This poem by Saul Williams is rich in poetic imagery. Further, his dramatic delivery adds to the entire thrust of the poem and gives voice to the pulsating freedom that it represents. It begins as declarative statement in conventional form. It is like a the preamble to a constitution that eventually falls to the floor as he taps into the consciousness of the gestalt the artistic impulse of humanity.His homage to all those who stood for what he is giving voice to is like a secular litany of the saints.
The declaration falling to the floor as the poem continues its flow dramatically captures the fact that the artistic spirit transcends and continues well beyond the reified formulations that attempt to capture it and freeze it in time.
I have included the text here but the visual is well worth the four minutes even if it is slightly halting in places.
Whereas break beats have been the missing link
Connecting the Diasporic community to its drum woven past
Whereas the quantized drum has allowed the whirling
Mathematicians to calculate the ever changing distance
Between rock and stardom
We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing
Standards of dialog, statements such as 'Keep it real'
Especially when punctuating or anticipating modes
Of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically or depicting
An unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as retro-active
And not representative of the individually determined is
Motherfuckers better realize now is the time to self-actualize
Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face
Of the unchanging the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth
Equate rhyme with reason, sun with season, reject mediocrity
Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that
Which as been given for you to understand
The current standard is the equivalent
Of an adolescent restricted to the diet of an infant
The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional
And deformative symptoms and could not properly mature
On a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears
Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness
The role of darkness is not to be seen as or equated with ignorance
But with the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen
Thus, in the name of
Robeson, God's Son, Hurston, Ahkenaton
Hathsheput, Blackfoot, Helen, Lennon, Khalo
Kali, The Three Maria's, Tara, Lilithe, Lourde
Whitman, Baldwin, Ginsberg, Kaufman, Lumumba
Ghandi, Gibran, Shabazz, Shabazz, Siddhartha
Medusa, Guevara, Gurdsieff, Rand, Wright, Banneker
Tubman, Hamer, Holiday, Davis, Coltrane
Morrison, Joplin, Dubois, Clarke, Shakespeare
Rachmninov, Ellington, Carter, Gaye, Hathoway
Hendrix, Kutl, Dickerson, Ripperton, Mary, Isis
Theresa, Hensbury, Justlove, Plath, Rumi, Fellini
Michaux, Nostradamus, Nefertiti, La Rock, Shiva
Ganesha, Yemaja, Oshun, Obatala, Ogun, Kennedy
King, Four Little Girls, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Keller
Biko, Perone, Marley, Magalin, Cosby, Shakur
Those who burnt, those still aflamed and the countless unnamed
We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun
We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us
We are determining the future at this very moment
We now know that the heart is the philosophers' stone
Our music is our alchemy, we stand as the manifested
Equivalent of three buckets of water and a hand full of minerals
Thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down
Supply the percussion factor of forever, if you must count
To keep the beat then count
Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious
Curve you circles counterclockwise, use your cipher to decipher
Coded Language, man made laws, climb waterfalls and trees
Commune with nature, snakes and bees let your children
Name themselves and claim themselves as the new day, for today
We are determined to be the channelers of these changing
Frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama
Photography, carpentry, crafts, love and love, we enlist every instrument
Acoustic, electronic every so called race, gender and sexual preference
Every person as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility
To uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain
The declaration falling to the floor as the poem continues its flow dramatically captures the fact that the artistic spirit transcends and continues well beyond the reified formulations that attempt to capture it and freeze it in time.
I have included the text here but the visual is well worth the four minutes even if it is slightly halting in places.
Whereas break beats have been the missing link
Connecting the Diasporic community to its drum woven past
Whereas the quantized drum has allowed the whirling
Mathematicians to calculate the ever changing distance
Between rock and stardom
We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing
Standards of dialog, statements such as 'Keep it real'
Especially when punctuating or anticipating modes
Of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically or depicting
An unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as retro-active
And not representative of the individually determined is
Motherfuckers better realize now is the time to self-actualize
Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face
Of the unchanging the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth
Equate rhyme with reason, sun with season, reject mediocrity
Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that
Which as been given for you to understand
The current standard is the equivalent
Of an adolescent restricted to the diet of an infant
The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional
And deformative symptoms and could not properly mature
On a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears
Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness
The role of darkness is not to be seen as or equated with ignorance
But with the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen
Thus, in the name of
Robeson, God's Son, Hurston, Ahkenaton
Hathsheput, Blackfoot, Helen, Lennon, Khalo
Kali, The Three Maria's, Tara, Lilithe, Lourde
Whitman, Baldwin, Ginsberg, Kaufman, Lumumba
Ghandi, Gibran, Shabazz, Shabazz, Siddhartha
Medusa, Guevara, Gurdsieff, Rand, Wright, Banneker
Tubman, Hamer, Holiday, Davis, Coltrane
Morrison, Joplin, Dubois, Clarke, Shakespeare
Rachmninov, Ellington, Carter, Gaye, Hathoway
Hendrix, Kutl, Dickerson, Ripperton, Mary, Isis
Theresa, Hensbury, Justlove, Plath, Rumi, Fellini
Michaux, Nostradamus, Nefertiti, La Rock, Shiva
Ganesha, Yemaja, Oshun, Obatala, Ogun, Kennedy
King, Four Little Girls, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Keller
Biko, Perone, Marley, Magalin, Cosby, Shakur
Those who burnt, those still aflamed and the countless unnamed
We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun
We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us
We are determining the future at this very moment
We now know that the heart is the philosophers' stone
Our music is our alchemy, we stand as the manifested
Equivalent of three buckets of water and a hand full of minerals
Thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down
Supply the percussion factor of forever, if you must count
To keep the beat then count
Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious
Curve you circles counterclockwise, use your cipher to decipher
Coded Language, man made laws, climb waterfalls and trees
Commune with nature, snakes and bees let your children
Name themselves and claim themselves as the new day, for today
We are determined to be the channelers of these changing
Frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama
Photography, carpentry, crafts, love and love, we enlist every instrument
Acoustic, electronic every so called race, gender and sexual preference
Every person as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility
To uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain
Any utterance unaimed will be disclaimed
Will be named Two Rappers Slain
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