Baraka

I feel your beat, man

Syncopated like Jazz

Revolutionary on their ass

Born in Newark

to a working class fam

ended up doin' yo' thang for uncle sam

I give you credit, though, for serving in those times

Double V for victory always on black airman's mind

But you would survive

Hell, you thrived

Onward to Greenwich Village 

LeRoi Jones had arrived

Beat Poetry,

 founding of journal yugen

Publishing Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg and the rest

But after Cuba 

you left that scene

Penning "Black Art", a poetic manifesto

That joint was mean

Then after X's assassination, the country was torn
Power to the people, rise up
 Amiri Baraka was born

Poet, Writer, Teacher, Political Activist
Plainspoken, controversial, revolutionary, strategist

Jazzy, bluesy, rhythm moves me
Power of the pen with a voice that
gets in to yo soul
and goes
and flows
and lord only knows
fo sho
there's no comparison

to the Poet Laureate of activist
that dared ask, " Why is we Americans"

T.C

I am Tim Clark All rights reserved c 2017