Category Archives: iWRITE: rhythm & life

Poetry of all types. No rules, rhymed and unrhymed.

“The Life that Songs Unlocked” Project

January 31, 2014

Music is a necessary evil for me.

In fact, right after a need to write/create, music is something that sustains and satiates like nothing else can. It provides the only time in my life where I can totally let go, and not think, just be.

I…NEED…MUSIC.

I’ve been a writer since forever and have grown to incorporate all different types of the form, into my comfort zone. Writing is so much of my life in fact, that I can almost pinpoint when I met groupings of friends and associates–by what type of writing they best know me for.

Over the past three to four years, I’ve moved away from poetry, and on to more prose. But even with one huge undertaking that I’m currently working on, I always think back to poetry. It’s like a craving that I can’t quite squelch.

I…NEED…to WRITE.

In the creative process, I’m a huge proponent of not forcing things. So in my attempt to reconnect with poetry, I revisited a project that I’ve been thinking of doing for over ten years.

MUSIC x WRITING

My idea was to take an album, that I was a huge fan of, and break it down track by track. Using each song as a topic for a poem. The original album all those years ago was going to be Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite. But of course I wasn’t satisfied with that idea. I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted something outside of my usual.

Enter, Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life”. Widely revered as one of the most complete pieces of work in the history of music. Now I’m not the biggest Stevie Wonder aficionado by any stretch. But I’m more than understanding of the man’s genius. And I’ve heard “Songs in the Key of Life”, countless times. Yet I never really LISTENED to it. Which made it the perfect choice.

Not being the poet I used to be, I decided to break the double album down into it’s 4 Disc cd form. Will I ever complete the full monty of this work? Who knows. But this is at the least my best shot at a start. So without further adieu, I present…

“The Life that Songs Unlocked” Project | part One (click below)

Love’s in Need of Love Today
Have a Talk With God
Village Ghetto Land
Contusion
Sir Duke

=============
“The Life that Songs Unlocked” Project | part One

:: contusion ::

January 31, 2014

superficial wounds
are not meant to hinder us
but to teach lessons

=============

“The Life that Songs Unlocked” Project | part One
As inspired by Stevie Wonder’s iconic, “Songs in the Key of Life” (1976), contains quoted material that is the sole intellectual property of Stevie Wonder. All rights reserved.

:: have a talk with God ::

January 31, 2014

the present day

contrary to popular belief,
is not as different as some feel
just different in how it is presented,
the difference, are those dealing in the present

our way has been lost,
you can pick and choose why
but somewhere along the line we…
simply forgot the means to which they got by

regardless of race
gender, sexual preference
or socio-economic status, they…
those that came before us, persevered

times have always been hard
and today’s struggle pales to the passed past,
but somehow some way, we are here through their efforts
and it does not take a scholar to determine, how

you come from indentured servitude,
you come from the sacrifice of life
for the mere opportunity of the promise for a better future,
you come from a lineage of people who accomplished more, with far less

yet you, I, we, all are at fault for empty complaints of nothingness

a lack of appreciation for what we have versus the alternative

accepting fear while shunning their passed on undying faith

rewriting a fate co-authored by the opposite of giving up

“there are people who have let the problems of today
lead them to conclude that for them life is not the way
but every problem has an answer and if yours you cannot find
you should talk it over to Him
he’ll give you peace of mind
when you feel your life’s too hard
just go have a talk with God”

=============
Copyright ©2014 by J.S. Atkins for Running Likwid Works

:: love’s in need of love today ::

January 3, 2014

we,
is a euphemism

are we offended
by the thought of togetherness

proper syntax be damned
when our reality is,
we
just don’t like one another

we,
hate the thought of love
yet,
love the thought of hate

so much so that we’ve embraced the idiocy behind
“if you’re not being hated, you’re not doing it right”

love’s in need of love today, like no time ever before seen

seeing scenes of negativity
relatively live in anti-ambiguity
on the medium we choose to be entertained by,
in what seems like perpetuity

layman’s

we need love more than ever
when the images we love to see
are the antithesis of love…see,
how’s that for reality tv

they script for your perusal
what excites and moves you,
initiating foreplay on the energy
that is carnal and easy to access

further removing what is attainable
positive and gainful
leaving you feeling as though
love no longer exists, kinda like recess

the abscess of this self-loathing, can be filled if we allow it

are we offended
by the thought of togetherness

is we,
a euphemism

proper syntax be damned
if you hate improper english
more than you love the thought
of repairing society’s impact on a collective we

“hate’s goin’ round, breaking many hearts
stop it please, before it’s gone too far”

well no braille is needed to read the writing on the wall
for a prophet spoke of what was known then, not wondered
we can be…individually…happy
“right away, just give the world love”

=============
Copyright ©2014 by J.S. Atkins for Running Likwid Works

:: village ghetto land ::

December 18, 2013

this land is your land
it was never my land,
from the Watts towers
to vacant Barry Farms land

the chilled ran
amuck,
birthed from homes
of fatherless woes man

leaving the children to run amuck,
birthed from homes absent of, a man

re-threading the spinning wheel
weaving a cycle of thicker fabric,
penetrating hopes of positivity
with unprotected hardened symbols, phallic

causing excuses to become reality,
hiding the hands of those responsible
while the victims embrace misgivings,
rendering any good favor, disabled

and the affluenza infected affluent
fauxly feign ignorance, viewing them, us, we but never they…incorrigible

well walk a mile in their over priced re-released J’s
shun their children and consume your own poison,
that which decades later still originates in your labs
before finding it’s way into those society’s persons

for it is your media and your mainstream proliferation of your money
that strengthens the power you wield in your hands,
and sadly I have to applaud your cleverly disguised actions
for it’s good business, to happily supply what everyone demands

“now some folks say that we should be, glad for what we have
tell me, would you be happy…in Village Ghetto Land”

=============
Copyright ©2013 by J.S. Atkins for Running Likwid Works

:: sir duke ::

December 17, 2013

it’s
like
love

unexplainable
indescribable
an entity all it’s own

it’s
like
life

for some
there’s no existence
without it

it’s
like
laughter

essential
in it’s healing
and mood altering ability

it’s
like
links

between here and now
the present and the future
the backdrop for all we are and ever will be

it’s
like
links to the laughter found while enjoying a life of love

it
is,
music

“you can feel it all over, you can feel it all over people
you can feel it all over, you can feel it all over people”

2:16

June 7, 2012

I have cried
been pissed off
laughed uncontrollably,
been worried to no end
and felt pride unbeknownst to me,
chastized and lectured
tickled and joked endlessly
helped and reassured
protected that which is a part of me,
I am amazed everyday
at the young man that you are,
born into a world of confusion
yet destined to be a star
or at least so I hope,
so I guide but never push
allow you to find your way
but show exits to lifes pending ambush,
my expectations are high
and at times I know I’m hard
my intent is never malicious
and you’ve navigated me well thus far,
you are my promise unfulfilled
reflecting all that I could be
seven years ago on this day

you resurrected all that is good in me

(thank you)

:: bohemians & jacuzzis ::

June 4, 2012

wild like sockets disturbed by unaware fingers

your mane rests pon your head
like an au natural crown,
as the rest of you is covered laughingly
in less fabric than the mesh wrapped around me
I’ve died for the third time, while thinking of the possibilities
that lie at the root of your womanhood, between those thighs and that seat
attached to that ass
which is bait
to all of whom pass
yet at this moment
is off duty, resting
at the bottom of
this jaccuzzi

bubbles bounce all around me or better yet that of we

as blood boils inside to match the heat of that out,
visions of raised voices
yours
shout through my cognitions,
igniting mental emissions of kissing lips that pout
pucker in flushed anticipation
choking off all conversation from tasting that sweetness
that doesn’t come from your mouth,
making those thick tresses dutty wine all about
as I dive face first pon de river down south,
swimming up stream
against your current conjuring steam
until I sustain most of my urges at the precipice of eve’s seem

my bohemian queen, thou that graces me with your presence

this setting is nothing short of an invitation into your presents… please allow me to, unwrap you in the present

to be cont’d

:: timberlands (from where I’m from) ::

December 21, 2011

I come from a place
where the grind is real
from a time
where the shine had actual appeal
when you hustled 4 survival, got stamped with the hood’s seal
not 4 a misguided attempt at acquiring a record deal
when you actually had to be
in order to walk like you were hard
when the space between your leg and your denim was kinda far
and the women chose you from the dirt that you did
not because you both could shop together inside gap kids,
we were young and dumb too
all about money, hoes and cars
but we were closer to the real niggas
that you all scream that you are
and our movements spoke this truth
our “swag” created the term
its like we were the afro
and y’all are the conkalene perm,
we were the movers and the shakers, the dealers that got it in
and y’all make it seem as though using is truly what’s in,
we were thermals in the winter, scully’s and heavy leather
y’all are saggin’ skinny jeans that huddle together in bad weather
I relate to quiet dudes that actually get shit done
even the brash and over the top type, that got shit done
not shit talkers that @ dudes and tweet they disses
them hiding behind the spacebar, smartphone misses
you’re lost
just like we were, but nothing you do is genuine
this is just my opinion, so if this ain’t you, stay out your feelings
we got high bruh for real, chiefin into the am
y’all fucking with that ex shit, rollin’, tappin’ into your feelings

I come from a place and time
where our ignorance came with a purpose
I watch the shit y’all do
and wonder, what the fuck was the purpose

those of us that grew up from that,
I like where we are man
there was substance in our bullshit
not just senseless happenstance,
short and sweet
your Nike boots are cool,
but they lack the soul of my Timberlands
and I own a pair of the swooshes
but they don’t define where I’m from or how I stand

TIMBER… land

catch yourself

Protected: :: weekend :: << THROWBACK

August 30, 2011