LoveHate Poetry... Installation #2

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to LoveHate poetry. In today's installment we move into the more contemporary realm of American Poets to Hip Hop's Poet Laureate, Saul Williams. In his book, The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop, Saul Williams destroys all pretenders of written word with lyrics and imagery that will blow your mind! I hope you enjoy this poem, it is one of my all time favorites...

Co-dead Language

Whereas, break-beats have been the
missing link connecting the diasporic
community to its drum-woven past.

Whereas, the quantized drum has
allowed the whirling mathematicians
to calculate the ever-changing distance
between rock and stardom.

Whereas, the velocity of spinning vinyl,
Cross-faded, spun backwards, and re-released
at the same given moment of recorded history,
yet, at a different moment in time's continuum
has allowed history to catch up with the present.

We do hereby declare reality unkempt
by the changing standards of dialogue.

Statements such as, "keep it real," especially
when punctuating or articulating mode of
ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or
physically or depicting an unchanging rule
of events, will henceforth be seen as retroactive
and not representative of the individually
determined IS.

Furthermore, as determined by the collective
consciousness of this state of being and the
lessened distance between thought patterns
and the secular manifestations, the role of
men as listening receptacles is to be increased
by a number no less than 70 percent of the
current enlisted as vocal aggressors.

MTHRFCKRs better realize, now is the time
to self-actualize. We have found evidence that
Hip-hop's standard 85 RPM when increased
by a number at least half the rate of the standard
or decreased by 3/4's of its speed may be a
determining factor in heightening consciousness.
Studies show that when a given norm is changed
in the face of the unchanging the remaining
contradictions will parallel the truth.

Equate rhyme with reason. Sun with season.
Our cyclical relationship to phenomena has
encouraged scholars to erase the centers of
periods thus symbolizing the non-linear
character of cause and effect.

Reject mediocrity. Your current frequencies
of understanding outweigh that which has
been given for you to understand. The current
standard is the equivalent of an adolescent
restricted to the diet of an infant. The rapidly
changing body would acquire dysfunctional
and deformative symptoms and could not properly
mature on a diet of applesauce and crushed pears.

Light years are interchangeable with years of living
in darkness. The role of darkness is not to be seen
as or equated with ignorance but with the unknown
and the mysteries of the unseen.

Thus, in the name of: Robeson,
God's son. Hurston, Akhenaton,
Hatshepsut, Blackfoot, Helen,
Lennon, Kahlo, Kali, The Three
Marias, Tara, Lilith, Lourde,
Whitman, Baldwin, Ginsberg,
Kaufman, Lumumba, Gandhi,
Gibran, Shabazz, Shabazz,
Siddhartha, Medusa, Guevera,
Gurdjieff, Rand, Wright, Banneker,
Tubman, Hamer, Holiday, Davis,
Coltrane, Morrison, Joplin, Du Bois,
Clarke, Shakespere, Rachmaninoff,
Ellington, Carter, Gaye, Hathaway,
Hendrix, Kuti, Dickerson, Ripperton,
Mary, Isis, Theresa, Plath, Rumi,
Fellini, Michaux, Nostradamus,
Neferttiti, La Rock, Shiva, Ganesha,
Yemaja, Oshun, Obatala, Ogun,
Kennedy, King, four little girls,
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Keller, Biko,
Peron, Marley, Shakur, Those who
burned. Those still aflame. And the
countless un-named.

We claim the present as the pre-sent at the
hereafter. We are unraveling our navels so
that we may ingest the sun. We are not afraid
of the darkness. We trust that the moon shall
guide us. We are determining the future at this
very moment. We now know that the heart is
the philosopher's stone.

Our music is our alchemy. We stand as the
manifested equivalent of three buckets of water
and a handful of minerals, thus, realizing that
those very buckets turned upside down supply
the percussive factor of forever. If you must
count to keep the beat then count. Find your
mantra and awaken your subconciousness. Carve
your circles counter-clockwise. Use your cipher
to decipher coded language, man-made laws. Climb
waterfalls and trees. Commune with nature snakes
and bees.

Let your children name themselves and claim
themselves as the new day for today we are
determined to be the channelers of these
changing frequencies into songs, paintings,
writing, dance, drama, photography, carpentry,
crafts, love, and love.

We enlist every instrument: acoustic, electronic,
every so-called race, gender, sexual preference
every per-son as being of sound to acknowledge
their responsibility to uplift the consciousness
of the entire fucking world!

Any utterance un-aimed will be disclaimed,
will be maimed. Two rappers slain!