Tuesday, December 30, 2008

THE DRINK (Ujamaa - Co-operative Economics)






Draped in black she walks across desert sands
Sun hanging high
The air rippling from the heat.
She trails footprints that disappear in time
As the winds push Saharan grains
That carpet the far and beyond.
Searching for water she taps and stabs
ground with her spear of hoary worth.
Deep until the Earth bleeds
Clear,
Giving up its blood to the woman in shadow.
And she drinks.
Quenching the thirst of a throat dried and cracked
crawling towards the cut in the ground
the decayed,
the emaciated,
the carcasses of the land
struggled and strained to the oasis of life.
As the shadow stands and watched
thirsty no more.
She waits until they all approach for a drink.
And as skeletal remains part lips burned and blistered
for a drink,
to taste the nectar of nature's cool essence,
the woman withdraws her spear
licking its tip of its last drop.
Tauntingly swallowing life's most precious elixir.
And it is all gone.
Washed away into the vastness of the desert.
Only to become a mirage of happiness,
a silhouette of life
which gathered the scorched remains of the land
in a perfect circle.

This I write with scroll and pen.


The Drink by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

Monday, December 29, 2008

STRENGTH OF SPIRIT (Ujima - Collective Work and Responsibility)






Rock of Gibraltar
heart of diamond
like the blades of Zuar,
it’s the center of passion.
The speed of swing
and a Zulu's call,
cherish the stare hollow but true.
In the end
it’s OK.

It’s the song that causes tears to move.
A hand, which wipes them away,
clearing them for insight.
It uncovers the memory of futures past
and rises to stand in magnificence.
It’s the cost of being the boss
when masks reveal the identity of the spirit
King.

Setting internal rules
-the reality that we live in,
bodies austerely hacked and cut away in all the important parts.
And it heals,
it does grow back in places.
Sometimes fast, sometimes strong.
But in the end, it becomes the salt of the Earth
and the breath of a windless sky,
on a starless night,
a hand, on a timeless clock kept for forgotten heroes,
lost in battle since their closing bid for freedom.


Sold! Dis heron Buck fo 300 dollas!!



Strength of Spirit by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

NATURE OR NURTURE (Kujichagulia - Self-Determination)





















Stroke me
and touch me more.
Look at me hard
and hold on.




What do you say?

Experience and taste me
lick and swallow me whole.
What flavor am I?
Sweet or sour?





Mixing the ingredients.
Open seasons
of Change
from hot to cold.
Dressed and Undressed.





In fashion statements of the World.

Singles and doubles.
Matching me up.
Taking me down
on my back and on my side.





Spread them and check me out.

Outgrowing your ideals.
Stepping beyond social shackles.
A hungry soldier no more.
I have turned my own pages.





Reading stories from right to left.
Blame me not.
I blame you little.
I am deep into You more
as much as you are into Me.





Rolling head over heels.

Save my life
saving more of your soul.
Allowing me to die in your arms.
Dully by cutting off the lights.





The sun will still rise after blemished days.

Hear Trumpets
calling from the East
with human insight.
Listen to the sound.


Nature of Nurture by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

DIAMONDS (Umoja - Unity)
















heat it
stir it
place it on top of the burner.
put the lid on tight.
pressure cook the Hell out of it.
watch it boil,
bubble,
and bounce around
falling one over the other
over and over
until
a big wooden spoon splits and
whirls it to the sides of
a big black cauldron as it
fights the final meltdown
from an intense flame underneath.
baked,
boiled,
and burned.
broken up,
broken down
to its basic elements.
transformed
from heat
coal into diamonds
in the rough
cut so fine
so we all can shine.


Diamonds by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim