Distractions-Nat'l Poetry Month

Distractions

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©12



There are too many things that can serve as a distraction

That can lead to a disaster.

Some can be innocent but still master...

Some are mundane others are downright insane.

If one is not mindful

Some of these things can suck you in, suck you dry

Taking out all the joy that makes you fly.

And the process making it the main thing…

Instead of the lame thing…

That unearned focus can drain your bounty, even your fame.

Distractions by its very name

As in a lil bit of this

And a lot of that

Can force all your hopes smack down in the drain…

Where all that you are to become actually ends up as sewage

(And there will be no one to blame)

Inflamed…

Needlessly hopelessly “I’ve been framed”!

You’re allowing distractions to be the bane of your existence…

No matter how minor or mundane

Can misappropriate center stage & became…

A colossal error of which you can reframe…

Leaving behind that dinner party where nobody came.

Distractions is the twisting of the neck not unlike a crane

Looking downright foolish

And la deed a lame

A waste of precious time & possibly your name

Now wouldn’t that be insane.

All rights reservedJHM3-31-12©revised 4-20-13


The quote below does not mean anyone should walk around paranoid, hyper-vigilant, wary, over suspicious.  We havemore then enough of that in the world today. This quote from this very smart young man is, however, spot on.

Pay attention to this young man, Trent Shelton, you're going to hear many great things from him!

http://youtu.be/iUYVVIC0wFs

(no More) Standing in the Shadows-poem

Trent Shelton

http://youtu.be/nTUjuSNKO_Y

Standing in the Shadows


By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney©13



There will be no standing in the shadows…

I/my/we…

Will not/won’t not/have not be not

Now matter how tempting, how enticing it may appear in the shade

Casted by somebody else’s shadow.

The flood lights will shine brilliantly

‘Cause this chicka chickiedee bebe said to me.

“This is your awakening…

Smooth your way out of the way of your self”



Or as Trent would say “Stitch your wings back on & fly”!

So your prodigious fabulousness will fire up to the never…

Ever…

Whatever…

(I’ll still be loving you) *



Pulsate, shimmer & shine…

Simmering in a refined

Going to the next line

Of His Grace in a powerful race.

So the chickie, chickie bebe said.



I’ll not stand in the shadows of others’ incomplete dreams

Or incoherent screams

That masquerade as laughter but really is a scheme…

They’ve done all they could to hold you in the shadows of what they’ve deemed

Your place, not your grace.



This moon will prance & romance among the stars, gas & dust …

In a distinguish assembly of love supreme…

Winking & nodding as she stands proudly on a cloud

Orchestrating what it can be

Of what it will be.



She said” I don’t want to be shaded by someone else’s’ shadow

Of incomplete dreams or fearful schemes”

She/They/We know that while it appears ferocious

And the world is atrocious

Or pain’s shadow blinds so one may think they cannot breathe.



You can.

“Breathe now child, Breathe

So the chicka chickie bebe said.

Look in right direction for His protection

An invitation that does not require an RSVP.



There will be no standing n the shadows undercover in someone else’s fear

And unnatural clauses that will make you pause…

From making a way even out of no way…

To His Way, to the truth & the light

So the Chicka, chickie bebe said.



(I’ll be loving you always)*

All rights reservedJHM4-20-13 © revised

BreatheNow, Breathe...It is Done.

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker". George Frasier




I had to remind myself to breathe when I learned on Friday that the book I wrote an essay and poem for was released the day before!  It is done and comes what may, I know I've done the right thing.  There is so much shaming and trying to force be people into being less of themselves because of circumstances beyond their control or perhaps in their control, just maybe not knowing that serves no one.  We have to, we must learn power with not power over others.  It serves no real purpose for things to continue the way things have. Mankind has not improved doing the status quo.

I am delighted to announced that the Book "No Vacancy" edited by AJ LaStarr of which I was one of the selected authors was released this past Thursday April 11th. The official book signing was held in St. Louis on Friday April12th,2013.


100% of the saleswill go to a women homeless shelter, Shalom House, in St. Louis. It was my honor to write the essay "Stumbled, Fumbled, Roared & Thundered" and the poem "Undefeated" for this book (see page 82.


I strongly urge anyone to purchase the book, not for my ego, but all sales will go to a variety of homeless shelters around the country. True enough it is a painful subject no one, including the homeless population, would choose to have it in existence, but it is. Hiding & pretending will not make it go away. Nor will affixing blame. If you think it cannot happened to you, it can, in a blink. Or I bet there are people you know who have but are hiding that info because of societal attitudes, including fear, toward the homeless.

 
By purchasing the book or passing it along, you will indeed be passing it forward. When you understand that the vast majority of the homeless is NOT the stereotype but majority children & the elderly. With all the wealth this country has, it should not be happening. But the sad reality it is. And as quietely as it is kept, it is not majority people of color.

The editor told me me she received thousands of submissions from all over the world, so it makes me particularly humbled that I was selected. It is done now, it is out there. I don't know nor oddly OK with whatever comes from this. This was my contribution, my passing it forward with no pretense. I'm still not out of the woods completely, just on phase 2 getting ready to make a quatem leap.

In the meantime, get the book or pass it forward. The cost is $10.00 and can be purchase online at Barnes & Nobles and:www.amazon.com.  Either myself or the editor or I would safely guess some of the other writers would be available to speak to any group.



I'm breathing a lot better today!

Be Nobody's Darling~Alice Walker 2012

Be Nobody's Darling
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl
To parry stones
To keep you warm
Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer
Look askance at you
And you askance in reply
Be an outcast
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or live the crowded
Riverbeds
With other impetcious
Fools
Make a merry gathering
On the banks
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said
But be nobody's darling
Be an outcast
Qualified to live
Among your dead
Alice Walker 2012

National Poetry Month, April 2013

" and when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me... shine until tomorrow...let it be"~ John Lennon

Speaking Words of Wisdom

" Three Things cannot be long hidden: the Sun, the Moon & the Truth"~ Buddha

Too Many Fishes in the Sea! Black History Month 2013

Shenequa Guy, artist

Walk to That Power


By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney©13



“We do not become storytellers…

We came to tell the stories

We & our ancestors who actually live...

Some of us are still catching up to our stories.



We do not become artists we came as artists…

We are.

Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become writers…

Dancers…

Helpers…

Peacemakers…

We came as such…

We are”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes



Bricklayers, masons, housekeepers, ditch diggers, bakers, homemakers, movers & shakers, janitors carpenters, plumbers, caretakers, sanitation workers, cooks, waitress, dishwashers, bell hops, taxi drivers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, entrepreneurs, professors, visionaries…

Yes even a President.

Walk to our power….



There is still enough largeness in us…

That knows/believes/aspired/can/did/will rock the world.

Who still sees a rainbow as a promise...?

A hope for…That will not be broken.

Walk to that power.

There’s still enough of the bigness in us...

To know there is so much more we can do.

Even the ones who others say we’re invisible…

The grey hairs, troubled knees, canes, bad feet hardly hear, vision blurring…

To the rest of the who let me tell you something…

We are.



There’s still enough of the vibe in us

Those who can Harlem Shake and Harlem Shuffle with a Beyonce

Dine on the Black eye Peas/Mills Brothers/Jimi Hendrix all in the same breath

And still walk in our power

With nothing to prove, speaking truth to peace.

We have so many that flooded the gates

That implored…

Explore

And floored you with their fierceness…

Their determination…

And while some of them did not live to see the fruits of their efforts.

Those of us who are the storytellers…

The dream catchers…

The visionaries…

Have kept your deeds alive, recording & stored it

Right beyond their left eye

It is easy to remember if you never forgot

And will sing those songs even when no one I paying attention

Singing your name in to the stratosphere...

That will carry your name far beyond the galaxies...

Black my story

Not his story

But my story

The Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington’s, Benjamin Hooks, Paul Roberson, Serena Williams, Condoleezza Rice, Martin, Malcolm & John

Drs, Ben Carson, Maya Angelou, Johnnetta B. Cole, Linda Brown

Oprah,

Hannibal, Kunta Kinte and Shaka Zulu...

A Woman called Moses,

And speaking words to truth while on her Sojourner (ain’t I a woman)?

Yes, George Benson, George Foreman, Chicken George, his mama Kizzy…

And George Fraser because success runs in our race!

Beverly Guy Shetfall, Frankie Beverly

MahaliaJackson, Harriet Powers, the Greensboro 4 and the Bennett Belles!

Rear Admiral Michelle Hawkins and General Colin Powell...

The Buffalo soldiers & the Tuskegee Airmen

We will not forget Rosewood, Tulsa, Chicago, the Jena 6 Emmett Till or Trayvon Martin

Thurgood Marshall, Anita Hill or even Clarence Thomas

(Hoping that he’ll find his way)…

Ruby Dee, Ruby Bridges and Tina Turner (rolling down the river)

Before the was Beyonce’ there was Eartha Kitt

Josephine Baker,

Etta, James, Katherine Dunham, Pearl Bailey thrown in for good measure.

Denzel Washington, Booker T Washington, Cory Booker

And yes Booker T & the MG’s.

Bill Withers, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Bill Cosby, Billy Eckstine, Billy Dee, Bill Stewart…

Billye Holiday singing of Strange Fruits

Nat King Cole & Nat Turner

Carol Bebelle, Patti Labelle & the Shirelles

Queenie, the Queen of Sheba and Queen Latifah

The Kings’ B.B, Martin Luther, Arianne King-Corner along with a Prince

In all his purple reign.

Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson

Alice Walker, Toni Morrison Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez…

Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney & Phyllis Wheatley



“We hold these truths to be self-evident…

That all men (and women) are created equal…

And they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.

Those among these rights are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”



Oui nous pouvons…

( Oh yes we can) …

Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th Potus…

They said it couldn’t be done…

But did it anyway

We walk to a power that defies all logic…

On so many, so, so many that they cannot all be named…

Yes some of us are still catching up to what we are.

But the storytellers know we are truly a wonderful work in progress

As we stand up to our power.

All rights reservedJHM2-22-13©

To the Ribber

I discovered a long forgotten poem:

Going To the River

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©08

When I am in a way where words refuse to suffice...

Or the tides cannot soothe my ears with a melodic rhythm

And the gentle rustle of the sycamore tree sounds more like Beethoven's Fifth

Or cleansing raindrops feels more like crashing boulders surrounding my soul.

And the 12th of Never seems ever, ever more then one should bear.

Or the blossom that fell echoed so loud that even Nat's own velvet voice failed to quiet...

As  far away as the Serengeti is for me to stroll over

And the hope that the Middle Passage was a cruel, cruel joke.

That was not absolutely not funny.

I have to seek a place to replenish myself to go on another day.

So for me...

I am going to the river...

To sit & just be.
All rights reservedJHM 4-27-08©