SELECTED WRITING from 2009-2010 Outreach
Beat the Odds
By Jennifer Ballard (TAB South II family shelter)
From where I sit, what I see is…
A chance for me and my baby.
To beat the odds.
Go on with our life.
Letting nothing stop us.
Doing what it takes to make it out there in society.
Being the best single parent I can see.
Making a strong Black man out of my son.
Letting him know he can do all things.
He don’t have to make the same mistake I made.
As I Feel My Way
By Rekeyia Adams (It Takes A Village family shelter)
As I feel my way down the hall,
My stomach drops,
As I smell the odor of unsuccess,
And taste the stress as it falls from my hair.
My life looks completely dark from where I stand.
Everyone was just gathered around,
We were getting ready to taste…
As I sat up in my bed, I realized it was all a…
Dream.
The name of my poem is called: "My Poem"
Author & Shelter Unknown
Just like the caged bird sings, I leap, I leap, I leap for hope, I leap, I leap, I leap for joy. I leap for happiness that brings me to my feet when all of my sorrow is gone. There I will be leaping.
Truth
By Ramsey (TAB South I shelter)
Hi! My name is “Truth.”
I’m always around.
But sometimes I’m hidden.
And sometimes I’m a little bent out of shape.
I have a relative named “Lie.”
But it only comes around when I’m out of town.
When I get back home, “Lie” has my home in shambles.
So it’s up to me, “Truth,” to put everything back in order.
Depending on the damage “Lie” has done let's me know how much work I have to do.
After I’ve straightened out “Lie,” my world is at peace again.
Senses
Author & Shelter Unknown
Lately I’ve been trying to forget I have senses, it feels like – my senses are more than I can take. The cold bites right through my coat when I sleep outside, I eat without being hungry and try not to taste my food. It seems like all I’m touching are the slimy old bits of vegetable that get stuck in the drain of my sink. I guess what I’m saying is that I need spring. I need spring outside – warmth and light that don’t just disappear overnight – and I need to let it be spring for my senses. I think maybe I need to pause in my life, so they can see, taste, touch smell and hear some beauty in the world.
Future, Past
By Ashanti Williams (TAB South II family shelter)
(Future)
In the future
My heart will be happy
Clapping and humming songs of joy
No longer paranoid, annoyed, or just sore
My bank account?
Oh so serious – neva poor
Closet looking like a foot locker store
My kids – so famous – so rich
(Past)
That pain from when I was four
Daddy best friend knocking at my door
Or should I say busting in.
That was then
I was ten
Twenty-five now.
Twenty-five reasons how, why?
My life makes me feel high
My five month old and four year old
Can believe what they’re told
Precious, ambitious, religious and safe
From predators and those fakes
Keep your head up now
Say yes to Mom and no to drugs
No to thugs and yes to love
Love you
Love me
And be…….? Only God knows.
Lonesome
Author Unknown (It Takes a Village family shelter)
The first thing about being lonely is that you think it’s something you can control with positive thinking. You think: I’ll just fill this time I have to myself. You think: I can take care of myself. But when you’ve convinced yourself that you’re really not lonesome at all – that you’re all the company you need, ever – I advise you to watch yourself. Walking around, you’ll start having elaborate conversations with yourself, speaking aloud in funny fits and starts. When you go out in public, you’ll feel scorched by the presence of other people. Their eyes see you. Even if they aren’t exactly noticing you, you think you have become a part of their lives. You try to imagine yourself, and find that you can’t.
And then you are so lonesome you want to break.
Downtown
By Qwanda Kelly (TAB South II family shelter)
Downtown smells like food and gas and people walk in the summer moon.
No help no people no snow in the rain no more fall people.
I watch the dogs fall from the branch, oh, cat.
Double Minded Man
By Qwanda Kelly (TAB South II family shelter)
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Or is he? One minute you are in love, and the next you are not. Do you want to be wealthy? Maybe not, because the money goes on the stupidest things. Lies are the epitome of you. It’s not the essence of who you could really be. Are you a good man? Yes, but not really. A double minded man will stay in confusion. Get it together.
Many a Journey
By Lori (Ubuntu family shelter)
Many a journey we’ve traveled on the road.
As you help me carry life’s load.
You lead my direction and later
You’re part of my reflection.
You listen well, you’ve picked me up when I’ve fell.
You’re not of many words – but all advice heard.
You seem to know what I’m thinking at all times.
“Living in peace divine.”
When I walk looking down, you tell me
“Hold your head up – don’t frown.”
You’re here everyday, consoling in every way.
You’re beautiful to sight, even more so at night.
Precious to me you are because we’ve gone so far.
Sexy, caramel brown, with you I just want to hit the town.
You’re so long and thin, when I look at you I can’t help but grin.
I love the way you shine,
Uhm! You so fine.
You’re so gentle to the touch,
Wow, I love you so much.
With me you walk through the rain, feel my pain.
My tears often shower you
For that I’m sorry, Boo!
Women are jealous of what you do for me.
I tell you, “Let it be.”
As I stare at you, you stare back.
All I can say is haters,“Stop trying to get on my track.”
Even though you wiggle in a funny play,
You’re just perfect in every way.
Nothing but blessings
do I wish to my foes because
“You are my toes.”
Hopefully
By Keyvon (It Takes a Village family shelter)
Hope is the water that floats the boat of my life. Without hope, my life is the Titanic on the icy sea floor. The sea seems so vast and open, with no relief in sight. It rocks me to sleep on those cold lonely nights. When I am sad, a tear drop can fall into this and disappear. This lets me know hope is always near. When I think of all my problems in life, write them down, fold it into a paper boat and float it out. I hope it floats them away.
Stumped
By Sasha Adams (TAB South II family shelter)
As I sit here imagining ideas to wite on this blank sheet of paper, I come up with none.
So much that goes on throughout my day, but still I come up with nothing.
Is it that my mind is too cloudy with ideas to pick one, or too empty to come up with one?
Sitting here with nothing to write actually gave me something to write about.
Nothing?
I guess!
The Pain
By Sasha Adams (TAB South II family shelter)
The pain is real.
Can’t you feel it?
I awaiting someone, something to come and save me.
The pain is real.
Can’t you feel it?
Where is the source of this pain, where does it come from. LOVE.
The pain is real.
Can’t you feel it?
I love you so much it hurts to love you.
My heart is so fragile and I need you to comfort it.
The pain is real.
Can’t you feel it?
Bay, I really can’t be away that long only because our love is way strong.
You tell me that its okay to hurt, but why am I the only one hurting?
The pain is real.
Can’t you feel it?
The Big Man
By Michelle
(Mercy Housing Lakefront South Loop Apartments)
THE BIG MAN
BIGGER THAN EVER.
STRONGER THAN MIGHT.
ABLE THAN ANY MAN THAT WALK.
CAN NO ONE NOT PRAISE THE UPMOST HIGH.
WHAT PROBLEM THAT MAY OCCUR.
THE BIG MAN IS ABLE TO HANDLE.
KEEP A SMILE ON YOUR FACE.
THE SUPREME BEING IS ALWAYS THERE.
KNOW WITH-IN YOUR HEART HE’S
ALL WAYS SMARTER THAN YOU.
Delight in the Daylight
Anonymous Author (T.A.B. South family shelter)
There’s delight in daylight,
When the devil isn’t at the door.
Full of delirious, delicious dreamer’s talk –
There’s no devotion that wouldn’t be a delight.
Even dying – would I really be so distraught?
I want to drink down my destiny.
Then all this passes.
It turns to night.
I ‘m a diplomat again watching my own life –
The night has dropped down to bewilder me.
Faith
By LaCretia Reed
If we have faith in the power that God has given us, and fly like eagles, there’s nothing that we can’t do. Our ancestors should have convinced us that we are, and always will be, Kings and Queens.
Shelter
By Latoyrina Carter (T.A.B. South family shelter)
The shelter - what is a shelter
Why are we here we ask that question and nobody knows
we come we go but we leave we come we find are on we don’t
but in the end we in up back.
A poem what is a poem I ask why
do we write them what do they mean.
Before I Got Here
By Kristen (TAB South II family shelter)
Before I got here, I was lost
And I was determined to leave there at any cost.
Beyond being out of my mind with confusion,
My life could have been called “the big delusion.”
But now that I’m here, I’m on the right track,
And when I get clouded again, the only answer is to bounce back,
Keep the negativity away, keep a smile on my face.
All the good will fall right into place.
When I finally get there, all I’ll have to do is keep up the steady pace,
And when I look back there, I will have won the race.
Power to Change
Author & Shelter Unknown
If I was given the power to change, I would change their thinking, which controls everything else. If the thinking changes, conditions change. Like being a good person and caring for others. And when that changes, there’s no end to what to change. And then, a connection is made, harmony is born, and we all are one.
Better at the End
Author & Shelter Unknown
There is a lost cold world and lost faces many of tears and fears nowhere to hide from fear nobody to care about the simple emotions. Days become nights and nights become days a place with every step comes a slip or a constant shiver. The pain and intensity of each heartbeat becomes the loss of every hope and dream. And all the old familiar ways and faces become a far away distance from reality. From the four seasons to the heart that disbelieved, there can be only joy and hope. Then, suddenly, rain turns into sunshine and the world takes a smooth rotation – no more rocky roads, no more hidden or forbidden ghost. The world now doesn’t seem so cold anymore – the rapid warmth of the sun reveals all the treasures of love, hope, and devotion. Like a fairy tale, it all starts off bad in the beginning, the worst in the middle, and better at the end.
SELECTED WRITING from 2008-2009 Outreach
Haiku
By Lita King
Thump tha-thump…palpitations…
I gasp for breath.
The rhythm of the bongo.
Raindrops…warm, flowing
I walk slowly in them. “I can’t!”
They are my tears.
Winter
By Waltarsha Jackson
You look into sky and mostly all the birds are flying south
You can feel the shakes and shivers like we in the North Pole
Basically ever car headlights are covered with icicles
Many of streets are so slippery
The trees are covered with patterns of white flakes
Children are riding the hills on sleighs and creating
A new frosty
The fireplace keeps sparkling firewood as it blazes arise
Thicker clothes are needed before we go outside –
The excitement of the different color light that shine
in the window or on a tree
The beauty of the cold midnight sky
The twinkle of the frosty stars higher above the earth
The strong sound of the wind twirling and spinning rapidly
The education of what below zero means
The reality of what warmth truly means
All these things occur in the wintertime
Legacies
By Felicia Lea
Both of my grandmothers are legacies because they both raised me and my siblings. They taught me how to do everything, as well as my mom, so I guess I see three people as my legacies. I believe everybody has a legacy, whether they are famous or just ordinary people. One of my grandmothers has passed on, God rest her soul, but her legacy lives on through her family and that is my mother’s mother, Willie Ruth Echols. I miss her smile, her touch, her voice, everything. She was one of the best women in my family beside my other grandmother, Sevella Mae Lea, who is still living. God has blessed her with longevity in life. I have been blessed to have her around still. I also still have my mom, Earnestine Thomas. She is my support system when I am down. God bless her. Also I am glad to have been around to share the time and space with them. I just want to say thank you.
Dream
By ShaRon Jones
I dream that I’m not here.
I dream that all the pain could go away
Also has dreams have never come true
As I sit here dreaming it seem
Like the pain is slowly going away
for yet space for something else to
dream about.
If I could dream about the past,
I’d be a sad person
If I could see the “future” then maybe
all my dreams would be over
If I dream about tomorrow then
what would really happen
But as far as I know dreaming is
for believers & seekers
But for me I just want this dream
to be pain free.
Why Is Sorrow My Best Friend
By Kristen Jefferson
Why is sorrow my best friend
Every time I look up it’s back again
Why is sorrow my best friend
I blame myself that our relationship ever began
Throwing pity parties for your self is never right
Because trying to look ahead your days won’t be bright
You look forward to sulking, being moody and downright down
What’s the point of walking around with a continuous frown
Why did I ever let sorrow attach itself to me
Because I wanted to be blinded and not properly see
But I’m distancing myself now and trying hard to be strong
And yes I know that this is the way I should’ve been all along
Sunshine is ready to beam down on me
It’s time for me to go ahead and just let it be
Why was sorrow ever my best friend
I can’t really answer that but I’m glad our relationship is about to end
Maturity
by Faheemah Aneesah Askia
Many many years ago
I was shown the way to go
But I just laughed and walked
away. As the time went by, I
discovered that I was wrong.
I could not face another day.
Thank God for maturity.
It enables us to know when
we’re facing the wrong way.
And to hold our sign saying the
right way. Yield!
The View
By Melissa Benson
From where I sit, what I see is
the world pass me by. The hungry child cry for
more…please may I have some, please.
The single mother sigh…why God why?
Do I have to fight this all alone?
A lost soul trying to find their way home.
In this cold world with no house of my own…
When the sun rises to the east and I
rise to my feet and look at the walls
surrounding me I can’t breathe…
Is this all a dream
or maybe a nightmare. I want to
wake up now but don’t know how.
From where I sit, what I see is the
future in front of me the past
behind and the present a gift
untold.
The Next Four Years: November 5, 2008
By Anavia Davidson
What I believe will happen now that Barack Obama is president is thatthe U.S. will make a big turnaround. Those that thought theywasn't going to make it in life thinks, and some knows, that they canmake it now. The economy is going to be back on track over aperiod of time, health insurance won't break us as much, the singleparents that doesn't abuse the system is going to get betterassistance, those that want to further their education can go as far asthey want to go. The guns is going to vanish. Basically tome now that Obama is president, those that really want to be stable inall aspects of their life, they can, because 11-4-08 we saw changebeing made and if Obama can work hard so can we. The harder youstrive and work hard, live right, stay stress-free, eat right, treatpeople in a humble manner, and most of all pray, everything is going tobe just fine.
Alone in My Space
By Mark Jones
I'm having a pity party alone in my space
Tears wet my face
Rick is gone off the line
His heart popped
His body stopped
I feel like I've been dropped
Just yesterday I gave him a dollar
I still owe him five
We were friends who started out
Fighting each other
How can you love someone
You didn't like
Truth is hungry men find ways
To feed themselves
You can't fight and feed yourself
You can do anything if you have help
Rick and I made money together
Passed money between each other
Worked well together
Now I have to go on without him
Carry him inside me
Make him proud of me
One day I will be with him
Today is not my turn
Tears wet my face
Rick is gone
I'm having a pity party alone in my space
