Poetry...

I dunno why but I find myself attracted to Love poetry a la Love Jones. Once I rewatched that movie I realized why I loved it in the 1st place, and not only for the story but for the art aspect too. The photography of Nina, the poetry of Darius, the songs that filled the background. Its an all around one of a kind beautiful movie. Anyway here's a few poems that I love..

She Said
She Said
Write me a poem
Don’t tell me how my thighs
Are landmarks for freedom
How my breast can satisfy any mans thirst
You need not inform me how
my back bone bridges gaps
cornerstone nations
Need not mention the Iroquois in my cheek bones
Don’t state the obvious
Write me a poem
Color me in calligraphy
Feather pen me concrete
Don’t Cliff Note me beautiful
Opened palms
exposed life lines
Said
Read the text, the body,
the scripture of me
Study my Genesis
Then tell me your revelation
I am no fortune teller
No soothsayer
I know no magic
I haven’t studied the stars,
aligned planets,
or seen aura’s
I don’t know all the languages of god
She replied in sacred tone
Well, why do your eyes tell more than say?
Don’t seduce me with small talk
Don’t pretend to be not
I am here to inspire you
Show you what can’t been seen
Before I could answer she interjected
You’ll never be a real poet
Until you reach inside
Stretch yourself long
expose your soul
Loose what wants to be written
I said
But I come from a
Small cabbage patch of
Corn bread and collard green people
Who lead Cotton Gin lives
Those who live in the boundaries of circumstances
There are moments when I am scared of possibilities
Nervous about the uncertain
Her response
We require more of you
We have brought you this far
Only to show you the way
Write me a poem
Describe freedom
Create a sunset
Capture a moment
Freeze frame a second
Stop time
Be witch already is
I collect myself
Tell her we are lines from the same stanza
Memories from same dream
Text from the same pen
We are
Butterfly’s fluttering through paradise dancing with dandelions
Shades of Prayer Robe Orange, Brunt Amber, and Hollywood Rouge
Highlighted on canvas of ski and night
A smile summarized in lights and shadows
Overlooking rocking chair, love seat, end table, sweet tea
Served over ice
We are Beginning Middle End
~George McDonald

to all the boys I've loved before
part 1:
we are not your mothers
and are not meant to be
it is not our responsibility to raise you into respectful beings
you have been weaned from the breast of a woman for yearsyet you come to us wounded and half filled with promises you can only keep half the time
trying to suckle our sense of self drywe've become much to accustomed to sleepless nights and damp pillows have become accustomed to waiting for our empty beds
to be weighed down with the bodies of men heavy with the scent and the hands of other women
mornings with swollen puffy eyes are becoming routine
and we simply wanting to be loved
simply wanting to be able to love ourselves unconditionally
simply wanting to be held and feel safesimply wanting the truth of whether you can really love us or not
play Hester Prynn wear scarlet letters on our chests
become adulteresses cheating ourselves out of what we truly deserve
willing to settle for lesswilling to act like a little less than a goddesses
willing to sleep with the enemymen too scared to stop acting like boys
thinking we can love away their scarsso we take the lashes of the insecurities they pour on us
and lick our wounds in quiet mourning for the little girls we lose by the minute
fast fading memories of playing hopscotchand skippin' rope
we now play freeze tag with each other's heartsplay hide and seek with our love
if we just don't breathe maybe we won't get caught
up in the spider's web we weave while waiting for what we give away to be returned
part 2:
you said you had a photographic memory
but apparently you forgot that honesty begins by being real with yourself
and the ones you claim you loveshould have never wasted my time and just acted like the man you claimed and told the world you were
made a production of setting my folks at ease with tales of how you'd do all it ever took to never break my heart
I guess you thought you were talking to a roomful of the deaf and blind
figured they didn't hear youcoz I never saw it coming
but the truth cannot be hidden what's clouded in darkness will always come to light my love
you shoulda known that
claiming you saw my light so clearly and brightly
so I left chasing paper trails of promises you'd already set on fire
left with nothing but the ashes of who you'd written that you were
and singed fingers from trying to grasp the impossibleand the only thing I've really lost are lukewarm kissest
hat for too long I kept trying to tune the beat of my heart, a few lies, and stories about honesty and truth
I guess shit happens
I just wish it wasn't me
and I guess
it's so much better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at allI know that's some easy shit to say but I'm still gonna try to live by it
I'm still gonna try to put my faith to rest in it
I will sleep on dry pillows now in a bed big enough to love myself in I will awake these coming mornings with my eyes dry and shining
full of the knowledge I am priceless and worth nothing but honestyI will remove the scarlet letter from my chest and hold the hand of the little girl I used to be
and say I'm sorry to her
I'm sorry for cheating you out of the joy you have always deserved
and I will wait for a man to come along that can give me the truth of how much he can really love me
~Mayda de Valle

Resignation
I love you
because the earth turns round the sun
because the North wind blows north
sometimes
because the Pope is Catholic
and most Rabbis Jewish
because winters flow into springs
and the air clears after a storm
because only my love for you
despite the charms of gravity
keeps me from falling off this Earth
into another dimensionI love you
because it is the natural order of things
I love you
like the habit I picked up in college
of sleeping through lectures
or saying I'm sorry
when I get stopped for speeding
because I drink a glass of water
in the morning
and chain-smoke cigarettes
all through the day
because I take my coffee Black
and my milk with chocolate
because you keep my feet warm
though my life a mess
I love you
because I don't want it
any other way.
I am helpless
in my love for you
It makes me so happy
to hear you call my name
I am amazed you can resist
locking me in an echo chamber
where your voice reverberates
through the four walls
sending me into spasmatic ecstasy
I love you
because it's been so good for so long
that if I didn't love you
I'd have to be born again
and that is not a theological statement
I am pitiful in my love for you

The Dells tell me Love
is so simple the thought though of you
sends indescribably delicious multitudinous
thrills throughout and through-in my body
I love you
because no two snowflakes are alike
and it is possible
if you stand tippy-toe
to walk between the raindrops
I love you
because I am afraid of the dark
and can't sleep in the light
because I rub my eyes
when I wake up in the morning
and find you there
because you with all your magic powers were
determined thatI should love you
because there was nothing for you but that
I would love you
I love you
because you made me
want to love you
more than
I love my privacy
my freedom
my commitments
and responsibilities
I love you 'cause I changed my life
to love you
because you saw me one friday
afternoon and decided that I would
love you
I love you I love you I love you
~Nikki Giovanni