Blackbutterfly Soul Songs Read online

Unable to receive

  The present love and joy

  And chose the lesser

  Always experiencing

  The greater

  At the end

  Of the world

  Whenever

  You let go.

  Prognosis

  Some people have to be tied

  Up in a nice neat little bundle

  With a bow on it

  Before they can relax

  With an empty box on the inside.

  Kujichagalia: Self-Determination

  You beat us until we get tired

  Tired of fighting your old systems, new laws,

  Tired of being supreme courted in, and covenanted out

  Tired of pretending we’re beating the man

  When we know we are flogging a dead horse.

  Tired of waiting for tomorrow

  For tomorrow came yesterday.

  Tired of being polled, statisticized, and categorized

  Like how much surplus corn and cotton will rot this year.

  Tired of being the first to serve their country

  And the last to be serviced by theirs.

  Tired of not being satisfied with seconds

  When contentment with the best comes just as easily.

  Tired of your plotting the course and telling me who I am

  When it’s time for you to look at yourself.

  If Educate

  If educate

  So you say

  Means to draw out

  Then I have not

  At all been taught

  The thing that lives inside of me

  The thing that dies a silent death

  From want of outer expression

  So I reject your traditions, histories and holydays

  And like a new country, incorporate my own

  And let me be the one

  Who toils or spoils my land

  Because I am the master of my soul

  I must dare to be as bold

  As the sun that crosses the morning sky

  Spread my wings of wisdom and fly

  Away from the illusions and the strife

  End the separation and become love and life

  Back to my center and the wise women’s way

  Hearing soul’s cry and saying “yes” today.

  Stop and Begin Again

  Stop and begin again

  This time to win

  For you have another chance

  ’Cause life is like a dance.

  For if you miss the spin

  Start all over again

  You will have another term

  To stand tall and firm.

  Move with a new tune

  On the sure foot you’ll soon

  Find the light from above

  And perform the dance of love.

  So step right up to the bar

  Be the bright shining star

  Know the flow you seek

  Has risen from the deep.

  So stop blaming

  Stop shaming

  Stop framing

  Stop gaming

  Stop and begin again

  Right now.

  reflections

  traveling afar

  or up close and personal

  both reflecting soul

  returns home to unity

  love bringing a path of grace

  Part IV

  Soul Awareness

  evolution

  soul light clears the past

  streaming through eternity

  made to feel happy

  accepting joy and long life

  the revolution has come

  Meeting the Ancestors

  Meditation helped me to connect with the powerful, sacred knowledge and truth of the spiritual realm. My re-newed commitment to better understand life and my soul opened my spiritual eyes and ears. Acknowledging and honoring the voice during meditation led to ‘meeting the ancestors’. “Meeting the ancestors” means making contact with recent and ancient deceased family members through genealogical examination, collecting family histories, starting a family tree, gathering their pictures, setting up a sacred space for them and including them in regular recognition and remembrance.

  Ancestor reverence, misunderstood as ancestor worship, is a sacred tradition in many parts of the world. The practice is prevalent throughout AfRaKa and the Diaspora-South America, Cuba, the West Indies, China, Europe, Japan, India, Indonesia, Burma, Philippines and Thailand. It is prevalent throughout the Native Americans, Christians, Catholics and the Islamic community. Each culture has its own set of ancestors, heroes and practices of soul for honoring them.

  The ancestors represent our family bloodline and extended community. This include our living and dead-great-great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, community leaders and all of us. These connections form an unbroken link of protection, support and guidance from all the way back as we travel forward through life. Remembering their courage and wisdom, attending them and communicating with them assure their continuance and enliven the soul.

  According to Malidoma Some, in The Healing Wisdom of Africa, “The ancestors are our extended family and we are under their guidance and supervision. They may possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. The purpose of ancestral reverence is to give strong ancestral support that provides for good fortune by honoring them on a regular basis.” P. 14 (6.)

  Adhering to the voice of the ancestors led to the opening of great channels of divine wisdom and healing in me. This knowledge connected me with a powerful ancestral heritage. I let go of the idea of using three-dimensional thinking to describe multidimensional experiences. Becoming less dependent upon the good opinion of others allowed my consciousness to unfold. I began to have experiential contact with angels, deities, oracles and other multidimensional beings, spirits and worlds. My conceptual framework, hierarchy maintenance and personal sense of reality expanded exponentially.

  This particular story of how the ancestors involved themselves in daily living must be told. Their wisdom, contributions and demonstrations are illegitimatized and marginalized in Western canon. Knowledge of the ancestors remains untaught. These feats are left out of the educational design of academia, the institutions, instructions and textbooks Thus, veiled and muted, their participation in the lived lives of their descendants go unrecognized and unappreciated. I cannot tell my soul journey without including them. Their voices speak to me quietly and privately in my daily activity. I am now a voice to speak for them, openly and publically.

  Study revealed that early AfraKans had observed and knew there is a harmonious interrelation in all nature. They understood also that in the multiplicity of life, there is unity. Enslavement in the West, lost of memory of their God, land, language, dehumanization and generational brainwashing forced them to almost forget their connection with nature. The cruel system had tried to drive the ancient knowledge out of them, but the ancient wisdom survived.

  I realized later, that my ancestors and my parents, although enslaved and later restrained in a strange land, had integrated their AfRaKan spiritual practice in Christianity. The spirit possession, the use of the spiritual leader-the preacher for translating and prophesying messages from the other world, the spiritual songs, the rhythmic clapping and dancing continue in our diasporic living. My earlier participation in speaking in tongues, shouting and spirit dancing foreshadowed a return to a spiritual tradition that began thousands of years ago.

  Strident research and deep participatory practices launched my life to unimagined terrains of ancient ancestral knowledge. Ifa is one of the spiritual practices that provides me with deep insights which awakened my forgotten ancestral memory a
nd returned me back to ancient principles for living. We all have ancestors, but many people do not include them in their daily living. It is recommended that you consult a seasoned ancestor practitioner as you began the serious path of contacting and honoring your ancestors. They are waiting to provide guidance and gifts for us, but they have to be recognized and acknowledged.

  Home at Last

  I have arrived

  I am home.

  I am here now

  To further progression

  For I have been here before

  And continue to assume many forms

  Opening right eye and full heart

  To be oneness.

  I am the ocean

  I am the wave

  I am that which is

  I am that which is not

  I am God’s hand

  Making known that

  Which is unknowable.

  I see through

  The eyes of God

  I look around and see the glory of God

  And see that reflection of me.

  I am that which I see,

  I am that which I can not see

  I am the former rejection of

  The reflection

  Of that perfection.

  Sanctuary

  I am safe now

  I am not alone here

  In this moment

  There is no thing that can

  Separate your presence

  Is an eternal reminder

  That I am

  Your life

  It is mine

  And I am it.

  The two are one

  Always has been

  Since creation.

  Gladden

  I am not mad

  I am not mad anymore

  I am not sad

  I am not sad anymore

  I am no longer sore.

  For the lie I believed

  Replaced by the truth I received

  Now dwells

  Forever more

  Deep in the core for

  Soul’s awakening

  Has purged the heart

  Of the old worn-out thought

  That served old purposes

  Anger and hurt

  Mad and sad

  No longer required

  Alchemical change

  Feelings and emotions

  Transmuted into light

  Made me glad.

  Healing

  Sitting in the

  Stillness of being

  Speaking words to me

  Of truth and love

  Ancestral healing

  The seemingly brokenness

  That ego uses to

  Shroud essence.

  In the stillness of being

  Hearing my soul whispering

  Words of strength to me

  I am dumb with humility

  For who can speak when

  The voice of wisdom fills the temple?

  Reborn into newness

  I am made whole.

  Relax

  I can slow down now for

  I no longer have to

  Feel good about being efficient

  Because I have tapped into the

  One who is the efficiency expert.

  And as I let go,

  Of being Little Miss Perfect,

  It perfects

  All for me.

  Communion

  While sitting in the

  Stillness of being

  Ancestral energies

  Speaking words to me

  From Jehuti and Maat

  Of truth and love

  Heals that seeming brokenness

  A mask used to

  Hide my soul and

  Attempt to do the impossible

  Separate self from Self.

  They be loving us

  As they commune

  And in that exchange

  They teach us to love ourselves.

  Sounds of Freedom

  O’ the sounds of freedom

  Rings in my soul

  O’ the sounds of freedom

  Has made me whole.

  O’ the sounds of praise

  Lifts up the soul

  O, the sounds of praise

  Love is no longer cold.

  Heaven

  Wisdom

  Truth

  Have come within

  Lit the temple

  With sacred light

  Shining brighter

  Everyday

  Love that heals

  The soul

  Unbroken

  For it is the love

  From which

  All enfolds

  O’ the sounds of love

  Rings in my heart

  O’ the sounds of love

  Each beat a new start!

  Soul Laughing

  There is a soul inside of me

  And she’s laughing

  There is a soul inside of me

  And she’s laughing.

  There is a soul inside of me

  And she’s laughing

  There is a soul inside of me

  And she’s laughing.

  And she’s laughing because

  She’s free.

  She’s laughing ’cause

  She’s hearing

  She’s laughing ’cause

  She’s seeing

  She’s laughing ’cause

  She’s knowing

  She’s laughing ’cause

  She’s receiving

  She’s laughing because she’s free.

  Soul Secrets

  I sit here smiling

  Knowing that you love me

  Because in the center

  Of that recognition

  Sits the source of that wisdom

  And in the awareness

  We become conscious of the secret

  That sits in the center

  Is our higher Self.

  Sun Son

  It is good for the son to be outside

  To receive the light of the sun

  It is good for the son to be inside

  To receive the energy of the sun

  The sun gives to the son

  The son receives the Sun

  The sun’s rays reflect on the son

  The son is a reflection of the sun

  The son is feminine

  The sun is masculine

  The son and the sun are one

  The son, the sun and I are one.

  Soul’s I AM’s

  I AM Self-Referenced

  I AM Self-Loved

  I AM Self-Unified

  I AM Self-Centered

  I AM Self-Created

  I AM the Soul

  I AM the Love

  I AM the Light

  I AM the Will

  I AM the Fixed Design

  I AM Truth

  I AM Love

  I AM One

  I AM Centered

  I AM Creation

  I AM

  I AM soul singing

  I AM

  I AM life

  I AM

  I AM life singing soul song.

  I AM

  I AM soul

  I AM

  I AM one with soul

  I AM

  I AM soul’s desire

  I AM soul’s desire for love

  I AM

  I AM love

  I AM

  I AM soul love

 
I AM

  I AM truth

  I AM

  I AM soul truth

  I AM

  I AM truth from on high

  I AM

  I AM one

  I AM

  I AM one with the elements

  I AM

  I AM Soul’s Song

  I AM

  Soul and I AM.

  Nina, Girl on a String

  Opening your eyes you’ll be able to see

  You are your own destiny

  You have finally returned home

  No more need to roam.

  Searching wildly for yourself

  On someone else’s book shelf

  You were the girl dangling on a crumbling string

  Grasping for love with a broken wing.

  Suspended in darkness crashing toward earth

  Seeking for approval and finding a new birth

  So long blind, deaf and dumb

  Like, dogs living on the master’s crumb.

  Now longer shackled and bound

  The wandering soul is found

  Turned the feeble string into an iron spine

  Overcoming despair crossed the winner’s line.

  Swirling around, dancing with glee

  Your soul has now been set free

  The strong chain now a chain of love

  Reaching up to heaven above.

  Nina, forever a vessel of unity and light

  An awakened soul on a purposeful flight

  Powerful and determined, courageous and bold

  Nina, the girl on a string, now a chain of pure gold.

  Soul Daughter

  Born with a veil on her face