The poem, ???A letter to Dr. Martin Luther King??? by Sonia Sanchez is taken from the book
Homegirls & Handgrenades (Thundermouth???s Press, New York, 1984). The gospel group Sweet Honey in the Rock adapted the poem for song in observance of the first federal observance of Martin Luther King Jr., holiday in 1986. The song appears on their album,
Live at Carnegie Hall (Flying Fish Records, 1988).
Listen to the song and read below:Dear Martin, Great God, my Lord what a morning Martin!The sun is rolling in from faraway places. I watch it reaching out, circling these bare trees like some reverent lover. I have been standing still listening to the morning, and I hear your voice crouched near hills, rising from the mountain tops, breaking the circle of dawn. You would have been 58 today.As I point my face toward a new decade, Martin, I want you to know that the country still crowds the spirit. I want you to know that we still hear your footsteps setting out on a road cemented with black bones. I want to know that the stuttering of guns could not stop your light from crashing against cathedrals chanting piety while hustling the world.Great God, what a country???The decade after your death docked like a spaceship on a new planet. Voyagers all we were. We were the aliens walking up the 70???s, a holocaust people on the move looking out from dark eyes. We were youngbloods, spinning hip syllables while saluting death in a country neutral with pain.And our children saw the mirage of plenty spilling from money mad sands. And they ran toward the desert. And the gods of sand made them immune to words that strengthen the breast. And they became scavengers walking on the earth.And you can see them playing. Hide-and-go-seek robbers. Native sons. Running on their knees. Reinventing slavery on asphalt. Peeling their umbilical cords for a gold chain.And you can see them on Times Square, in NYC, Martin, selling their 11-, 12-yeal orld, 13-, 14-year-old bodies to suburban forefathers. And you can see them on Market Street in Philadelphia bobbing up bellywise, young fishes for old sharksAnd no cocks are crowing on those mean streets.Great God, what a morning it???ll be someday Martin! That decade fell like a stone on our eyes. Our movements. Rhythms. Loves. Books. Delivered us from the night, drove out the fears keeping some of us hoarse. New births knocking at the womb kept us walking.We crossed the cities while a backlash of judges tried to turn us into moles with blackrobed words of reverse racism. But we knew. And our knowing was like a sister???s embrace. We crossed the land where famine was fed in public. Where black stomachs exploded on the world???s days while men embalmed their eyes and tongues in gold. But we knew. And our knowing squatted from memory.Sitting on our past, we watch the new decade dawning. These are strange days, Martin, when the color of freedom becomes disco fever; when soap operas populate our Zulu braids; as the world turns to the conservative right and general hospitals are closing in black neighborhoods and the young and restless are drugged by early morning reefer butts. And houses tremble.These are dangerous days, Martin, when cowboy-riding presidents corral Blacks (and others) in a common crown of thorns; when nuclear-toting generals recite an alphabet of blood; when multinational corporations assassinate ancient cultures while inaugurating new civilizations. Comeout comeout wherever you are. Waiting to be born.But, Martin, on this day, your 54th birthday???with all the reversals???we have learned that black is the beginning of everything. it was black in the universe before the sun; it was black in the mind before we opened our eyes; it was black In the womb of our mother; black is the beginning. and if we are the beginning we will be forever.Martin. I have learned too that fear is not a black man or woman. Fear cannot disturb the length of those who struggle against material gains for self-aggrandizement. Fear cannot disturb the good of people who have moved to a meeting place where the pulse pounds out freedom and justice for the universe.Now is the changing of the tides, Martin. You forecast it where leaves dance on the wings of man. Martin. Listen. On this your 54th birthday, listen and you will hear the earth delivering up curfews to the missionaries and the assassins. Listen. And you will hear the tribal songs:Ayeee Ayooooo AyeeeAyeee Ayooooo AyeeeMalcolm??? Ke wa rona*Robeson??? Ke wa ronaLumumba??? Ke wa ronaFannie Lou??? Ke wa ronaGarvey??? Ke wa ronaJohnbrown??? Ke wa ronaTubman??? Ke wa ronaMandela??? Ke wa rona(free Mandela,free Mandela!)Assata??? Ke wa ronaAs we go with you to the sun,as we walk in the dawn, turn our eyesEastward and let the prophecy come trueand let the prophecy come true.Great God, Martin, what a morning, it will be!*he is ours
Bambouche
1,484 Posts
Comments
Thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: one of the few people I can proudly call a hero. You will forever be remembered.
Rest In Peace Dr. King, may your spirit live on.
This is damn near prophetical...
"cowboy-riding?"
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.
Sweet Honey In The Rock - Live At Carnegie Hall
Yo Batmon, thanks for this.. today was amazing and this finished it off right.
I just heard on CNN that Obama is sending high level officials over to the white house as soon as he is done taking the oath and he will be headed directly there after his address.
HEY BUSH...
cant wait till tomorrow
rebirth of a nation
I'd just like to add that this isn't only an historic day for America, but for the rest of the world as well. Like many non-Americans, I will be watching the inauguration live this afternoon and quietly marvelling at the fact that, even in the midst of such gloom, hope is indeed alive. New directions, people, and about time.
EDIT: I just played this Sweet Honey joint in iTunes, and the shuffle threw up Sly's Dance To The Music right after it. That kind of serendipity never gets old to me.