From somewhere off the top of the dome …feeling under the weather leaves me thinking, eyes blinking… temperament temporarily sinking, but I ain’t shrinking.I am woven …yes, cut from a different fabric like that of a maverick, though my exterior looks average…an egghead indeed not to be confused with a dunce oh though I’ve played that card a few times definitely more than once.My aim is so far I can’t even reach it so the good Lord rather I teach it or what some folks rather say ” I preach it” Yes I’m all in my feelings you could say on this beautiful bright morning but I’ve been up all night self-expressing I’m guessingI thought faith was a fight but battling this cold made feel sort of old …so the whispers released this metaphorical manifold of times seen and or untold.Writing is not what I do somehow it is who I am …seems there is no way ’round it…if it was not I am sure by now I would have found it. When life throws me lemons I do not juice it I loose it that is right I expound it.When I think it, I ink it …all sorts of explications …from air, matter silence, or chatter it all becomes clear when a pen, pencil, or keyboard is near…erasing any hint of fear. I somehow turn sadness to cheer; gloom’s dim becomes bright via the shining of this little light.No my days aren’t all bright but they are always alright when up to bat at this faith I incessantly fight trying to make things all better in this mixed up world through varied salutations, and sometimes spiritually coerced elations…Funny, looking back even, in my dimmest of days I never much cared for sad sax blues bearing broken news …killing my muse to the point I’m ’bout to blow a fuse…yet I chill in the calm before, during, and after each storm…nestled in God’s loving arm, and right there I’m kept away from all the coldness of this world, all comfy and warm.Don’t get me wrong ’cause if my pillows could talk there would be a lot less to say because they been soaked from the wells of my eyes…oh no did you think “she never cries”…man we must never forget how that enemy lies…life ain’t no bed of roses without counting the thorns… I had much rather those random pricks than the gouging of the enemies horns.Oh but I know the enemy is no horned red devil…but the dishevel… seems like an excavation with each of life’s new level.C’mon, now…I ain’t got time for this…still heaven bound, swim, sink, hit and/or miss I received the invite and I’ve made reservations…but this itinerary sometimes gets scary but God don’t make junk I ain’t no punk so I study with my best buddy so these tests I won’t flunk.Yes child, plenty of access in the bosom of contradiction, which some call confusion or delusion …oh but I am positive it is merely intrusion,subtly creating affliction in the form of distractions. Math was a favorite of subjects as youth and I took well to division and methodology of fractions.As the numerator, I am always in number, the greater, and only divisible by one and HE is within.Therefore, while the enemy thinks flesh is too weak and he can always get it in…my Lord carried the cross, was bruised, wounded, and pierced and via repentance, via his healing, I have thick skin. It is only scar tissue, I am batting a thousand with each of your silly strikes …with my heel to your ugly head saying yikes, get behind me ol serpent full o’ greed, collecting souls because your own you didn’t take heed.You best move around before the stampede of more soldiers at arm arrive, joined in this fight fully clothed in HIS armor…because they too are not trying to miss this soul salvation flight.
~the Messenger
Poetry written by La’Sonya Canfield 2015 | IEPM™
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV)?
Our condolences go out to the surviving family of faithful wife, endearing friend, multi talented singer, actress, poet, performance artist, and activist, Ruby Dee. May God strengthen the interplanetary movement. Where there is sorrow, may joy in Christ lift your spirits, where there is pain via matters of the heart; may His soothing present help provide comfort. The journey was a long one, fought tooth and nail and now heaven called her home to the much of avail. May sympathy be soon washed with empathy that to be present with the lord is only via bodily absence, with Heaven welcoming home the spirit.
“The greatest gift is not being afraid to question”
(Ruby Dee , American Poet,1922).
Lifetime Achievement Award Winners Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis
Ruby Dee & Husband Ossie Davis
“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 KJV).
My first encounter with this couple was as a child watching sesame street as they sang along Oscar the Grouch. Their talent, love, activism, and professionalism has graced a many screens, stages and causes before then and afterwards until called home to Glory.
I think my most memorable or cherished roles for Ruby Dee would be from the movie “Just Cause” along Sean Connery and Blair Underwood, and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” along Halle Berry.
She and her husband also entertained via numerous other plays, movies, performances…but I guess the Spike Lee Films/Movies were a ground-setting for my admiration and respect for this couple. They also had roles in Alex Haley’s Roots. He, her husband Ossie Davis, graced me with auditory from the late great Langston Hughes, preceded her in death and afterwards, I had the opportunity to see her in an unshared light more often.
However, something has to be noted about their marital bond (in public view). This couple was in deep and altruistic love both onscreen and off-screen and never once was there any scandal that I viewed against that tri-cord union. They were most often photographed, filmed, and recorded together, yet collectively as an item singular via love. This idealistic of someone’s gifts making extraordinary room for them and placing them in the view of great men (humanity).
We salute you Ruby Dee as you join Ossie in the gates of heaven. The party is going to be massive as the greats will all be waiting to sing along with you praises to the Most High.
“And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12 KJV).
“And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder”
(Mark 10:8-9 KJV).
SALUTING THE DEFYING OF ALL ODDS via the BOND of LOVE
Farewell Ruby Dee…Gone, but not forgotten
IEPM STC-TSG Web Admin
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In Loving Memory of Legendary, Homebound & Beautiful Angel: Dr. Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou/Marguerite Ann Johnson
(April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014)
My heart skipped a beat when I first learned of her departure. She has been so inspirational to me. As a single teen mom growing up and experiencing things I never would have imagined, her motivation, intelligence, and divine courage wrapped up in the love for God and humanity is what kept me sane.
She was and is an epitome of motherhood, unity, and for me a messenger on life ~Living In Faith Everyday.
Reading was an escape for me coming up and still is today, and her books were pages that I absorbed in essence of struggle overcome with DIVINE STRENGTH, CHARACTER, COURAGE & LOVE, all via an ethereal transcendent nurturing.
I write publicly today because one of the life’s lesson she spoke once was “Write it so that people can hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart” (Angelou, M., American Poet, b.1928).
Dr. Angelou had panache for the “Tongue” in the sense of linguistics, language, culture, and unity. In a world where racism was born and still is present today, she embodied freedom in a literary song of an extrapolating melody. It sang of change, newness, oneness and mostly that of spiritual liberty.
“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God”
(Ephesians 5:19-21 KJV).
When you read her dialogue, automatically it captivated you, and whisked you off to the era of experience whereby you FELT the pain, joy, sadness and BURN via perseverance and vigor.
I salute her departure with love because, no longer does the song of freedom lie in this Ladybird’s belly, for freedom has taken her to the promised land where she has been journeying towards for eight and half decades. That says a lot! You know there is a promised seventy years for us if we would but live right, but you just know you must have done some pretty amazing things and exuded a far greater love to have an extra sixteen or more.
“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away”
(Psalm 90:10 KJV).
This woman as a child began her tests of faith, with abuse, neglect, prejudices, bias and self-esteem issues. Nevertheless, she had the stanching approach of a lion’s courage to deter or cauterised her own bleeding heart via her writings. She doddled around this universe as if she knew what lie ahead…traveling to other countries and embracing multiple cultures and languages like it was her second skin. That fascinated me.
“Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass”
(Psalm 37:4-5 KJV).
She started out doing music, playwriting, acting, song and dance, but her gift that would make plenteous more room for her came as her life’s canvas of penmanship and voila “Woman became Phenomenal, Freedom had a different chime and love’s escape was through rhythm and rhyme.”
I am blessed that I took a sabbatical of reading a couple of months ago to get in some more reading of her last book Mom, Me,and Mom and even re-checked “Letter To My Daughter”. The only book of hers that I currently own or still have in my possession is the “Heart of A Woman”.
On March 4, 2014 One of my Brand New Mercies Post reads:
During My Literary Sabbatical while dealing with Changes in my pain managementMore Pics from My Literary SabbaticalMy Literary Sabbatical
Preparing to dine and read from Angelou and Hughes still on my Literary Sabbatical
3rd Month Day 3 & 4 Brand New Mercies Day 3 I finished my last piece of Letter to My Daughter and just as thought it was worth it (saving the best for last)…she quoted her grandmother saying “she didn’t know quite how to find the things they needed but how she would just step out on the word of God” (Para, Angelou, M., 2008 |Excerpt from Maya Angelou LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER. p.166).
Funny though how in prayer I stated the same thing recently and GOD delivers! Thinking on the poem “Surviving” from Chapter 23, pp.135-137 and the stanza which talks about true love, friends, family, and heartbreak, are just one of many tests of faith and fights in which love is undying as we so commandeer the vitality of our youthfulness (Para, Angelou, 2008).
[“Each time my search for true love leads me to the gates of hell where Satan waits with open arms I imagine the laughter of women friends, their souls tinkle like wind charms urged by a searching breeze I remember the sturdy guffaw of happy men and my feet, without haste, and with purpose move past the threatening open gates to an area, secure from the evil of heartbreak. [sic] The emotional sway of events and the impermanence of construction echo the ways of dying love. I have found that platonic affection in friendships, the familial love for children can be relied upon with certainty to lift the bruised soul, and repair the wounded spirit and I am finished with erotic romance. Until….”] (Maya Angelou, American Poet b1928).
Day 3 (later that evening) I ran across a blessing heaven-sent, good & perfect, and I too was stepping out on the solemn word of God. Day 4 Confirmation of yesterday: “God does not tempt you but he will test your faith”…. HE never fails, sometimes, scratch that ALWAYS, we have to be bold enough when being tried in the fire (tests of faith) to walk circumspectly as RECEIVERS (in expectation ~ speaking, trusting and knowing “HE GOT YOU”). Our Father is a WEALTHY King and as heirs, we have access to the kingdom and all within it. Speak those things, as not as though they were is all I am saying. HIGH-STEP in an all-encompassing prosperity. HE takes care of all (every one) of our needs! I am walking in the realm of prosperity and GOD is providing! I am so thankful for true LOVE (GOD)! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!]
Who knew nearly three months after this literary sabbatical, I would be saying farewell, in my own words.
My vigil and tributary send off to an Angel by whom I remain touched.
I once had a small collection of her writings but they were lost in a fire. Thank God for Libraries though, because books are expensive and with good reason. They are the transference in soul essence of the writer where experience and emotions are. In Jr, High School, I began to search through black history and her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, just happened to be one of the first black authored books I read, along with literature from Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois and other books on black inventors. They were not teaching the truth about black history then and I wondered, “Why are these things in the library but aren’t taught in class”.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”
(2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).
It was at that moment when vicarious travel through time took flight in my life and my love for reading, writing, drawing, singing, and dancing became my nemesis to the abuse I was suffering. Dr. Angelou’s journey to numerous countries and marrying into different cultures was astonishing for a little girl (me) who so wanted to travel to distant shores. She embodied a phoenix, a butterfly and a lion to me. She always arose from whatever adversity she faced and if someone tried to cocoon her [box her in] she transformed into something newer, and she was fierce in zeal, devotion, and had a courage of “CAN DO” and equated all things to her belief and love for God.
“FREEDOM”…no longer the song of this once caged bird…For she has taken flight on Angelic Wings and writing heavenly stanzas that the sky now sings: “Welcome Home, Madame Angel You”
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References
Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code § 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online11. Retrieved on 02/22/2013, from http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
“Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.”
