No Wonder*
By Kenneth White
Copyright 2003 ~ Streetlight Publications.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare,
Isaiah 55:2
Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;22 "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge? Proverbs 1:20, 22
The answers to our questions exist.
I have seen them for myself.
Why do black folks seem to fulfill
the adage of cursing the darkness
but dismantling the lighthouse?
Why do we complain
about waning thoughts
in our Top 20 countdowns, box office sales
and shallow one-minute meditations
trying to impregnate open mics?
While Chicago brushes his fade,
draws blanks and shoots them,
can he truly sympathize with Iesha's
urgent cries for eargasms and poetic justice?
The answers to our hardships exist.
I have lived them for myself.
Disgruntled parents and frustrated activists
tell Ed Gordon and Tavis Smiley
about how they hope for more artists
to elevate solutions over problems.
It takes me less than two minutes
to remember numerous lyricists
who lack recognition yet lay
their hard knocks lessons
on the everlasting arms
which orchestrate
our very circumstances.
Do our activists really seek change?
Are these parents looking hard enough?
Who will step forth to challenge
popular falsehood which stretch
past Goliath proportions?
I have seen the horizons for myself,
so let wild style disciples who poplock
to "Chinese Arithmetic" on Sugar
and Cypress Hill now meet me
and other visionaries on Calvary's zenith.
May none of us buckle under pressure
as we yodel like Lauryn
that "fantasy is what we want,
but reality is what we need."
The answers to these mysteries exist.
I have sought them for myself.
It's a typical case of pursuing power and payment
while pretending to present a spark of concern
for artistic innovation in a runaway industry.
Even Jesus walked as a reject
among His own nation, refusing to meet
the public criteria of how they wanted
their anticipated Messiah
to think, behave and redeem.
Don't dismiss these concerns
as some conscious naivete.
I realize that creativity
and intelligent quests
will cut your ratings
and shrink your audience,
for deep within the human mind
dwells an ego which cringes
at the voice of Truth.
And if I am mistaken,
then someone tell me
why do we feel comfortable
sailing on midnight waves
isolated from the beams of the lighthouse?
Have you seen the beams for yourself?
Have you bathed in those rays for yourself?
No wonder things remain as they are,
but the Answer is the same:
yesterday, today and forever.
I have met Him for myself.
