If you do not understand racism (white supremacy) and how it works, everything else you understand will only confuse you. - Neely Fuller

We need something to clarify everything for us, because we get confused...but if we use the concept of Asili, we will understand that whatever it is they are doing, whatever terms they use, however they come at you, you need to be thinking about what? How is this going to facilitate their power and help them to dominate me? -Marimba Ani

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Poetry is a Feeling


Part 3 of Understanding Poetry

When it comes to understanding poetry, feeling is an essential ingredient. Nathan's spiritual blog, Walls Come Down, “feels” us in with poetic words and insight:


II.

in the dark,
writhing with ecstasy
in light rain drops


This is a movement away from thought, to feeling. It is a move away from structures in which distractions are embedded. Both in writing and reading, we are peeling away what we are not. What's underneath? We need a willingness to see things directly, for what they are. It doesn't matter if you 'understand it' or not. It's more about what you feel.


For Matt

Why should we not
laugh
and grow
like leaves
on trees
in forests careening
roots through buds
to blooming
falling
loving
dancing
singing moving,
floating on
and through?