Entries by Rhythm

Whatever I write on my blog, I mean.  During that moment in time, if I rant or wax romantically..it's my personal truth.  My feelings may change the next second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year...but that moment in time happend and those feelings were real.  I will not delete any of my posts because they are a true reflection of how I was feeling, just as I can not go back in time and change events as they occur.

So with that...read at your own risk.

Below is my favorite poem EVER.  Written by the unparalleled Nikki Giovanni:

Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)

I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
    the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
    that only glows every one hundred years falls
    into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad

I sat on the throne
    drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
    to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
    the tears from my birth pains
    created the nile
I am a beautiful woman

I gazed on the forest and burned
    out the sahara desert
    with a packet of goat's meat
    and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
    so swift you can't catch me

    For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
    He gave me rome for mother's day
My strength flows ever on

My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
    as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
    jesus
    men intone my loving name
    All praises All praises
I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
    the filings from my fingernails are
    semi-precious jewels
    On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
    the earth as I went
    The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
    across three continents

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission

I mean...I...can fly
    like a bird in the sky...

So in the midst of some an activity...all I kept thinking was...

"Hello Buss It Baby...this is Wet Wet"

LMAO

To know is to understand!

So..we're in the car going to Johnstown, the car seat is tied down with cargo straps to the roof of the car.  We keep hearing this scraping noise.  Someone asks "what IS that sound"

I reply..."That's the Hook-Handed Man"

Everyone looks at me and starts laughing.

I’m lying next to you

Feigning sleep

I feel your fingertips

On the small of my back

Feather-like strokes

Sending chills

Up my spine

I’m holding my breath

Waiting

To exhale

I am slowly

Being swept up

In this web of ecstasy

You are spinning for me

Your hand on my back

The other tangled in my hair

You’re breathing heavily

Heat

Emanating from your body

Its 4:00 in the morning

And I

Am in no way sleeping

I’m barely moving

Intoxication

And anticipation

Are taking over

I let out

An involuntary

Grrrooooaaaannnn

You answer in return

By pulling me close

I just can’t get enough

The feel of you

Pushing me over the edge

Time & time again

We imbibe

The sweet nectar

Of each other

The nibbling

Of lips

The feel of

Fingertips

I run my hands

Over your back and chest

They slip to your waistline

Our hips begin to wind

The warmth of your breath

On my neck

While you place your hands

On my breasts

Im gently scratching

Your back

Lips on

Nipples

As finger tips

Travel

Over my

Body

To the center of

My being

Teasing me

Frequently

Promising me

Silently

Unparalleled

Ecstasy

~Rhythm, 2000

So over the weekend I was so blessed as to be able to bask in the glow of the voice of one Mr. Stevie Wonder.

It was heaven...I didn't want to leave.

Stevie stayed through the whole set.  No intermission.

Now THAT's an artist!

IScream

¯Someone asked the question¯

¯Why do I scream¯

Iscream because Im angry

Iscream because I have loved

And have not been loved in return

Iscream because there was a dream

And it has been forsaken

Iscream because

Music

Has lost its depth and meaning

Iscream because

Men dont understand

How disrespectful they can be

Shit

Iscream because

Some women

Dont understand

How disrespected

They need to be

For every cause

There is an effect

Iscream because

¯Many Men¯

Have rewritten history

To suit their own hateful needs

Iscream because

My people

Still embrace

A word that was given

To degrade them

A word

That was the last heard

By too many of our ancestors

A word that

Those who

Came before us

Tried to eradicate

¯Makes me wanna holla¯

¯Throw up both my hands¯

Iscream because

The revolution-will not be televised

And I ask myself:

Do my people even realize theres still a need to revolt?

Iscream because

It takes a village

To raise a child

But our children

Have no respect for their elders

And their parents

Are ambivalent

Aiding & abetting

Their insolence

And yo-

The village has vanished

Iscream because

My people

Still use the term

Good Hair

The hell is good hair anyway?

Iscream because

Some of us

Are ashamed of our

Blackness

While others have

Embraced it

Exploited it

And bastardized it

~Rhythm, 2003

It's funny we've all heard the old adages: 

• What you do in the dark comes out in the light.
• It all comes out in the wash.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
• You reap what you sow.
• How you get him/her is how you'll lose him/her.

I've heard some really good ones recently:

• If it started shady it will end shady.
• You can't compare platinum to gold dust.  That new person will be like gold dust...all sparkly and pretty.  But once the wind blows, the dust will blow away.

These are things some of us apply to infidelity or just about anything else that we deem immoral.

Let me tell you a story that I just heard over the weekend.  I'm changing the names (well, to be honest I don't actually know the people in this story or their names...) of the people in this story.

There was a man (we'll call him Miles) who was dating a woman, (we'll call her Yvonne).  Miles and Yvonne worked together and had been dating for some time.  Everyone in the workplace knew about their status.  Now here enters Nicole.  Nicole worked with Miles and Yvonne.  One day while Miles and Yvonne were enjoying lunch together, Nicole walked up to Yvonne and stated loudly (for the entire break room to hear): "Enjoy it while you can, because I'm going to take your man." 

I'm sure you can just imagine the gossip surrounding that incident.

According to my sources, not more than three months later, Miles and Nicole were dating.  Those two dated and wound up living together for close to five years.

Nicole had a friend, Imani.  Imani and Nicole worked together and had been friends long before they were co-workers.

Another of their co-workers caught sight of Imani and Miles canoodling in a nearby park.  Of course this person was a friend of Yvonne's and could not wait to return to the office and disclose what she had seen.

Needless to say, Miles and Nicole broke up.  Within four months time Miles and Imani were engaged.  Subsequently the couple married within a year.  Many think that Miles and Imani had been having an affair for years.  Miles and Imani now share a child together.  As for the state of their union, I am not sure.

But let me pick your brains for a while.  If the consensus is if you do something wrong, you pay for it...right?  I guess my question will be three-fold.

Nicole got her just desserts for treating Yvonne and her relationship with Miles so disrespectfully.  I think we can all agree that she should have seen that coming.  She got him dirty, she lost him dirty.  Right?

But what about Miles?  Does he not pay at all?  Does he get away scott free?  Or does he pay in other ways. 

How does karma work?  Do you get back what you've given in the same manner in which you've given it?  Or do you get back at the same magnitude that you've given.

For example, you  come over my house, eat dinner but once you've left I notice that you've taken all of the leftovers and I don't have any food left in my house?  If I do the same to you...that would be you getting back what you've given.  But maybe you don't care about food.  Maybe you have a secret pantry.  So then would karma come back and kick your butt in a different way?  And would it necessarily involve me?  Maybe it will be someone else/some thing else making you pay for your trangression?  And if so, how will you know to attribute it to the wrong you've done me?

Or is there simply no karma, no way of the university correcting wrongs or rewarding rights?

What do you think?