Welcome to the Light A Candle in the Dark website. Light A Candle in the Dark is a poetry website created to share my poetry and the poetry of others who have a love for reading and writing poetry. It is a place where poetry is loosely defined. It's a simple joy of the written or spoken word. It is not a forum for discussing technique or the contents of the poetry posted herein.
Welcome and enjoy!
Pat (aka P. Newman-Harris)
In the world in which we live, a lot of what we feel towards others is based on what we see. If we never go beyond the surface, we will miss the best part, the essence of the heart. There is a lot waiting beyond where the eye can see.
Beyond where the eye can see
are hidden treasures that transcend beauty.
Deep inside, where the spirit hides
Are uncharted seas
and unveiled mysteries
for you and me
Beyond where the eye can see.
Deep inside, beyond forever,
Fading never are stories untold,
Pirates booty and hidden treasures,
Sparkling gems and nuggets of gold
Too many for the hand to hold.
In fields of plenty, beauty lies
Invisible to the naked eye.
Few there be that find
The treasures that dangle
on the annuals of time.
The most perfect design
Aged like fine wine.
Oh, taste and see
The untold mysteries
Waiting beyond where the eye can see.
Kwanzaa (/ˈkwɑːn.zə/) is a week-long celebration held in the United States and in other nations of the Western African diaspora in the Americas. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture, and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving.[1] Kwanzaa has seven core principles (Nguzo Saba). It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–67. History and etymology
Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1965 as the first specifically African-American holiday.[2] According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits of the harvest".[3] The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, although most of the Atlantic slave trade that brought African people to America originated in West Africa.[4]
Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the black nationalist
movement of the 1960s and was established as a means to help African
Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage
by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and Nguzo Saba, the "seven principles of African Heritage" which Karenga said "is a communitarian
African philosophy". For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power
movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also
underscored an essential premise that "you must have a cultural
revolution before before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution
gives identity, purpose and direction."[5]
During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said that it was meant to be an "oppositional alternative" to Christmas.[6]
However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his
position so that practicing Christians would not be alienated, then
stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."
Many African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so in addition to observing Christmas.[7]
Principles and symbols
Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba—the seven principles of African Heritage), which Karenga said "is a communitarianAfrican philosophy,"
consisting of what Karenga called "the best of African thought and
practice in constant exchange with the world." These seven principles
comprise *Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows:
Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and
maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters'
problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building
and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their
traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the
way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and
beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people,
our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and
victory of our struggle.
Kwanzaa symbols include a decorative mat (Mkeka) on which other symbols are placed: corn (Mahindi) and other crops, a candle holder kinara with
seven candles (Mishumaa Saba), a communal cup for pouring libation
(Kikombe cha Umoja), gifts (Zawadi), a poster of the seven principles,
and a black, red, and green flag. The symbols were designed to convey
the seven principles.[8]
Observance
They Endured
Through the degradation of slavery,
They endured.
Their lives were not their own,
but they endured.
When their families were ripped apart,
They endured.
Nothing broke their determination.
Nothing broke their spirit.
Through it all,
They endured!
We must embody their spirit;
Remembering that their strength
and their determination
dwells within us.
Every time we are paralyzed by fear;
Whenever we become weak,
Remember.
When we feel the desire to quit,
Remember
Every time we become discouraged,
Remember.
When we are knocked to our knees,
Remember.
Never surrender to defeat.
Stand tall on your feet.
Keep striving.
Keep believing.
Stand your ground,
and you will abound
Amidst strong winds
Like those to whom we are kin.
It is your duty and mine
To leave something worthwhile behind,
Because through it all,
They endured.
For you and I, they endured.
Thank God, they endured!
copyright Patricia Newman-Harris 2014, Living the Dream
Wishing everyone who has listened to what I have shared through the
written word, a very special holiday season. I hope this year that I,
in some way, have offered inspiration where it was need. I hope
thoughts were provoked and lives were changed. I am not a preacher or a
teacher, just someone who wishes to inspire by sharing my thoughts. I
am far from perfect, and a lot of what I write also helps me to continue
striving for that mark. For me, writing heals the wounds that life
inflicts. I hope and pray it does the same for yo
Let Your Heart Follow that Star
One night,
One star shining bright
Showed the way
To the manger where he lay.
The same star shines bright today
Lighting our way.
When you are feeling lost,
Let your heart follow that star
And he will be where you are.
He knows exactly where you are.
He sees you in that cold prison cell.
He knows your story well.
He doesn’t care
How you got there.
He loves you just as you are.
Just let your heart follow, follow,
Follow that star,
And he will be where you are.
To those spending Christmas alone.
If you make your heart his home,
You will never be alone.
Young mother, don’t despair.
Your heart will soon repair.
He knows you are feeling broken and unloved,
But his signature is love.
If you let him sign his name on your heart,
He will never ever part.
His love for us goes beyond Christmas Day.
It is ours to have and hold
Each and every day.
You don’t have to worry about being played.
He will never break the vow he made.
Young soldier stationed far from home.
No matter how far you roam,
You are never too far from home.
I hope you know
He will follow you wherever you go.
When you are out on a deserted hill,
He is with you still.
When you lose your way,
The light of his star
Will show you the way.
To that pilot who can’t see where to fly
On the darkest night,
His star will brighten the sky
Just let your heart follow, follow,
Follow, that star
And he will be wherever you are.
He will show you the way.
This Christmas day,
No matter what you are going through,
He will be there for you.
If you believe.
Believe and let your heart follow,
Follow, follow,
Follow that star
He will be where ever you are.
It is hard to believe that a year ago, we lost some of our own so unexpectedly. An act of violence can never been considered an act of sacrifice. God doesn't ask for such a sacrifice. He deals in life and love. Love and hate cannot dwell in the same place at the same time. Nothing can justify such violence. Nothing. Love is a choice. I pray it is a choice we all will make.
If we can imagine the world as a global sphere to which we all can relate
We can put an end to hate.
No matter where we are on the circumference of the whole,
We share the universal globe.
The view from the bottom to the top
Only changes with the view we've got.
Whether we stand in Africa, China or the USA,
We are standing on the the same global sphere.
Whether we are white or black, yellow or brown,
The world we share is the same all around.
As a part of the whole,
We share a universal soul.
The pain of one is the pain of another.
We are all brothers.
There is no need to fear, no need to hate
Because the world is a global sphere to which all can relate.
We should have one aim, one goal...
To protect the whole.
I remember November 22, 1963 as if it were yesterday. I can remember
exactly where I was when the death of President John F. Kennedy was
announced. I remember the shock and disbelief, the inevitable
acceptance of the reality that he was gone, and the grief that followed a
long time after.
I was a young black girl in high
school at the time, but I felt the loss as if he was a member of our
family. We had come to know and love him as a man of compassion,
understanding, determination and integrity. I had heard many people
say he was a breath of fresh air to a nation that was dying from the
cancer of racism; that he represented hope for a cure to that seemingly
incurable disease, and finally that he was their light in the midst of
darkness
As a teenager, having grown up in the south,
there was a depth and understanding, that, to me, could only come from having
experienced racism first hand. I could sense the deep hopelessness
that my parents felt at the time of the President's assassination, but I
could never really know all that they felt. Having lived in the south
most of their life, they had experienced far more years of racism than I
had experienced in my short years on this earth.
Looking
back on that day, I can now understand the depth and extent of their
grief as they watched President Kennedy's body proceed to Arlington
National Cemetery and listened to the final taps echo in the distant
sky. I now know that they wept and grieved the death of a promise of
hope that was buried on that fated day in 1963.
In Memory of President Kennedy and all who have lost their lives in the name of peace and equality
I'd like to offer my condolences to the family of those who lost loved ones both in the downing of the Russian jet and to those lost in the terrorist attacks in France. I am saddened by the loss of innocent lives anywhere on this continent. As the world stood with us during the 911 attacks, we stand with Russia and France during their loss. Hatred has struck again, but those who stand for peace, will continue to stand united against hatred in any form. It is easy for to become divided in our separate beliefs, but tragedy and grief unites us all. It transcends any barriers, whether it be race, nationality or religion. It is hard to believe that murder can be justified by anyone who considers himself humane. No one can justify repairing what they see as wrong with hatred. You can't build a firm foundation, you can't change a nation and you most certainly cannot change the world. I started the series Only Love, because I believe that love is the only answer for the world today, tomorrow and forever more.
One Heart, One Mind
When I think of the years,
The unnecessary tears,
The agony, the shame;
The anger and the pain
That comes from being hurt
again and again,
I wonder if we will ever
live together peacefully.
Will we always war needlessly?
It doesn't matter who we are
or where we a from.
Life is the same for everyone.
If we open our hearts,
we will find,
We have one heart and one mind.
When time is no more,
Our differences won't matter anymore.
Regardless of what language we speak,
There is commonality in what we seek.
No mater where we live our goals and our aims
Are the same.
Everybody cries
When someone they love dies.
There is no difference in our tears.
We share the same fears.
We have different faces and different names,
But inside we are the same.
It's time we realized
We have common ties.
When we get down to the heart of the matter,
That is all that matters.
It's not the color of our skin,
Where we have been,
Or whether we are a King or Queen.
It doesn't matter where we live in the world.
One day, we must leave this world.
If we continue to hate,
This will be our shared fate;
Wars on every hand
And the deterioration of man.
We brag about how far we have come,
But if we never learn to live as one,
Our accomplishments will be as dung.
They will be of no significance to anyone
We must live as a people, undefined by station or place,
Inseparable by color or race.
We can't rewrite history,
But we can change what is to be
When we realize that we are not only kindred spirits,
We are a perfect fit on the tapestry of mankind.
With one heart and one mind,
Peace will finally be ours to find.
Copyright 2015 by Patricia Newman Harris, Living the Dream
