Eyes the Color of Night

African sister with eyes the color of night
Eyes with pools of sorrow
and no reflection of light.
The lines on your face
Tell a story that time will never erase.
It's your eyes that draw me in
Deep within
Betraying things you have yet to say
They reveal every trial you've had to face
All the things that have left a bitter taste
I look deeper still and I see courage,
Tempered rage and wisdom beyond age,
Strength that has sustained
Despite unbearable strain.
Even though sometimes things don't make sense,
you continue to draw from a well spring of strength
Enduring amid tribulation running wild,
Silently, bearing the weight since you were a child
I wonder how the heart repairs
From a hurt that is always there.
Any back would have broken from the strain.
I don't know you name
But I can see the pain
That shows in your eyes
I can even hear your cries.
I know the weight you carry is becoming
hard to bear
I can look in your eyes and see the truth there.
I will never forget your eyes,
eyes the color of night,
eyes with pools of sorrow
and no reflection of light.

Copyright Patricia Newman-Harris

Seize the Opportunities

Seize the Opportunities

Little boy, little girl,

Do you know how your history unfurled?

Do you know of the perils of slavery,

Of the price others paid for you to be free?

If it had not been for those who went before,

There would be no open door.

Did you know there was a day when black people

Were denied the right to learn to read or write?

Can you imagine what that must have been like?

Taking away that privilege was a method of control.

Without knowledge a person will lose his soul.

For our people, knowledge became the key

To opportunity,

Ultimately, the light that led the way to

Our forefathers being free

The same holds true today.

Yet, the wisdom that is ours to take is

Being thrown away

That’s why many of us live with our backs

Against the wall,

Barely able to crawl.

Black men’s desire and dreams are going to

An early grave

As with their last breath they rant and rave

About how the white man is holding them back

Did the white man tell them to smoke crack?

So blind are they that they cannot see

They hold the key to opportunity.

They are too complacent to see the subtle attack

Every opportunity we have earned is slowly

Being snatched back

We have to fight to keep what we have earned.

We cannot do this if we refuse to learn.

Ultimately, the decision to live right is ours to make.

We have the wisdom to realize that drugs do not

Give, they only take.

They take, your home, your will to succeed,

Your wife,

Sometimes, they even take your life.

Are you willing to pay such a price?

No one in his right mind would willingly lay down

His life.

Have you considered this?

Wasted opportunities are opportunities you

Willingly miss.

Do you realize that you are guilty of ingratitude.

Check your attitude.

Are your actions saying thank you to those

Who paved the way

Or are you throwing it all away?

Soon, there will be a day when what little we have

Will be stripped away.

We must prepare for that day.

We have to prepare our minds.

There will be no welfare line.

There will be nothing to fall back on in our

Time of need

So, take heed.

This is a dog

Eat dog world,

Only the strong survive

If you don’t have what you need to

Make it, you will be eaten alive.

God opens doors

But he can’t make us walk through the open

Doors.

We have to seize each and every window

of opportunity  that comes our way,

We cannot throw anything away.

Everything we possess was obtained through

The blood, sweat and tears of those who have

Gone before.

We can show our gratitude by being thankful for every open door,

As well as, accepting the challenge and responsibility

To seize every opportunity.

Copyright P. Newman-Harris

Dreams are possible, but you are one who can make them come true.

In the words of Lacrae, "Don't waste your life." 

Thank you...To the Legends of our Past

To the Legends of Our Past

To our ancestors,

Our spiritual intercessors

To the legends of our past

Thank you

For allowing us to walk

a clearer path.

As we walk these hallowed halls of time,

Memories of you come to mind.

To the pioneers that blazed freedom’s trail,

That through faith, prevailed;

To those such as Abraham Lincoln,

That wrote proclamations,

declarations, and civil rights bills

Trying to cure society’s ills;

To those who fought to right the world’s wrongs,

To give us a place to belong,

To those who fought to eradicate

Injustice, bigotry and hate.

You sacrificed.

You paid the price.

To those who carried the burden of race,

Died for being in the wrong place.

To Martin and John,

Malcolm and Medgar;

To Rosa Parks,

Who was the spark

That ignited the flame to the

our nation's emancipation

From the bonds of discrimination;

To Jane Pittman, Harriet Tubman,

W.E.B. Dubois and

George Washington Carver;

To the firsts at schools such as Yale,

West Point and Harvard;

To those who paid their dues,

Sang and played jazz, gospel and blues;

From Billie Holiday

To Cab Calloway,

Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong,

Pearl Bailey, Tommie Dorsey;

To Bo Jingles, the Nicholas Brothers,

Sammie Davis, Jr. and all those who tapped

And came in through the back

To perform their act.

To the pioneers of movies, television and radio,

Hattie McDaniel, Eartha Kitt, Josephine Baker

Sidney Portier, Diahann Carroll, and Bill Cosby

To Lena Horn

Who took America by storm,

Paving the way

For the Oprah Winfrey’s

Halle Berry’s and Kerry Washington’s of today.

To those men who pioneered fields of biology,

Geology and astronomy.

To the legends of music, literature and poetry,

Without you there would be no record of our

history.

To the legends that led this country in sports

Such as football, basketball, boxing, track

And on the courts,

Athletes like, Arthur Ashe,  Jesse Owens,

Jackie Robinson, and the Jack Jacksons

Of our past, who showed everyone how to

Play with class;

To those for whom justice was blind,

To those who fought on the front lines

And stepped on mines;

Commanded the seas and commandeered

The skies; to brave black men like

The Tuskegee Airmen, who soared the clouds

And made us proud;

You sacrificed,

You paid the price.

We can never thank you enough.

No, we can never thank you enough.

To all those who died with unfilled dreams

And wishes, wanting to do more than clean

Toilets and wash dishes,

To my brothers and sisters of African soil

Who died on slave ships and were

Thrown away with the spoils;

To those who survived to be captured and

Chained, sold and renamed

For America’s gain;

To those who awakened at the rooster’s crow

Working to pay a debt they never owed;

To all the slaves

Buried in unmarked graves;

To those who died hanging from a tree,

Never knowing what it meant to be free;

From the greatest of these to the unsung heroes

That this world will never know.

To the legends of our past,

Because of you the path has been clearer

The vision, nearer

Than ever before,

You led us to the door.

Now your dreams are ours to conceive.

Because of you, we can believe.

You endured the pain

You suffered the blame.

We can never thank you enough.

No, we can never thank you enough.

So, we celebrate your creativity.

We thank you for our history.

To the legends of our past,

Thank you for creating a clear path.

To the pioneers that blazed freedom’s trail,

That, through faith, prevailed,

You sacrificed.

You paid the price.

To our ancestors,

Our spiritual intercessors,

To the legends of our past.

Thank you for allowing us to walk

A clearer path.

Copyright Patricia Newman-Harris

This poem was written and inspired by Oprah Winfrey's celebration of our

Legends.  

To the legends of our past, thank you for being the wind beneath our wings.