let my country awake ____ AKSHR

Let my country awake

 

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,

Let my country awake.

Without thee, what were liberty but the gilded

Shadow of truth?

What were citizenship but a name,

A title without its substance? 

Let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee, let justice be

Naked before thine eyes and sin naked before the universe. 

Without thee what were virtue but a name,

A mask hiding hearts of greed? 

Let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee, 

let my country awake.

II

Here was a Whole

 

Let my country awake

I have been waiting for this

waiting for my own country to awake

to bring back the pain of history, the shock of truth

that stunned me as a child in church. 

The statues 

of white men with guns and crowns on their heads. 

The statues 

of black women holding baskets in their hands 

to show how they were used.

 

Let my country awake

and bring back the pain of history, the shock of truth

that stunned me as a child in church. 

The statues

of white men with guns and crowns on their heads. 

The statues

of black women holding baskets 

in their hands to show how they were used.

AKSHR

The Person Who Knows ____ AKSHR

The Person Who Knows

Every person I work with knows 

something better than me. 

My job is to listen long enough 

to find it and use it

 

My mother would like this porch swing,

this tree and that tree,

the sunlight leaning.

I am still enough

for a doe. Her white tail alert,

her soft eyes. She comes to me slowly,

places her head on the porch railing.

We look to understand each other. 

"You are sad," she says. I am sad.

____ AKSHR

 

 

 

No time to waste ____ AKSHR

No time to waste

 

Delay is time lost. Action is time saved

No time to waste

Action is time saved

I want to be amorphous.

To linger in my body  and not be held by it.

I want to be amorphous.

To linger in my body  and not be held by it.

I do not want a future that is predetermined

to have my life planned out for me

I want to be amorphous.

To linger in my body and not be held by it.

____ AKSHR

 

A true friend is not like the rain___ AKSHR _

A true friend is not like the rain

A true friend is not like the rain

which pours and goes away.

A true friend is like the air,

sometimes silent but always around you.

A true friend is the sun which

shines even on a cloudy day.

A true friend is like the flowers

which bloom in the springtime.

A true friend is not like the rain,

which needs a proper ending.

A true friend will be there for you

until the end of time.

__ AKSHR _

 

Why Ask and Smoke ____ AKSHR

Why Ask and Smoke

Every person I work with knows something better than me.

My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it

While I ask, my mouth and throat are full of smoke.

When I am asked, I must spit it out so as to answer.

Without the smoke there is nothing to say,

but without words I would not know where to look.

Without looking, I cannot find what I am looking for.

I cannot use what I cannot find,

so how can it be better than me?

It’s true that everyone knows something better than me

—but they don’t know how to listen.

____ AKSHR

 

The Hardest Waves I'm Ever Going to Not Be Able to Surf _____AKSHR

           The Hardest Waves I'm Ever Going to Not Be Able to Surf

 

Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength.

 

I am not a coward, but I have been scared of the ocean for as long as I can remember.

 

I am not a coward, but I have been scared of the ocean for as long as I can remember.

 

I am not a coward, but I have been scared of the ocean for as long as I can remember.

 

I am not a coward, but I have been scared of the ocean for as long as I can remember.

 

I am not a coward, but I have been scared of the ocean for as long as I can remember.

 _____AKSHR

 

Heart to Heart ____ AKSHR

Heart to Heart

 

What is the point of life if you are

not spending it with someone you love?

My heart is a chaste book of blank pages.

I write only in pencil and then erase it,

forgetting that love is the softest beast

that can be mislaid.

 

Love eludes me like a mirage:

You are not here. You are not there.

The bed is empty,

the sheets cold as an ocean floor

where phosphorescent creatures glow.

Without you, who am I?

A liar who has said the truth too many times?

What was my life lik before we met?

I was asleep but now I wake to our shared dream:

My heart beating inside your chest,

  your heart beating inside my chest.

 AKSHR

H