STRESSES IN PLANT AND HUMAN LIFE

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150929125434.htm My novelette, THE COLORED GREEN TREE @ Amazon.com, addresses cultural stresses in collard greens as a metaphor for such in black youth.

SLEEPING

SLEEPING Sleeping is inert consciousness, That falls like diurnal dew. Whether : softly silently subtly Or Heavily loudly openly; Its sovereignty manacles you; Protecting and preserving Your exclusive time to renew. Until eternal subsumes diurnal And innate subsumes inert.

TWO

TWO Men do. Women do. Reproduce me & you. Praise God for the two.

THOMAS MORRIS CHESTER, ONE REMARKABLE, CIVIL-WAR-ERA MAN

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/a-black-correspondent-at-the-front/?_r=0 One remarkable Civil War era man; reporter,lawyer, captain, emigrationist

FEEDING TIME

MISSOURI MUSINGS

I find it strange that Missouri is not classified as s "Southern" state by the author of an "Opelousas Louisiana Massacre" (posted yesterday) article given its bloody history! Not only did it lynch Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois and burn down his abolitionist newspaper in 1837, and outlaw black preachers and black literacy in 1847, and reject the bid for freedom of Dred and Harriet Scott, which produced the dreadful 1857, U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision written by Chief Justice Roger Taney that "blacks whether slave or free, had no rights that whites were bound to respect." But, there is more: Missouri, more famously, fought a Missouri -Kansas Border War which actually sparked the Civil War, with such freedom fighters as John Brown, James Montgomery, U.S. Senator James Lane, and others, over whether the status of Kansas! Would it be slave--like Missouri--or free!

FAMILY AFFAIR SYMBOLS

YOUNG SCRIBE

GET UP AND TRY IT AGAIN

GET UP AND TRY AGAIN My great aunties were sitting on the front porch in a suspended swinging bench, swaying slightly back and forth , while I, then a tiny tyke aged 3, rode my faithful tricycle up and down the rutted sidewalk in front of my great-grand-daddy's Canton, Mississippi home, before their adoring eyes. Life was very good as I giggled, whirled and pumped away on my bike that bright sunny day. Suddenly, somehow I had wrongly hit a rut and then tumbled from my tricycle onto the ground! More in protest than in pain, I cried, wailed, kicked and screamed, confident that at any moment my adoring aunties would rush from their shaded seats on that suspended porch swing and come to my aid ! Imagine my great surprise when, despite my wailed protests about the injustice and unfairness of my fall from my tricycle , nobody came to pick me up, dust me off, or kiss away my grief!No, not one. Instead, still swaying, they sang almost in near-harmony these words: "GET UP AND TRY IT AGAIN. GET UP AND TRY IT AGAIN." Hearing but not quite believing that no one would come, I cried even more--this time at them--rather than about my fall. Still they swayed and swang as though they knew something that it was time for me to learn. Soon growing tired of crying, and still desirous of the thrill of the ride, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, got back on my tricycle, and kept right on riding! Moral: When life's ruts make you fall onto the ground, get up; dust yourself off; and try it again! Riding is always more fun than crying!

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S BIBLE

IMMORALITY'S MINISTRY President Thomas Jefferson also wrote an occult, redacted Bible, now used in Congress that is not as nearly so well known as his iconic NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA (1785). Known as THE LIFE AND MORALS OF JESUS OF MAZARETH it was completed in 1820. But, it was not published until after Jefferson's death, by an heir. Later, Congress published it for fifty years; thereafter, various humanist or private societies took up the work of publication. President Obama is said to have a copy. http://m.monticelloshop.org/010111.html… It is distributed to each new member of Congress. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible. It is also free online. The purpose of Jefferson's "Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth ," was for his private, personal use--Jefferson claimed--but an earlier 1804 edition is dedicated to Indians, by him, which raises doubts. At any case, "Life and Morals " removes all miracles and mention of divine birth and resurrection references. This redacted Bible is drawn from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, from the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and English versions of the Bible. These extracts are then arranged chronologically. Then tables listing each passage's source, in order is provided . Thomas Jefferson 's Bible, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" is the secret subtext of America democratic ethics . Having read "Query XIV." of Jefferson's NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, which deals with Africans in America, as regards himself, I surely look forward to reading this moral biography of Jesus by that most immoral slaveholder, President Thomas Jefferson.

THE DIFFERENCE IS YOU

YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE Doubt differs from unbelief or disbelief. Doubt demands demonstration, Doubt craves confirmation, Doubts pleads for proof as relief. Doubt devolves into unbelief or disbelief: If Demonstration lags. If Confirmation creeps. Then, Doubt stiffens, hardens, calcifies. Condemnation is not demonstration. Vilification is not confirmation, Social isolation is not relief. Believers bear the burden of proof. Jesus proved, but rarely reproved. Believers reprove, but rarely prove. Doubters are eggs in an open nest. Needing warmth, love, tenderness. Where Eggs are open to prey and to rot; Believers are all Doubters' Lancelot. As a bird attends its unborn brood Believers must mimic their attitude. The message of Jesus' life is true It rests in no book nor in any creed; The difference between these two, between doubt and belief is in you.

MINING THE ROUGH ORE

MINING THE ROUGH ORE "Belief in history " is a phrase used by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his 1963 book, WHY WE CAN'T WAIT. That phrase's incongruity has struck me as bizarre. One does not "believe" in history any more than one believes in Santa Claus or in the tooth fairy. Such a "belief" is childish ! One must know history. This historical knowledge is easily attainable by study. The same goes for mathematics or for science or grammar, as for anything else! "Study to show thyself approved," begins the scripture, "unto God," it continues, "a workman who need not be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of truth." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… Dr. King was decrying the sick character, ergo quality, of the school textbooks in that city, white-supremacist, segregated Birmingham , Alabama, when he used the above phrase "belief in history." Needless to say, those who believed in that history were worst than slaves. The broader lesson for us all is that beliefs perpetuate human oppression, while committed study undermines oppression. Study reveals the sunlight of liberating knowledge to those who mine rough ore for truth.

POETRY AND PROSE

POETRY AND PROSE TOPPLE Poetry compresses, seduces, quickens matter into verse that may rhyme rhythmically or not. Prose explains, enlarges, elongates matter into essays that are not necessarily either versified rhymes or rhythms. At their best, they, poetry and prose, seamlessly transmute. Poetry and prose as melded by masters of their moments are like males and females melded; like peanut butter and jelly; like the "Sermon on the Mount;" like the "Gettysburg Address; " like "The Atlanta Exposition Speech of 1895;" like the "I Have A Dream," of 1963; and like the Barack Obama Democratic Convention Speech of 2004. Blended as one, poetry and prose topple time and space.

JUST DO IT

JUST DO IT! The phrases "we only ask," and "let us ," and "give us," are entreaties of dependence, not declarations of independence. Dependents entreat for succor. Independents do not entreat for succor. They do for themselves. Spiritual frame of reference of begging and doing is different, although though the material conditions may be the same! Too often, blacks in America have entreated, instead of just doing. Barack Obama did not entreat nor retreat. He just did! We are wise who do likewise.

WILL AND POWER

The are no lack of praiseworthy plans or good ideas to rectify wrongs. What is most lacking is the will and the power of some and the willpower of others

black military officers matter

BLACK MILITARY OFFICERS MATTER Looking back, over history, I can see now, as I read BUT ONE RACE THE LIFE OF ROBERT PURVIS by Margaret Hope Bacon (2007), where our then-black leaders' compromise agreements to allow black troops to be led into battle in the Civil War only by white officers, not by blacks, as a condition of their recruitment of these soldiers, set the form and the stage, for much of the discrimination and disparate treatment of blacks that followed our people over the next 150 years, till today! "Military necessity " --his words--compelled President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This Executive Order enabled the recruiting of black troops in the all except designated portions of the South, and all of the North, although not in the border states, like Missouri , Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware . https://www.google.com/search… That document "freed" no slaves in the South, who were all under the actual political jurisdiction of the Confederate States of America, not the USA. Black men had sought to fight from the start, in their self-named, "Freedom War," but were refused. Claims like it was "A white man's war;" and other equally absurd claims about the blacks' ability to fight and their courage in battle --despite their well-known Revolutionary War and War of 1812 heroism--were also claimed by "Copperheads," Southern sympathizers in and out of the North and Republican Party, like Lincoln's awful Vice President, the villainous Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee. But, after the destructive battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in July 1863, when Robert E. Lee invaded the North and later retreated in defeat into Maryland, without his victory; Antietam in August--which gave Lincoln very scant political cover to issue his preliminary proclamation-did it finally occur to Lincoln that the nation could be lost, without the help of the blacks, who were the work-horses of the South, as two of his generals had demonstrated in August 1861 (Fremont, Missouri ) and May 1862 (Hunter, South Carolina). Robert Purvis, the preeminent Philadelphia freedom fighter and philanthropist of African descent himself had such reservations and expressed them in a letter to Wendell Phillips, Congressman from Massachusetts : "Yet notwithstanding the advance made by the government in forming regiments of colored men--it argues a sad misapprehension of character, aspirations, and self-respect of colored men, to suppose that they would submit to the degrading limit which the government imposed in regard to the officering of said regiments. From that position and error, the government must recede or else I opine that failure to secure the right kind of men will be the result." (P.147) That "sad misapprehension" mentioned by Purvis was borne out in the unequal pay and benefits conferred upon black troops, until Congress finally equalized the pay and benefits of black troops in June 1864, following a boycott of receipt of any pay by black troops, until they got the same as the white troops, as originally promised and as declared in statutory law. Still, however , though pay was finally equalized, there were no line of duty officers of African descent with regular command of troops, as "the fear of arming blacks remained widespread..." (Ibid., p. 147) One such would-be officer who had actively raised black troops in Ohio, and who had relentlessly yet unsuccessfully sought their command, was John Mercer Langston , an attorney, Oberlin graduate , and later founder of the Howard University School of Law in 1869. The war ended too soon for black command to be implemented. But, had it been, history would be very different!

UNION GENERAL GEORGE HENRY THOMAS OF VIRGINIA, HERO!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas Although I have read frequent and favorable references to Gen. George Henry Thomas, of Southhampton County, Virginia, i.e. , where he and his slaveholding family fled and hid in the woods from Nat Turner's men, it was not until reading about celebratory reference to him by the great Robert Purvis, that I determined to look him up! What a great leader and American patriot !

yawning

YAWNING Monday, September 21, 2015 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Yawning wakes us up and yawning puts us to sleep. Yawning is an internal alarm clock, an early warning system that is ignored with peril. Falling asleep is preceded by yawns, whether at the wheel of a car or at work. Waking up in the morning is preceded by yawns, whether in bed or elsewhere. Respiratory no doubt, yawning is. But, what else might it be beyond biology? Super-natural insurgency itself is yawning, operating from afar as a funnel of infectious favor. “Infectious?” Yes. Your yawn induces my yawn and my yawn your yawn. Common breath, common source, common summons in baby and in man, is yawning. Yawning is the breath of God.

OVERCOMING PARADIGMS

OVERCOMING PARADIGMS Just being alive testifies to the spirit of God in you, without more. Life itself is indissolubly linked to the infinity of God is that is dynamic and unlimited in us. Death terminates this form, this season, in life, in time & space. God is beyond time & space. Being unlimited, however, the spirit and power of God flows through each of us in this time and in this space, subject only to God's divinely imposed constraints on time and space. It is meet that fish be fish, not flowers; that man be man, not mountains; each occupying its unique niche relative to earth. But man is master of this earth, since man can kill everything else, including himself; or save anything else, including himself. Man can fly, swim, run, crawl, walk, build, grow, harvest, heal, teach, navigate, calculate, talk, shoot, throw, write, preach, reproduce, reason, deduce, investigate, all over , inside, and even off the earth. Verbs bow to the power of man's potency! Man's only limit in this space and time is man. Some men convince other men of lack, of inadequacy, of incapacity, of inability or even impossibility! This predicate and paradigm, whether religious or scientific, is imposed on "other" men, in order to empower their patent and permanent imposition of rule over them, over their mind. By imprisoning their minds, and bodies, these imposers, née imposters, also paralyze their subordinate men's implicit and innate imaginations, which are their ineffable links to God. There are and have been many gods and deities on earth. Each such was fashioned by man, in his own image, in succession, as as certain means of ruling, of explaining, of rationalizing, of teaching. Each one is from man. Each holy book that was ever extant was written by man; was interpreted by man; was edited by man; was imposed by man. Fortunately, each holy book or scientific book incorporated precepts, rules, myths, facts, and principles from prior books. So, we are beneficiaries of all knowledge that has gone before us, directly, even as our successors will benefit from us. Wouldn't it be wonderful for them to know that whether they conceive of themselves as our beneficiaries or not, that they still have a direct link to God, by reason of life, itself, and by reason of their imaginations? Albert Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. http://www.goodreads.com/…/556030-imagination-is-more-impor… Genesis says the same thing as Einstein about knowledge and imagination; it essentially says that "To know is great. But to imagine is greater." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… Overcome every paradigm on your mind and every lock upon your imagination and be free!

BISON POWER

GRACE

But for the grace of God, we all would be long gone; yet, though here now to whine, to pine, to speculate and wonder, because of the grace of God, we all will be soon gone. Grace either way; grace both ways. In the end, it is grace, as it was in the beginning, grace. Life is nothing but Grace!

GOLDEN UNDERSTANDING

A GOLDEN UNDERSTANDING "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the Golden Rule, does not mean that you are to understand others as you do yourself; each one is as unique unto themselves as you. Treating as you wish to be treated by them is its thrust.

WHY WE CAN'T WAIT....excerpt

"Negroes are human, not superhuman. Like all people, they have differing personalities, diverse financial interests, and varied aspirations. There are Negroes who will never fight for freedom. There are Negroes who will seek profit for themselves alone from the struggle. There are even some Negroes who will cooperate with their oppressors. These facts should distress no one. Every minority and every people has its share of opportunists, profiteers, freeloaders, and escapists. The hammer blows of discrimination, poverty and segregation must warp and corrupt some. No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed, every individual member is virtuous and worthy. The real issue is whether in the great mass the dominant characteristics are decency, honor and courage." p.41, "The Sword That Heals," WHY WE CAN'T WAIT by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963, 2000)

work and prayer

Work is prayer applied

MILKY WAY

"Why do so many galaxies exhibit a spiral pattern? Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way have a relatively thin disk (like a pancake) composed of gas, dust (miniature grains), and stars. The entire galactic disk is rotating about the galactic center. In the vicinity of the sun, for example, the orbital speed around the Milky Way's center is 140 miles per second, and it takes material about 225 million years to complete one revolution. At other distances from the center the speed is different--higher closer to the center, lower at greater distances--that is, galactic discs do not rotate like a solid compact disk but differently." P. 121, THE GOLDEN RATIO, THE STORY OF PHI, THE WORLD'S MOST ASTONISHING NUMBER by Mario Livio (2003)

FEELING AND KNOWING AND FEELING

FEELING AND KNOWING AND FEELING One may feel and yet not know, unless to feel is to know, and to know is to feel. Feeling, sensing, intuiting makes so, that which one does not, and cannot consciously know. Some musicians can play music by ear, who cannot read a note. Some African tribesmen weave intricate "Platonic solids" into crafts who have never heard of Plato. Child prodigies exhibit genius in subjects they've never been taught invoking wonder all about! One may feel and yet not know, unless to feel is to know, and to know is to feel.

APPLAUD YOURSELF SOMETIMES

NAOMI WAS NOT RUTHLESS; NEITHER SHOULD YOU BE

NAOMI WAS NOT RUTHLESS ; NEITHER SHOULD YOU BE! Naomi, the Moabite, was neither wanton nor ruthless in effecting her insinuating betrothal to Boaz; she was, instead, compliant with her widowed mother-in-law, Ruth's, effective instructions in every particular, so such so, that she soon came to be both noticed and favored by Boaz, Naomi's near kin. Boaz's barley fields had been gratefully gleaned by Naomi, who trailed his harvesters, as sustenance for herself and for Ruth. After seeing her demeanor and due diligence at work, he heaped much barley upon Naomi, as well as other diverse forms of succor, even as he successfully and publicly, bargained for the familial and tribal right to wed her over the entitlement of another elder, with a superior, unredeemed claim, in accordance with Israeli custom. There is yet much wisdom in the Book of Ruth, now, for dependent widowed women, for unprotected single women, and for unmarried men, respecting the propriety of instructions given and received in matrimonial matters in good faith.

KEMET KHEMIT

Kemet.

CHARLES REASON WAS A POLYMATH

Charles Reason was a famous teacher, whose brother, Patrick was a renowned engraver; both attended the African Free School in New York that was founded by John Jay, Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, and other abolitionists to empower Africans through education and association. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Reason

JACK JOHNSON WAS COMPLETELY "MAN."

Completely "man" was Jack Johnson, an army and iconoclast of one! I have read his amazing "Autobiography of Jack Johnson," and was overwhelmed by its knowledge, eloquence and historical conceptions. He is yet vilified as the boogie-man to scare you away from that full degree of expression in you, that he found within himself!

IMMANENCE

light is immanent in darkness. Darkness is immanent in light. Goodness is immanent in evil. Courage may hide behind fright. Shadows wake up in the morning. Acuity goes to sleep at night. Forever resides in an instant. Civility may give way to a fight

BAOBAB BRETHREN

These old African baobab trees regenerate their bark inside and out, from their substance, in acts of exudation, that are rare among trees and are even more rare among peoples!

YOU ARE THE POLE OF YOUR SOUL

YOU ARE THE POLE OF YOUR SOUL You are the pole of your soul. You, personally, are the axis of your soul's orbit. Where you are it is. Where you are not it is not. That "axis" is your soul's pole, its anchor. That orbit is your soul's life, existence. You, in particular, are your soul's home and reference point. You, uniquely, are your soul's reason for being. Your soul lives because of you. You live because of your soul. Your soul is your pole; your pole is your soul. Each is the other's. God formed you from the dusts of the earth and breathed the breath of life into your body and you became a living soul. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… You are the pole of your soul. You must love the Lord your God with all you heart , your mind, and your soul. http://biblehub.com/matthew/22-37.htm You are the pole of your soul. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pole. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Pole. Who do you say that I am? http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-15.htm Pole. No one hates his own flesh, http://biblehub.com/ephesians/5-29.htm Pole. You are the pole of your soul. No you, no pole, no soul, no life. Satisfy your soul with gladness and you fortify yourself from fear. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=avlpEd8WWrI

KEMET DUMAS COLEMAN & LAUREN HUSTON COLEMAN WEDDING PHOTO WITH US

kudu drinking

poetry

poetry is poignancy; astute and acute.

MOTHER AND CHILD by Elizabeth Catlett

Resembles a young Miles Davis

eyesight and insight

Eyesight and insight seem to be inversely correlated, one dims, the other grows

I REMEMBER SEPTEMBER

I remember September like a long-lost friend or returning kin. Its sights, sounds, textures, tastes; and its hustle and bustle. Yet, I especially remember September's smells. Savory scents of waxed halls in old schools, The odor of new books, dusty chalk, and whiffs of wistful perfume. Smells and smiles of hope. expectation, excitement, renewal. Oh yes, I remember September poignantly; as symbol and substance; as subliminal hormone which quickens and comforts the soul.

NEFERTARI-- KARNAK TEMPLE

STONE-TO-THE-BONE FOX. She quickens and comforts the soul.