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A Missed Opportunity

Have you ever felt a warm glow fade?
Once bright as a star gone supernova!
The heat was a soothing bathe.

Illumination began at your fingertips
Then spread throughout your entire being
As the energy of the moment electrified…
And glorified the position you were in.

But then you noticed the aura
That encircled you started to diminish
As the warmth turned to cold
The lightning within become a faint spark.

Then… nothing.

The experience had passed you by.
Although you reached out for it
You never grasped and held on for dear life.

Now looking down at your fingertips
You see the faint glow has disappeared.

You are left standing alone…

Alone with the fading memory of the glorious possibility
That was in the midst of an Ordinary day - now gone.

Caged Soul

A caged soul will always try to break free. Because TRUE FREEDOM is why the soul was created. Against all odds and security the soul will run. Although it gets tired and injured time and again. Even when faced with death the caged soul that can taste freedom and smell its beautiful fragrance – although it can’t be seen as of yet – if the caged soul can do this and imagine the warmth of the Son’s rays on its face and the Spirit’s wind rushing across its back – it will face death head on being unafraid. Because the prospect of freedom has become real. And the result in life or in death will be the same…

The earth will fall away, along with the cage, as gravity can hold down no longer the once caged soul that is now Freedom.

Slavery

No one can see the bars and chains
Nor feel the weight of the surrounding enclosures
No one can sense the isolation that is present in me.

Is this what slavery is?
It’s existence “explained away” to some time long ago.
But is this what it feels like?
Some kind of inescapable generational curse?

I was not born into slavery in the traditional sense… but it haunts me.
I walk around seeming to be free… but am I really?

I seem to fit in nowhere on this planet called earth
Constantly fighting to prove my existence
To those who love, who hate, who despise me
But most of all to myself.

Is this what slavery is…
A disconnection from my true heritage?
An implementing of a false hope…
The lie that I am no good?

Endangered Species

Each day we die - One less black man standing on this earth. A surrounding of pain and sorrow, constant battles and struggles leave us fighting just long enough to survive. Each passing second brings closer the dark cloud that strips us of the vision to rise above the accomplishments of our ancestors. The cold rain hits us like stones as we become the prey of a silent predator, bent on our annihilation. It is a gruesome sight to see my brothers pulled into its jaws.

Once a great united people, now at odds with each other; soon to face ruin if things don’t change for the better. We are faced with a disease so large, that it misleads the majority of us with false hopes. We are pawns for the sinister as we kill and steal for what truly doesn’t matter like sneakers and gold chains and twenty five dollar watches… cars, sports utility vehicles and money made out of paper that burns like everything else. Our lives are filled with hate, lies and jealousy fueled by a consumer manipulated materialistic mentality.

Suicide

“Why did you create me God? You did such a terrible job!”

For most of my life I hated the fact that I was brown skinned, too thin, wore glasses, not popular. I hated that my dad was a preacher and I wanted a different mother. I wanted a different life altogether, yet people envied me. I smiled on the outside, but inside I was dying. No, my life was not miserable. I did have two parents at home who loved me and I had friends… But inside I just couldn’t get with myself. I just couldn’t get past myself. The longer I lived the more I didn’t know who I was.

What in the world is going on with MEN? I get this question periodically from both men and women, who are trying to gain understanding concerning the struggle that men face. Just recently, a leader of a men’s group asked what my thoughts were on this subject. What in the world is going on with MEN? I know women are struggling in life as well and I do not want to minimize this fact, however there is something going on with men, that doesn’t seem to be often talked about; and when it is, somehow the discussion doesn’t seem to last very long.

What About Your Dreams?
Don’t you ever think about the future that’s filled with possibilities?
Have you ever pictured in your mind, the coming day’s light?
The day’s light shines on your dreams:
The light of recognition - the light of realization
What about your dreams?

Do you choose not to dream to avoid the off chance
That it might not come true?
Are you afraid of broken promises? Is this what you do?

What about your dreams?
Is it stupid to dream of a future when you’re trying
To make it through today?
When you’re just trying to overcome the struggles you must face.

With no dream for tomorrow can you really survive?
Something within you slowly dies…
With no joy in the morning will tonight draw you away?
What about your dreams?

From the book: Transition: Breaking Through the Barriers, Pg. 73
Written by Allen Paul Weaver III
Published by: IUniverse June 2006