MUSINGS

WELCOME TO MY MUSINGS

Here I will share custom poems, excerpts, videos of poetry readings, interviews and the like. Please choose from the categories in the sidebar, or scroll through using the buttons below. Love, Leah

Monday Musing – Remembering Black Wall Street

I claim this moment of silence
as the truth of a 100 year massacre
in our own Country comes to light
Our ancestors
send red birds and their stories take flight

Black Wall Street, is a truth
Biden stands up and takes the cover off the lie
that thousands of us Black Folks
living in harmony and prosperity,
were slaughtered and left to die

My heart hurts but heals
as we get to the bones
release these tormented souls
so their spirits can find new homes

The soul of this Country
took a step forward today
but the ugly is still here
As Texas passes laws
and some Electeds sharpen their claws
for the next,
As I write this text
I claim that we will stand up
and speak the truth
for the soul of our people
and find a day when racism and hate
is not part of this nation
as a homage to our ancestors and a promise to our future generations!

Shelter in Place

Shelter in Place
Shelter your heart
Feed your soul
find time for gratitude
create a new space
Shelter in Place
A message to STOP
Stop running
Stop working
Stop polluting
Stop commuting
Shelter in Place
Nurture your dreams
Nurture your family
De-clutter and rearrange
embrace the solitude for a change
Shelter –  keep warm
Shelter — feels good
If we shelter each other
we can ride out this storm.

Lent 2020

palms-for-lent-2020-poem

This season has a pattern

A rhythm, a message, it’s a parable

It’s a cautionary tale

A spiritual manifestation

This 40-day time is a time for releasing and renewing

A time to reconnect with God

A time to feast and to fast

And a time of reviewing.

The earth is crying

The small voice is knocking at our door

And the almighty is entering in

Stronger than before.

 

I hear it!

“Be still and know that I am God”

After Pharaoh persecuted the Jews

And the ten plagues arrived

And the final one

Death to the first son…

Made him let go of the Jews and set them free.

There is a message for the Dictators in this century

And this global pandemic will affect everyone.

 

I feel it

My soul cries for the pain to our planet

The earth it’s too hot

And she calls to us with fire and water, and hurricanes

But we won’t change our habits,

We think it won’t matter.

Humankind is full of false Gods and idols

Our political leaders, athletes, and actors

They get statues and tributes,

Golden accolades, and parades.

Did we forget what the almighty said?

 

Humans… Listen it’s the cry of the creator

The plea of our planet

And we go on with more trash

More consumption

More greed

All the messages are here, and we will not take heed.

 

So, in this 2020 40 days of lent

Have you given up a thing?

To remember the gift of the Son.

The crucifixion and resurrection of the holy one?

His message of healing and the power of truth

Is forgotten in the daily media,

We worship our phones

We kill people using drones.

 

The final message is hear

It is loud and it’s clear

A modern plague, it’s called a Pandemic

No one is safe.

It is not nation against nation

It is a global virus

A deadly situation.

The universe is sending us a cosmic two by four

Let go of your current ego driven life!

Stay home, stay safe, stop driving, talk to your neighbor

Use your device to connect with music and song,

Celebrate the gift of your freedom, your family and look at what’s wrong.

Have we forgotten, the message?

The gift from above?

It is time to breathe into your spirit

And find a new way to be love.

1619 – Poem

1619 Celebration of Black Women Tribute Poem

by Leah Goodwin 3/2/2019

 

Black women arrived in 1619

But what does that mean?

A journey we did not ask for.

A story of pain,

A story of hope,

A story that’s strong,

It is yours and it’s mine,

It is right and it’s wrong.

 

Women and men and little children

Born in Mother Africa

Sold into slavery

Our strength helped us survive in this new country

This land of the free

Has been and still is a dichotomy

We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors

We knew that the power was in our very blood

And we were not going to let this journey drive us into the mud.

The life of slavery

Was a human atrocity

1746 Lucy Terry, who was sold into slavery as an infant,

became a free woman and in 1756 picked up her paper and pen

and wrote the first poem we know about back then.

Followed soon after in 1773

Books of poems were published by the prolific Phillis Wheatley

 

Time moves on and Women stay strong,

They move to the melody of their very own song.

In the 1800’s, Harriet Beecher Stowe, gave us Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The voice of Sojourner Truth proclaimed “Ain’t I A Woman?”

Harriet Tubman followed that North Star,

And in 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing millions and changing the nation

We moved forward, to schools to better jobs to new situations,

It was the precursor to the great migration.

Charlotte Ray was admitted to the Washington, DC bar; in 1872

she graduated that year from Howard University yes –“H. U.”

 

A door had been opened, things weren’t like before

We invented things, we became teachers, and nurses and more

Mary McLeod Bethune earned her place in history

When she founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute to educate black girls and served as its president in 1943.

Madam C. J. Walker took care of our hair

becoming the first American women to become a self-made millionaire.

Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat,

Started a movement to desegregation,

That changed the nation.

Dorothy Height  led the National Council of Negro Women

all the way to the March on Washington.

 

It was time to show the world who we are

from athletes, to politics, to reaching the stars

Wilma Rudolph, our first Olympic gold medalist, in track and field – Yes, she won three

Katherine Johnson helped to send America’s first human spaceflight to the moon to earn her place in history.

Shirley Chisholm was the first to be elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, serving us with a heart of resilience

She also went on to make a run for President

Mae Carol Jemison traveled on the space shuttle Endeavor.

Carol Moseley Braun was elected to serve in the U. S. Senate, she was so brilliant and clever.

 

Forward was the only way to make up for lost time

There was no mountain too tall for us to climb

Jocelyn M. Elders was appointed as the U. S. Surgeon General.

Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize in Literature for Beloved, her novel.

Serena Williams won the U.S. Open Women’s Singles Tennis Championship which was just the beginning, she moves on and to this day she just keeps on winning.

400 years

Billions of tears

We stand here today

We see Oprah Winfrey, Simone Biles, Halle Barry, Michelle Obama, and now Kamala!

The living legacies of Mother Africa

The pride of our Grandmothers

 

We know how to keep our eyes on the prize

And as Dr. Maya Angelou stated

And still I/WE RISE

We have a DNA strand of creativity

It’s Black Lives Matter’s Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi

 

We have a purpose, a plan, we have super powers

Because we are the seeds that were planted

400 years ago

Together we will bloom into a million magnificent flowers.

February Blues (Poetry)

Open book in red heart shape on blue background

The After February Blues for y’all….

From Leah Goodwin 1995

How would you feel
If I told you it is real
the after February Blues
Well, I’ll tell you where I am
See Some bo-dee-y
Made Febru–ar–ry
a month for Black Histo-ry
and some-bo-dy
made Febru-a-ry
the month for love.

and somebody must realize
that February
being the shortest month of the year
and being the month for blacks and lovers
could be a hard month
for blacks and lovers ….here
are many similarities

Black Americans have a never-ending battle
against American hatred
prejudice and genocide
Lovers have to be brave
and find a way to make the love survive.
Black lovers?
OH
You follow my direction
Black lovers celebrate a short month …. where
Roses are red and Black is the thing to do.
Making a happy – but short recognition of self
Making a month of joy
in a year full of work.
Making a busy month of the year
Where we celebrate blackness
Where we celebrate love
Where we celebrate ourselves

and our black love
and then it is March
and we are not in the news
we are back to being denied and
no one wants to hear our views
and we find ourselves feeling a little abused
as we feel those — after February Blues.

Music is Food for My Soul

colorful-bowls

Music is food for my Soul

When my life feels out of control

Music is food for my soul

When I feel that need to connect

I plug in

To jazz

I mean – I expect

That Miles can take me away

My breathing changes

And the tears begin to roll

Cleansing my mind

Music is food for my soul

 

Now it is not always the melody

That takes me on a journey

No, the beat

Makes me tap my feet

And those low steady tones

Of the bass

Keep my groove in place

So when life takes its toll

Music is food for my soul.

And even when I’m happy

There is a place in the melody

Finding myself humming a song

Yes when life is good music still comes along

 

Music is food for my soul

Music is food for my soul

Live music is such a treat

The whole experience is so sweet

 

When my girl Cynthia

Sings My Funny Valentine

My heart opens up

And the memories are sublime.

 

Music is food for my soul

Music is food for my soul

Music is food for my soul

Let’s go eat some

Come

I mean I want a big purple bowl

Of music for my soul.