor when they become of age. Understanding is the best thing. Therefore, we shall go deeper into this area of the subject matter concerning what we have produced here in this breaking process of the female nigger. We have reversed the relationship; in her natural uncivilized state, she would have a strong dependency on the uncivilized nigger male, and she would have a limited protective tendency toward her independent male offspring and would raise male offsprings to be dependent like her. Nature had provided for this type of balance. We reversed nature by burning and pulling a civilized nigger apart and bullwhipping the other to the point of death, all in her presence. By her being left alone, unprotected, with the MALE IMAGE DESTROYED , the ordeal caused her to move from her psychologically dependent state to a frozen, independent state. In this frozen, psychological state of independence, she will raise her MALE and female offspring in reversed roles. For FEAR of the young male's life, she will psychologically train him to be MENTALLY WEAK and DEPENDENT , but PHYSICALLY STRONG . Because she has become psychologically independent, she will train her FEMALE offsprings to be psychologically independent. What have you got? You've got the nigger WOMAN OUT FRONT AND THE nigger MAN BEHIND AND SCARED . This is a perfect situation of sound sleep and economics. Before the breaking process, we had to be alertly on guard at all times. Now, we can sleep soundly, for out of frozen fear his woman stands guard for us. He cannot get past her early slave-molding process. He is a good tool, now ready to be tied to the horse at a tender age. By the time a nigger boy reaches the age of sixteen, he is soundly broken in and ready for a long life of sound and efficient work and the reproduction of a unit of good labor force. Continually through the breaking of uncivilized savage niggers, by throwing the nigger female savage into a frozen psychological state of independence, by killing the protective male image, and by creating a submissive dependent mind of the nigger male slave, we have created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever, unless a phenomenon occurs and re-shifts the position of the male and female slaves. We show what we mean by example. Take the case of the two economic slave units and examine them close We breed two nigger males with two nigger females. Then, we take the nigger male away from them and keep them moving and working. Say one nigger female bears a nigger female and the other bears a nigger male; both nigger females—being without influence of the nigger male image, frozen with a independent psychology—will raise their offspring into reverse positions. The one with the female offspring will teach her to be like herself, independent and negotiable (we negotiate with her, through her, by her, negotiates her at will). The one with the nigger male offspring, she being frozen subconscious fear for his life, will raise him to be mentally dependent and weak, but physically strong; in other words, body over mind. Now, in a few years when these two offsprings become fertile for early reproduction, we will mate and breed them and continue the cycle. That is good, sound and long range comprehensive planning.”
Dissecting the previous words would again add so much length to this review that it would be a rewrite of the book and again a greater volume than the book itself. I also believe that anyone reading this review is intelligent enough to decide themselves, make up their own mind about the implications of such words are a mighty behemoth.
If you have never read this book, I say pick it up it is a wonderful yet short read. You will read this and it will stretch and branch your brain out in so many directions and fill it with so many thoughts that if one were to look back to this book, as the seed and root of it all, you have something as mighty as a mustard tree, and its physical size being the same as a mustard seed. Buy two copies: one for yourself and one for a black child you know that can read or is learning.
