this is just part one… let’s call it the “Tao of /jb”

[Of course there’s going to be a couple typos … this was a straight shot on a very relaxed Sunday afternoon. & I know, I know… after completing the fco manuscript, I really have to go back and polish up on my formal writing skills. #thankGodforeditors. Had to train my brain to think, and write, soley in the Black vernacular, and in a style of writing where line breaks weren’t only centered on aesthetics, but breath /a smothered truth layered in oxygen – all which will be explained in the second part of this post.]

 

In 1962, James Baldwin wrote in The Creative Process, that “the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone … Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloness, for it is a knowledge which can paralyze all action in this world.”

And according to the Supreme Mathematics, wisdom is to speak, & act according to knowledge – while it has been previously stated that knowledge naturally paralyzes those with weak minds. Without wisdom, there is no understanding, and with out understanding one lacks culture (/shall never be free) – never mind obtaining the rest of life’s jewels [at this point I’d lose too many of ya’ll].

More recently in 2009, the RZA wrote about how “many cultures consider an island to be the ideal home. First, because you’re surrounded by water, which is life. Second, because you’re isolated from the masses, which allows you to find yourself, to develop inner strengths you couldn’t find anywhere else. An island shows you the true nature of life itself.”

It is in isolation that we find the true nature of life itself. Yet that average person fears being alone. No longer is conversation an art – phatic jibber jab has become the norm; even with oneself. The mind is a dangerous road to travel if unprepared. Especially with today’s gas prices. It’s easy to get lost /fall victim to desperation /live invisibly (just another mindless drone).

 

[the first draft of this I wrote directly on WordPress – even saving it every couple of minutes – and then mysteriously the next two paragraphs disappeared and I couldn’t retrieve em. I hate when that shit happens; especially when you were sorta feeling what you wrote. Well, here I go again. This is where I start to tie it all together ;)]

 

Can’t say that I learned much from my undergraduate classes. I mean certainly had a few (a very few) INCREDIBLE professors, who helped me get through it, but for the most part “school’s always has been some bullshit”. The University of Vermont certainly taught me what was expected of me from white people though; or maybe that was just Vermont in general (I was definitely privy to “my place in society” long before my teenage years). Even though I was light skin, just like up in St. Albans, those crackers down at Groovy UV expected me to know my place just like any other obsequious, big-lipped, nappy headed niggER. I was The Spook Who Sat by the door, patiently waiting, plotting revenge, mapping out the ultimate blueprint – & that’s exactly what I did. “As if the problem of racism outside of the academy isn’t enough, try thinking about the ways it has informed the very notion of academy and maintain a presence in our academic institutions through curricula, through instructors’ pedagogical practices, through symbolic structures like Standardized English. And that is sho nuff present all up in the classrooms” (Kevin Monroe (Writin da Funk Dealer).

 

Brother Shabazz wrote that we could do more damage with words, than anything physical (to these devils),  & sense words (/language) have sort of always been my thing, I spent my eight years of “higher education” focus on developing a style of writing that the world’s never seen. A Spartacus of literature.  Guess I’ve been in the gym, and at the firing range, during these past years too.

 

aight, this where i stop for now … next part addresses my formal writing skills, & also explains why i write in, & the importance of, Black English. it’s true, our language has it’s own syntax, and grammatical set of rules … & then there’s niggas like me with they MFA who choose not to capitalize certain things sometimes (which does have it’s significance if any of you un-edumacated muphuccas were wondering).

& please don’t ever forget.

first, & for most

I. Am. A. Poet.