Tuesday, September 6, 2016

ME AND MY TIMES

ME AND MY TIMES During my Freshman year at Howard University, 1969, I wrote and presented a poem, "Time Ain't! We Is," in a Creative Writing class of Clay Goss, a Philadelphia playwright, an Ed Bullins' adherent. In the 1985, I wrote "Exhalations from My Soul," the last issue of my self-published newsletter, THE NILE REVIEW, with artistic graphics by my brother, Alvin Kennedy Coleman. It addressed cosmic time and black historical consciousness. In the middle 1990s, after receiving the "call to preach," I expounded "How Much Time Do We Have," in a sermon at St. Matthews C.M.E. Church, in Meachum Park, Missouri. This was our childhood home church, where Daddy and Mommy raised us kids, '50s-90s. My subject was obtained from an analogy of St. Augustine's that I had read in an abridgment of his epic, CITY OF GOD about time. In 1999, I wrote "Jaded Jubilee: Year 2019, The Bible and Black Destiny." This monograph treats of a vision visited upon me while studying Genesis 15: 12-14, in the context of my African American people, including their history. It is posted online for anyone to view, for free, with an interest in such prophesying. Three years to go! Today, I posted a powerful excerpt on Facebook from philosopher, Theophile Obenga 's book AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 B.C., about the ancient Egyptians ' conception and applications of time that were passed down to us, in part, by the Romans ' calendar . Reading, quoting, Obenga brought to my mind, memorable encounters that I have had with the interstices of time, whose vastness clasps all.