hArtworks
Winter 2001 • $1

Featuring Guest Author
Nikki Giovanni
The Charles Hart Middle School Literary Magazine

Top: Monique Covington
Bottom (left to right): Reginald Williams, James Saunders, Delonte Williams

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Front page: Chantz Claggette, James Saunders, Reginald Williams

Introduction
Welcome to hArtworks, a literary magazine published by the students of Charles Hart Middle School, insoutheast Washington, D.C. Now in its second year, hArtworks gives our young writers the opportunity to
exercise their creative energies, speak their minds, and be heard by an audience throughout the city.
Our first issue of this school year finds our students off to a strong start, with over twenty-five young
writers already in regular attendance at our Literary Magazine Club. We are beginning to see the fruits of
the last seven years of creative writing instruction at Hart. Our largest and strongest contingent of sixthgraders ever has contributed mightily to the production of hArtworks, and an impressive number of clubmembers have declared their intentions to become professional writers when they grow up. Remember
the names you see in this issue, and expect big things from them in the future.
We have many friends who have helped to make hArtworks possible, and we would like to express our gratitude to them. Our sincerest thanks go out to the Arcana Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz
Foundation, the Commonweal Foundation, Borders Books and Music, Free Hand Press, the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum, the Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre, our friends at Popeye’s on Malcolm X Avenue,
Ruth Dickey, Virginia Fowler, Nikki Giovanni, Barb Gomperts, Bernie Horn, Bill Miller, Marla Melito, Faith
Ruppert, and Chris Thaiss.
We would also like to thank the following administrators, teachers, and staff who, are our partners in thisendeavor: Superintendent Paul L. Vance, Assistant Superintendent for Middle/Junior High Schools Vera M.
White, Principal Lee E. Epps; Assistant Principals Willie Bennett, Gregory Better, Yvonne Davis, and SamuelScudder; Ms. Tameka Brown, Ms. Gloria Fergusson, Ms. Shirley Grooms, Ms. Carolyn Jackson, Ms. MaryJohnson, Ms. Irma Morgan, and Ms. Ethel Rivers; Ms. Eleanor Elie and Ms. Maevern Williams.
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The hArtworks Editorial Board
Writers-in-Residence: Kerry Danner-McDonald, Andy Fogle, and Nancy Schwalb
Student Editors: Gary Alston, Amani Al-Fatah, Antonio Ashford, Christina Ashford, Kiona Bean,
Charmyonne Bailey, Matthew Bolden, Claudia Butler, Chakia Chatman, Chantz Claggette, Monique
Covington, Terri Davis, Myana Gray, Kevin Nowlin, De’Angelo Reed, Sade Rauch, Robert Robinson, James
Saunders, Kimberly Settles, Londell Swales, Darris Taylor, Janay Treadwell, Pamula Twyman, Delonte Williams, Reginald Williams, Nakeisha Winkfield, Jessica Young, and Michael Young

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InsideAN INTERVIEW WITH GUEST AUTHOR Nikki Giovanni ................. 28
Nikki Giovanni
Poetry ............................................................................................................ 33
Choices .......................................................................................................... 33

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OUR STUDENT WRITERS
Diamond Abney
The Way of Life ............................................................................................. 12
Memory of Yesterday’s Dreaming ................................................................... 13
Amani Al-Fatah
Lady Brown Upward ..................................................................................... 36
Abandoned .................................................................................................... 46
Stuck ............................................................................................................. 53
Antonio Ashford
Questions ....................................................................................................... 48
As I Walk ....................................................................................................... 50
In this room ................................................................................................... 53
Christina Ashford Let Me Out ........................................................................ 37
Hakeemat Ayodeji Poet ................................................................................... 44
Charmyonne Bailey Do We? ........................................................................... 52
Janay Bailey Untitled ........................................................................................ 50
Kiona Bean
Before Night Comes ....................................................................................... 17
Why, I Wonder............................................................................................... 18
In This World ................................................................................................ 49
Charnise Bell Moons Smile .......................................................................... 51
Melody Bittle Brighter Indigo ........................................................................... 21
Danielle Bradley The Sunset Shines ................................................................. 12
Trisha Braxton Yesterday’s Breath .................................................................... 11
Charniece Brooks Unnoticed ............................................................................. 9
Wesley Bullock No Time to Play ...................................................................... 24
Claudia Butler
Natural ......................................................................................................... 41
Death ............................................................................................................ 41
A Lonely Room .............................................................................................. 51
Chakia Chatman
Wishing ......................................................................................................... 40
No Longer Existed ......................................................................................... 54
Chantz Claggette
Life ................................................................................................................ 45
This Room ..................................................................................................... 52
Monique Covington
Butchers at Rest ................................................................................... 43
Slow Time ........................................................................................... 44
Dream ................................................................................................. 50

Emmaly Curry Revenge ................................................................................... 47
Gloria Dease A Lot on my Heart ...................................................................... 25
Sharelle Doye I Sit and Look Out ..................................................................... 37
Delaunte Floyd You’ll Never Sleep Tonight ...................................................... 17
Anthony Ford My money went away today...................................................... 26
Tameka Gaines Speakin’ Out ........................................................................... 24
Johniece Gardner My Father as a Police Dog .................................................. 14
Johnathan Grady
To God........................................................................................................... 27
Thug Life ....................................................................................................... 27
Justin Grell Me................................................................................................. 34
Jerrell Grooms
Lately I Have Felt Myself Disappearing ......................................................... 22
Looking Around ............................................................................................. 23
Delawnta Henry Hope Sells Danger ................................................................... 8
Terrell Hill Out the Window ............................................................................. 20
Cieara Holman Point of View ........................................................................... 35
Andrew Holmes My Father as a Window ........................................................ 24
Malaika Howard Before Night Comes .............................................................. 20
Dimitrie Jackson Hot Times ............................................................................ 23
Kimberly Jackson Ghetto Child ....................................................................... 22
James Johnson Hard to Hold ............................................................................ 26
Beyonca Jones Before I Die .............................................................................. 10
Bryannca Jones Blood Every Day ..................................................................... 13
Ebony Jones My Sister as a Tree ....................................................................... 26
Brittany Love Pine Tree Princess ...................................................................... 14
Nadaisha Martin Good Times .......................................................................... 34
Jade Mayo If Everyone Had Amnesia ................................................................ 52
Timothy Miller Loneliness ............................................................................... 43
Lindsey Moore Untitled ................................................................................... 13
Wayne Nesbit I Sit by the Window ................................................................... 25
Kevin Nowlin
Think of ......................................................................................................... 27
2nd Strike ...................................................................................................... 42
Can’t Stand It ................................................................................................ 51
Ashlee Owens Bad Times ................................................................................. 53
Shawntice Patterson
My Great Grandfather .................................................................................. 16
I Sit by the Window ....................................................................................... 17
Lawrence Perkins Alone at Midnight ................................................................. 8
Robert Randolph Bad Times ............................................................................ 54
Sade Rauch
Boys with Swords ........................................................................................... 44
The True Words of My Prayer ........................................................................ 44
The Question to My Future ............................................................................ 47

Inside5Inside6

Robert Robinson I Talk and Listen To .............................................................. 19
Virginia Rodgers-Owens My People ............................................................... 35
Chayna Ross The Chess Game of Life ................................................................. 9James Saunders
Connections ................................................................................................... 36
Run Down... ........................................................................................... 43
Little Boys on the Corner ............................................................................... 47
Difference ...................................................................................................... 54
Catrina Scott Let Me Be ................................................................................... 21
Tameka Scott Even in the City ......................................................................... 25
Kimberly Settles
A Clock’s Dream ............................................................................................ 38
Hope For The Future ..................................................................................... 43
Johniece Simms I learn by going where I have to go ......................................... 37
Rikia Simms Brighter Day .................................................................................. 9
Kenneth Skinner I Look Out............................................................................ 23
Stephanie Smith No Matter Where We Go ...................................................... 18
Emmanuel Solomon I sit and look .................................................................. 39
Whitney Starr I sit and look out ....................................................................... 38
Tiara Stevenson When I Grow Up ................................................................... 45
Londell Swales In the Nile ............................................................................... 42
Consella Thompson The Tear ......................................................................... 15
Yasin Thompson I Say to Myself ...................................................................... 10
James Tucker Remember .................................................................................. 16
Tyesha Tyson What I Believe ............................................................................ 48
Joshua Waiters Never Noticing ........................................................................ 35
Terrence Walton Apollo ..................................................................................... 8
Terrance West
When I Look Around ..................................................................................... 19
My family as an Ice Cream Truck .................................................................. 21
Delonte Williams
Playground at Night ...................................................................................... 41
Untitled ......................................................................................................... 45
Danger Begins ............................................................................................... 49
Donnell Williams
Baptism ......................................................................................................... 10
Ain’t Nothing Like Harlem ............................................................................. 11
Kiara Williams
I Thank ......................................................................................................... 11
One Day ........................................................................................................ 15
Reginald Williams
Dark Eternity ................................................................................................ 51
Richard Williams
I Am Alone .................................................................................................... 41

Nakeisha Winkfield
The Reflections of Abuse ................................................................................ 46
Tangled Thoughts........................................................................................... 50
Desmond WrightGood Times ................................................................................................... 39
Jessica Young
If You Need a Reason ..................................................................................... 39
Hands ............................................................................................................ 39
Street Change ................................................................................................ 40

InsideDiamond Williams & Delonte Williams

7

Alone at Midnight
Here alone at midnight
Here there is a web shadow
Let me run forever
Let me feel the winter breeze
Let me get in the shard-filled cage
Let me play my glowing trumpet
Let me look at the calm clouds
Let me brighten the flame
Let me flame the smoke
Let me shatter the maze
Lawrence Perkins

ApolloAll people talk is the future
all I talk is Harlem ghost.
I am going back,back to the ApolloI like the Harlem shake
I wore a smoky suit
while my grandfather played the flute.
I worn-out and I torn out the memory
and the past. I am free at last.

Yasmine Knatt in student play “Antigone 2K1: The
Tragedy Continues”

Hope Sells Danger

Terrence Walton

Three boys worn-out from twirling,
twirling on a board platform.
A muddy blue-black building’s bricks,
yesterday’s burning smoky gray—
Clouds leave my memory as it passes me by.
I remember my life, my fight,
the bloody hope selling danger,
dreaming on the street of a white and brown stage.
Delawnta Henry

8

Unnoticed
Pain is in this dark room,
the shadow I see of the moon.
I hear owls howling,
crows calling, as the night begins falling.
I’m so alone in my dark hollow home.
No one cares that I am there.
I am unnoticed in this simple world,
people just see me as a little, lonely girl.
I hope to be asked for my opinion, but
my say-so has been amended.
As I walk, no one turns to stare.
Why can’t I be seen?
Why can’t I be shown on a big screen?
For the world to see
what a beautiful person I can be.
Charniece Brooks

The Chess Game of Life
The night lightnings, it is winter, a new year.
I have no fears because I have learned
through the year 2001,
that life is like a chess game, and I’m a pawn.
My mom’s the queen, my father’s the king.
The most powerful pieceon the board is the Lord.

Brighter Day
Let me feel the winter breeze
Let me be calm, alone
Let me be caged in a maze of indigo
Let me dazzle the midnight
Let me alter smoke
Let me defy the devil
Let me play the trumpet
Let me do things wisely,
and glorify the lord with my dazzling soul
Let me live eternallyand live to see a brighter day.
Rikia Simms

I learned new things in my strategy of life.
My grandmother and grandfather will be my knights.
My aunt and uncle are my rooks.
The rest of my pawns are my books,
My sister’s my bishop, and that’s the gamein my chess game of lifethat is so plain.
Chayna Ross

9

I Say to Myself
Here is winter now with coldness,
as I walk down the street I feel calm and alone.
The brightness hangs over my head.
I go into the store to get something to drink—
It slides from my hand and begins to shatter.
It’s now midnight and there is no light,
the moon went dark.
It’s Christmas Eve.
Yasin Thompson

Before I Die
Let me get lost in a winter maze
Let me live for eternity
Let me find the midnight clusterdon’t let it be cloudy forever.
Let the winter breeze come upon me swiftly
Before I die, give me a glowing trumpet
and maybe I’ll stay for a while.

Pamula Twyman

Beyonca Jones

Baptism
Let me tell you about me entering this world,When they dipped my head into the water.
Seeing another mom and dad, crying, holding their daughter.
Here me out when I say I was scared to death.
But when the Pastor dazzled a kiss on my head,I knew it was my baptism.
Now I’m saved until eternal rest.
Donnell Williams

10I Thank
I thank the day for all its joys,
the breath’s own spirit shall be upon us.
A wide dream of nothingness of hope and love and gentleness,this day is a father’s concern and a mother’s love and compassion.
I thank the day for a frosty chill, an open heart’s tears
which sparkle daily. In such light, a joy of yellow,
a thought of green shall bring upon us a bright blue’s care.
As my spirit walks upon the forest of sweet scented pine trees,a daisy’s beauty lifts my day.
I thank the Lord for every sunrise,for the moon’s reasons for life.
I wish for the harmony of deathand the day when I shall dance upon the heaven’s groundbut the forgotten trouble of life and love shall bring me down
to fall no higher than those of whom have no spirits.
And yet,I still thank the Lord for the day of great meaning,the day of eternal life, love, peace and joy.
Kiara Williams

Ain’t Nothing Like Harlem

Yesterday’s Breath
I thank God for yesterday’s breath:
For mother son and father daughter,the morning,death and blood.
Trisha Braxton

Back in Harlem, in the 30s, on the upper side
the streets were dirty.
If you go to the store you see homeless people trying to make adollar out of fifteen cents; playing old me, playing a guitar.
When you go to the downer side you see crops and vegetation
You think its different cause you see no one dying of starvation
You see the people doing elevation, kids studying multiplication.
When you go up the upper side it seems weak and tired
but when you leave just remember ain’t nothing like life in Harlem.
Donnell Williams

11Larry Robertson, Charmyonne Bailey, and Londell Swales in “Antigone”

The Way of LifeThe Sunset Shines
The sunset shines in the afternoon
But my tears fall down my eyes every morning.
It is amazing how God gave us theleaping green spirits of trees andthe daisies need water to grow.

Daisies dog, wildcat, blue bird, God’s word.
Sun shining, tears drop on father’s year.
Pine trees small breeze, mother’s day.
That’s the way moon night and sun’s night
breathing is good as wishes in the summer.
Living right, day and night,
That’s the best way of living life.
Diamond Abney

If I fall down,
I want you to know I can get back up again.
I am who I am dead or alive.
I want you to love me for who I am,
the blue dreams area floating around my body and soul.
Danielle Bradley

12Untitled
I thank you motherfor a happy day,for the light of the moon,
the sun when it rises.
I who look at
the blue water, the reddaisies, the tears
when I cry.
how should breathingfeel the wide-open car window?
the green leaves on the tree?
(the summer’s hot rest
and the winter frost?)
Lindsey Moore

Memory of Yesterday’s
Dreaming
Twirling memories,
many passed away but yesterday’s
dream came just as I say.
Bloody clouds, muddy streets
danger comes like the song of a beat.
Fighting hopes as your grandmother sleeps,
dreams of dressed-up girls and boys, therefor these eyes have seen.
This is my yesterday’s dream.

Blood Every Day
The past is not a memory to me
yet the past is not the future.
While I am sleeping in the back of the stage
I think of the smoky-gray, muddy streets people
walked on each day.
I think of Harlem in the 30s, 40s, and the 90s
where there is danger.
People fighting, selling drugs, people in buildings
watching, wondering why.
Men and women in cars driving,
girls and boys on boards with wheels.
There are white cloudy streets,
People dressed-up performing on stage,ghetto boys burning up houses.
Yesterday’s parents were young,Your grandmother sees blood everyday.
Bryannca G. Jones

Diamond Abney

13Pine Tree Princess
Winter frost fights
Camping in the open nightThe deadof coldness on my cheeks,making a snow angel.
The good summer day,Watching the daisies dancing
in the warm wind.
Climbing pine trees,declaring myself
pine tree
princess
Breaths of magic fill the air,dancing in the sunbeams.
Running,running in the yellow night.
I smell the green hair tickling my feetand fall asleep.

Kiona Bean

My Father as a Police Dog
He is over-protective
I can’t even go outside
without him down my throat

Brittany Love

He’s just like a police dog
as soon as I come in the house
he detects what and who I’ve been with
he be like “you was with so and so wasn’t you?”and it’s hard to lie because like a dog
he looks right through that
he is just like a dog
trained to do what he’s supposed to do
he thinks since his father did that to him
then he should do that to me
and maybe soon my brother too
Johniece Gardner

14

One DayOne day, while sleeping I screamed yesterday is on my mind.
I shouted to myself, “thou shall be blooded with the bad dreamingof the smoky-gray, blue-back day which is yesterday.”One day, a clouded fighting danger untraveled a street,selling fear left and right, fear of death and pain.
I say with terror upon my eye, “Shall I live? Will thou die?”
The memory of a twirling, whirling past, a muddy street,a future of none other than that yesterday.
One day, wheels of hope began to turnbut alas burning stages of worn-out women and men
performed boards of blood and said once more,“You yourself have buildings of pain from that
dreadful yesterday.”One day, the world did clash with evil and knowthat dreams of lost souls are thee’s biggest nightmare!
One day, one day-Oh that yesterday!
Kiara Williams

The Tear
The tear from my eye
when I cry it strolls down my face
like a river running downstream
The tear, it’s making my face shiny, wet and moist
like wet dirt in the gardenof a beautiful house
The tear, it’s for my aunt
she left me months ago
she went home to her father in the sky
I wish she were here
but she’s not
so I give her a tearConsella Thompson

15

My Great Grandfather
Lonely as he can be,in silence night and day,wishing his woman would come back.
Cold at night,
squeezing pillows tight,
going to church every Sunday,
hoping for a miracle to come one day.
Desperate as he can be,
never answers the phone
unless it’s me.
Warm as he can be in the winter,
he’s only wishing that one day
his woman would come back.
Shawntice Patterson

Diamond Williams on Halloween

RememberRemember this until the day you die.
The world is full of terrible things
and terrible people.
Remember this until the day you die,that there are many haters and few congratulaters
and will most likely hate on you.
Remember this until the day you diethat no matter where you gothere will always be jealousy,
infidelity, envy, and cheating.
Remember this until the day you die.
James Tucker

16

I Sit by the Window
I sit by the window
crying.
Crying because I’malone.
It’s dark and shallow,
I can’t see nothing,
my eyes are runningsilver tears.
I’m sitting on a coldand solid rock.
I can’t feel my hands,
I can’t feel my legs.
My body feels cold.
I see fire coming from theside of my window,
not red but cold red.
Then suddenly I
started to feel myhands, and legs, again.
But then again
I couldn’t feel
my sorrow.
Shawntice Patterson

You’ll Never Sleep Tonight
You’ll never sleep tonight now that I’m dead.
I’m in your head. You can never go to bed.
Now that I’m gone, you’re all alone
because life without your baby
will make you go crazy.
Delaunte Floyd

Before Night Comes
Yellow, orange, pink, red, purple
evolves in the night sky to dark blue.
The moon makes a grand entrance
while the sun walks briskly away.
Everything eventually goes away to fall asleep.
Trees shake as a cool breeze enters the scene,
shaking leaves while they fall to the ground.
Birds soundly rest in their nest
with their wings around their young.
Shadows form different shapes.
Shade starts to die down as the beginning of the moon rises.
The high-definition of the strong colors shines upon trees.
Clouds turn bright reddish-orange like a bloom of an orchid.
Looking up at the sky, the sun and the colors blind the ones
who try to look at the beauty while streaming downfrom the sky like a ball of fire, shimmering.
A hawk flies towards the sun
and as the zone of the colors blind you, it disappears.
Faraway, you can hardly see trees, bushes, shrubs,
or any leafy substance.
It all turns dark, like eyes shut.
17
Kiona Bean

Why, I Wonder
The streets cough blood. It screams of pain.
“People have treated me so awful,
I’m forsaking them” says the bleeding street.
“They have rode on me, pushed people upon me,
killed people on me, stomped all over me,
and this is how they repay me.
If I wasn’t there for people to walk on,they would fall in endless time of the universe,
falling, screaming that someone could catch them,to save them. I scream but no one saves me.
At times I wonder if I wasn’t here,
what would people do?
Would they float in the air like birds soaring?
Would they swim like a fish gliding through water?
Sometimes I wonder if people know how lucky they are to have me.
I know I get worn out and have glass all over me,
can get snowed on and sometimes, some people take care of me.
I wonder how other objects feel about things I feel now,
like if they are being mistreated, do some care?
Do some cry in agony? Do they wonder why they are here
and what things would be like if they weren’t?
Do they wonder if they are of good use to the world? I will never know.”
Kiona Bean

No Matter Where We Go
No matter where we go a shadow follows you
No matter where we go somebody’s staring at you
No matter where we go somebody’s hating
No matter where we go there’s always somebody who cares
No matter where we go there is always someone there
No matter who it is they are just there
No matter where we go there is always something to bear
No matter where we go there is someone there to share
Stephanie Smith18

When I Look Around
When I look around,I see planes crashing into buildings
and the buildings falling down.
When I look around town,
I see everybody coming together now.
When I look around the country,
I see everyone getting ready for the war,
thinking about when this is over, and history, and no more.
When I look around at the world,
I see people praying for the little boys and girls.
I see sadness,
I see terror,
I see myself when I look in the mirror.
I see hope,
I see faith,
and when this war is over,I will see a smile on my face.
Terrance West

I Talk and Listen To
I talk and listen to my grandmother for like3 or 4 hours, which gets me tired.
I talk on the phone listening
to the sweet girl’s voice.
I listen to the news to see what is going onwith the war and anthrax.
I look at my friends playing outsidewith the football and getting tackled.
I look at my wonderful grandmother,looking good and going to a meeting.
I mark the last point of my tic-tac-toe gameand brag about it.
I observe stupid people on “Police Video”
crashing and drunk and stuff.
All these words that I wrote were reallyand always will be about that,what I talk and listen to.
Robert Robinson

19Out the Window
Out the window
I smile when I see children riding their bikes
when I hear the wind whistling softly to me
Out the window I smile
I see the sun shining brightly
as the little birds fly by singing lightly

Left to right: Charmyonne Bailey, Jessica Young, Londell Swales

Out the window I cry as I see
an old lady in a wheelchair going by
Out the window I cry when I see gangs causing trouble
while in size they double
I’ll close my eyesin the darkness where I can’t see
a chaos of sound and noise
but I only hear little kittens soft yet poised
Out the window as I smile and cry
why do I sit here with the world going by?
What is my purpose?
Where is my place?
One day out the window pain
I will see no more
But as a mere childwhat can I do but sit, smile, and cryout the window.
Terrell Hill

20

Before Night Comes
Before night comes
the sun goes down
the sky gets pinkish
it’s just a beautiful sighteverything is peacefuland for a split moment
there is a pause
and then it’s dark.
Malaika HowardMy family as an Ice Cream Truck
My father is like an ice cream truck
He stays on the move
He never stays in one place that long
He stops and thenHe goes like the wind blowing past my face
Like I am frozen in time
And he revolves around me
My mother is like the engine
She stays fixing things
And making everything work
She’s what keeps us going when we get off the roadMy sister is like the truck itself
She keeps everything together
And on the same road
I am the wheels on the ice cream truck
I keep the truck moving and never flat
I keep everything running in the same direction
I stay full of air without any questions.
Terrance West

Let Me Be
Let me be alone forever
Let me do what I want to do
Let me live for eternity
Let me get lost in a winter maze
Let me ride on the wind
Le me define the glowing midnight cluster
Let me runaway into the darkening woods
Let me die in winter
Catrina Scott

Brighter Indigo
Let me feel the winter breeze
Let me use the unused trumpet
Let me see a cluster of cloudy sky
Let me watch the eternal watch
Let me see the midnight smoke
Let me see the brighter indigo.
Melody Bittle21

Ghetto ChildI was raised as a ghetto childand I was not very proud.
I was taught the wrong way to play
and the wrong things to say.
I just wanted to be like any ordinary childbut instead I came up as a ghetto child.
Even though that’s how I used to bethat’s not what I am today.
Myana Gray

Today I am making my mom and dad proud
and shouting out very loud that I am no longer a ghetto child.
Kimberly Jackson

Lately I Have Felt Myself Disappearing
I feel like I’m disappearing
because people act like I’m not there.
As they stare it’s like they are looking right through me.
As my hate grows more and more,
I walk into the store to buy some seeds.
The cashier acts like I’m not there
and goes to the next person, so I leave.
When I get out of the store
a homeless man comes up and gets on his knees
and says “Can I have a dollar?”That’s when I know I am being seen.
Jerrell Grooms

22

Looking AroundAs I sit in the middle of the apartment buildings,
I watch the people start to run out of foodso they start to steal from each other behind their back.
I see people killing each other over petty stuff.
I hear the voices of mothers
just finding out about their son
just dying over food that he tried to steal
and while he was stealing the foodhe was involved in a shooting.
I observe the gangsters casting lots
because whoever doesn’t get the food tonightis going to be killed.
I hear the shootings of birds
that are going to be used for food.
And as I go in the house
I see some of the same thing.
Jerrell Grooms

Hot Times
I cannot talk of
the heatthat’s in here.
I can’t walkwhen I’m in here.
It needs to be cold, cooled, chilled,
iced up, not fired up, but again
just chilled.
So when it’s hot, I do notwalk, and again I can’t talkof theheat that’s in here
Dimitrie Jackson

I Look Out
I look out the window, and I see fathers abusing their sons.
Then I look again and see a father playing football with his son.
I look again and see mothers wishing and cryingthat they didn’t have that baby.
Then I see a mother who didn’t want a childbut is treating her well and taking care of her.
I look once more and I see brothers and sisters killing each other.
Then I see brother and sister loving one another.
I look again. I see children selling drugs.
Then I see children selling candy.
Then I stop looking. I sit and think
if only this world would get along.
Kenneth Skinner23

Speakin’ Out
I see my brother chasing cars like a puppy.
I see jealousy in the eyes of onlookers.
I see the world being torn apartby drugs, fighting and war.
I see happiness among babies
and sadness among parents.
I see women getting beaten by their husbands.
These are the things I see.
Tameka Gaines

My Father as a Window
My father has been with me for all of my lifeand still he isn’t the man who does whatever whenever.
He is concerned about the safety of his children.
Like a window that is slightly open, he lets his children roam inand out about freely, but not as much.
Like the window that is shut, he keeps his children awayfrom harmful things.
If he opens up too much, we would be out of control.
So he keeps us in line by closing up.

From student play “Antigone,” (left to right)
Yasmine Knatt, Monique Covington, Amani
Al-Fatah, Chakia Chatman

No Time to Play

Andrew Holmes

I’m breaking away, leaving my troubles behind.
No more this and that, see,
I’m trying to get that off my mind.
Troubles I’ve made.
Could troubles have caught me by mistake?
I said no more this and that,you see I’m tired of that,it’s just time to move on.
All those troubles and worries
in time I’ll bury‘cause they won’t be here for long.
Wesley Bullock

24Even in the City
Even in the city there is trash everywhere
where helpless people don’t even care.
The lace will tangle up and confuse you.
Even in the city we have big complexes
in the ghetto neighborhood.
Even in the city people are mean ,they don’t even wave or say hello.
Refrigerators empty,
the children are hungry,
daylight and moonlight comes and falls.
Even in the city it seems like everythinghas been shattered in pieces.
Even in the city there are jagged edges
where people can’t smooth it out
to come together as one.
Tameka Scott

I Sit by the Window
How can I see so much but feel so little?
Why can I glance, but not physically touch?
Why is the view sometimes blurry?
Why is the view often clear?
One look, I see my past, and my heart shatters.
One glance, I see my present shining because of love.
One thought, I see my future, becoming successful.
All happens as I sit by the window.
Wayne Nesbit

A Lot on my HeartI’m just a human being with a lot on my heart
At times it feels like it could shatter
The red blood that flows through it will outburst in waves
I’m just a human being that feels like a bomb is going to explode
Without a warning without a meaning
I am now a helpless human being
Gloria Dease25

Chantz Claggette

My Sister as a TreeMy sister can go outside and come back in wet
She can be gone for a whole summer and grow about 10 inches
Her arms are longer than branches
She can never be cut down
Her hair roots grow every day
She catches more sunflower seeds than birds
She is very healthyand still not finished growing

Hard to Hold

Ebony JonesMy money went away today
I got tired of walking, so I caught the bus
I got hungry, so I went to the store
I got bored, so I went to the movies
I got sleepy, so I went to a hotel
I was robbed

Time is hard to hold onto,when you are in class doing your work;as I look through the windowat the filaments ofleaves on the lawn,
the wind is blowing
them around like a twister.
It’s hard to hold on to,because you will never catch it.
James Johnson

Anthony Ford26

To God
What up God
I am praying to you I need you bad
I live in the ghetto
I know you see how bad it is
You see people shooting and stabbing people
I want to ask you a couple of questions
How did my grandfather die
Did you give him timeto see most of his grandchildren before you took him
How is my cousin Jackie
I know she was sick but not that sick to die
Can you ask my uncle if he can take care of our family
Can you tell my two older brothers
I loved them and look after
Joseph, Jayshawn, Janaw, and me
Can you tell Mr. Smith and Kevinthat Uncle Don is leaving any day now for jailand Donna, Jenelle, and Esha loves them
Can you tell my friend Jerod I miss him
he shouldn’t have died that way that was wrong
Can you tell Nat that his family loves him
and the whole Valley Terrace we miss u Nat
So God can you tell all these people
I got nothing but love for them
Johnathan Grady

Think of
Shattered clouds, dazzling,
Bling bling. Define that.
You can’t deny it. I wish
I could align and alter the clouds.
Think of a cloudless sky, burning stars.
Think of eternal night, indigo skies
glowing like incandescent lamps,
glistening skies, likeyour mother trying to comfort you.
Think of broken windows, embers, spreading
showing through my fingers of light,
landing softly in your ear.
Kevin Nowlin

Thug LifeI hate this thug life
I want to know when is it going to stop
I lost a friend named Jerod over a coat
Somebody robbed him and he went to get it backI knew from when he was missing
and they shot him in the head 2 times
I wish I was there
I used to cry every day but
I realized he is an angel now
I wish he was here now
I could have lost my life with my brothers and 2 friends
I was right there when they started to shootIt was a lot of stuff going on
I hate this thug life
I want it to stop
I know it will so I am happy
I am happy this thug life will be over
Johnathan Grady

27

hArtworks presents our special guest
Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni is the author of twelve books of poetry, five books of prose, and seven children’s books. She has been
named Woman of the Year by Essence magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Mademoiselle. She has been awarded
thirteen honorary doctoral degrees, and is currently a professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She wasinterviewed by Charles Hart Middle School students Amani Al-Fatah, Antonio Ashford, and Jessica Young at the
Loudon County Regional Library, where she later read her poetry for an audience of nearly two hundred fans.
Amani: In one of your poems, Nikki grows up poor. Did you actually grow up poor?
Nikki Giovanni: Oh yes, of course. Most people my age did. I grew up in a town called Woodlawn, and it’s reallyin what’s called the valley of Cincinnati. Cincinnati is a river town, and rivers, of course, cause valleys. When you
come from the north, you come in through the valley till you get down to the river. And we had a very small home,that was actually quite nice, but with no running water. We had an outhouse. I’ve always been fond of outhouses.
But the answer is yes.
Antonio: What got you started writing poems?

28

clockwise, from left: Jessica Young, Nikki Giovanni, Antonio Ashford, Amani Al-Fatah

Nikki: Well, I like to write. I always did. I liked to draw and then I liked to write. I liked to write stories and then draw
pictures. And so, in terms of talent, I had more talent for writing than I did in drawing so I don’t draw or paint anymore.
I used to paint when I was in college. But it was something that was fun to do because you get to express yourself.
Jessica: I read this poem called “How Do You Write A Poem?” Why did you pick a title like that?
Nikki: That’s a good question. I think it’s a love poem, and it was the first line, and that always helps. Emily
Dickinson, who was a great poet, uses a lot of first lines. I could have said, I guess, “How do you write a love poem?”
But that would have been not as good as “How do you write a poem?” It’s like I say “Ahhh” and you say “choo.” It justseemed to be the right fit.
Antonio: About your poem, “The Moon Shines Down,” it says you’re no panacea. What does that word mean?
Nikki: Antonio, I’m going to have to make you look it up because that’s the whole purpose of using words thatpeople don’t know. I could tell you, but my mom and my grandfather would just... My mother would kill me and my
grandfather would turn over in his grave if I did that. And if you don’t have a dictionary, I’ll send you one. But you’ve
got to look up words. That’s the truth. Do you have a dictionary? Okay then I’ll let you look it up. Otherwise I’ll send
you one, because I do that. I had some friends out in Oakland, California your age and they used to say things likethat. I sent about six dictionaries to them.
Jessica: What did you mean when you said, “No white person ever has cause to write about me?”Nikki: Well you have to get the whole line. I hope no white person has cause to write about me because, and there’s
a big because there, because black love is black wealth. And they’ll probably talk about my hard childhood and neverunderstand that all the while I was quite happy. Because there are cultural assumptions that privileged people makeabout nonprivileged people. And I would never recommend a nonprivileged position. If you have the choice between being comfortable or being uncomfortable, be comfortable. If you have a choice between being cold or hot, be
comfortable again. If you had a choice between being hungry and poor, I would recommend poor. But a lot of people
make the assumption that because you didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, because your parents didn’t
have cars or because you didn’t have running water, somehow or another you did not have a decent and good life.
And I reject that, and I’ve said that because black love is black wealth.
And we live in a materialistic age which is way overblown. Materialism has such limits. How many people find thisout the hard way. They find it out because they have empty lives that they then try to fill with things like drugs orthings like alcohol, or really stupid things like driving their cars up and down city streets at 50 miles per hourbecause they’re drag racing. What kind of sense does that make? That’s an emptiness in life.
One of the things that we learn in the Old Testament that I think is good (cause I’m not that fond ofthat eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, that does not get it for me), but one of the things that I do
know the Old Testament teaches us is that the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s not that moneyis the root of all evil. And that’s all I’m saying: One cannot spend one’s life being envious or jealous or
wanting something just for the wanting of it. That doesn’t make sense. The goods of your life, thegoods and services of your life, have to be in service to a better you. It cannot be in service to a better29

them. In other words, you work to live, you do not live to work. So you always have something else to give. So if you
have a bowl of chili and somebody’s hungry, you don’t even think about it, you say, “Come have some of mine.”
Because that’s what makes you a human being.
Materialistic people say, “No, I’m going to keep mine,” even though they don’t want it. They’re afraid of somebody
getting enough; that’s crazy. So that’s what I’m saying: My life was a good life, and I have become, I think, a better
person for my life. And for understanding that I don’t have any reason to be envious of anybody, and I won’t be. I’m
not jealous, I’m not small-minded, and I’m not mean, and I’m not going to be any of those things to get something.
Because it makes you crazy.
Amani: Actually, I do like a lot of material things.
Nikki: Sure, but there are limits. If you were on your way to school and there was a little kindergarten kid who losther coat, and you had a jacket and a coat, you would give her your jacket, because your father would kill you if hefound out you let that little kid go to school freezing. You’d try to help, I know that. So it’s not liking material things,
it’s being mean and laughing at other people who don’t have something.
Amani: Was your dad a drinker?
Nikki: Oh yes, he was an alcoholic.
Jessica: What effect did that have on you? Did it have any effect?
Nikki: I didn’t drink, I knew that being an alcoholic wasn’t a good idea. But he’s still my father.
Amani: I was just thinking about it, and I know a girl who’s father used to be like that. If you’re living poor and yourlife is not as good as others, when you were in school didn’t you ever think about how that affects you sometimes?
Nikki: My father didn’t drink to do something to me. My father wasn’t an alcoholic to get back at me. As soon as
Nikki’s father started drinking, he was drinking for whatever reason he was drinking. It didn’t have anything to dowith me, except that I don’t like to be hollered at. He would holler, and anyone who’s been around me more than a
few minutes knows, don’t holler. And I grew up in a black community, and kids like to tease you about something
like that, but they’ve got to be crazy. Cause it’s not funny. If kids say “your daddy’s a drunk,” well “What kind of a life
do you lead that all you have to do is pay attention to mine?”
Amani: Are you rich?
Nikki: No. Rich is a lot more money than I have. But I’m happy and I’m sane. You’re too young to understand that.
I do okay. I take care of my responsibilities, and that’s all I want to do in life.
Antonio: When you were young, did your friends ever pick on you about writing poems?

30

Nikki: No. Because my good friends all wrote. We all enjoyed writing.
Jessica: Do you use profanity in your poems to express your emotions?
Nikki: Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I do. Sometimes to shock, it depends on what the point is. Let me answer aquestion you haven’t asked. I so seldom think of myself as a children’s author. I’m always amazed when young people
say “I read your poem,” cause I think of myself as an old person. I do have young people’s poetry, because my son’s
31 now, but when he was in the 5th grade, I wrote a book with him called “Vacation Time.” I think of those series ofbooks as children’s books. The poems you’re asking me about now mostly appear to be a variety of my adult poetry.
So I’m enchanted that you’re enjoying reading some of the love poems. Of course, “Nikki Rosa” is probably going to
be on my gravestone. It’s a signature poem. I really hope I write something else. Of course, “Ego Tripping” is my mostpopular poem, and that’s a poem that’s gone all around the world. But I am just enchanted at the breadth of thereading that you’ve done. I’m always enthralled that young people like “Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day,” because I
have a hard time thinking of how it is that you access “Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day.”
Jessica: When you were growing up, did you ever have an inspirer?
Nikki: I had a lot of people who encouraged me, inspiration is probably not the word I would use. But I had afantastic grandmother. My mother is very much a dreamer and my grandmother is very practical. My father is verymuch a dreamer. So I had all these influences. But I don’t think you all are too young for me to say, I think there’s toomuch emphasis in your generation, on the conditions and who is or is not a proper mentor, a proper role model. And
I think they make you dependent on finding somebody instead of finding yourself. You have to learn to trust
yourself. And if I see a weakness, coming into the 21st century, it is that so few of you trust what you know to be true.
You look for validation from other people, and you can’t do that.
Amani: Sometimes when we’re writing a poem, we want to put a curse word down, and we can’t.
Nikki: Well you’re eighth graders. I’m 58 years old, there’s a big difference. Be fair now, Amani. One of the reasonsthat you do something called be grown up is that you get to do it your way. But right now this is not Burger King, thisis school. You do not get to have it your way. Their job is to teach you something.
Amani: Yeah, but if your curse is because you feel something, if your feeling is, you’re mad and you feel as though
one of those words is the only way express it, you want to put it. And my teacher is, like, “No!” But it’s not as though
I want to use it because I hear other people use it, or because I try to be grown, but it’s kind of sometimes how I feel.
Nikki: But if I were teaching you, as I do teach at Virginia Tech, I’d say, “and what does this mean in this context?” Whichis what she’s saying to you. And you say it means, “yack, yack, yack.” I say, then that’s what you have to write
for me, because my job is not to let you shock me or use a cheap word. Every curse word is not cheap, but
if we don’t give you another word for it, you will grow up writing a word that no longer adequately satisfies
31
what you are saying. But you will not have learned the other word. If we let you keep that one word, you will
now find yourself with only that word, and we will not have done our job.

Amani: Yeah, I see that but...
Nikki: That’s why we make you eat vegetables. You must eat your asparagus. You have to, because if we don’t makeyou eat your asparagus, then you’re going to find yourself a little older, needing the folic acid, needing whatever it isthat asparagus gives us, (aside from a really beautiful dish with butter, and things like that). And you’ll say, “Well, I
never ate that before.” Our job is to make you eat it. And words are the same thing as your vegetables. You just cannot
go through life eating hamburgers and feeling that you’re being properly nourished. And that’s why we do it.
Amani: Right, but what I’m saying is, okay, when you get in a certain state of mind, and you know that there’s
another word that you can justify for the word you want to use.
Nikki: I understand what you’re saying. You have to use the other word. It’s what you do now, it’s why you practice“middle C” on the piano. There are things that we have to teach you. We teach you how to use words. We make you
eat your vegetables; we tell you to go to sleep. Because we want to make sure that when you’re grown, and we’re nolonger there to instruct you, we have done our best. And we can’t let you take that away from us because it’sinconvenient. When you come to Virginia Tech, I’m going to say the same thing to you. Come sit in my writing classand see. But Amani, remember, when we had this discussion you were twelve years old.
Amani: Thirteen
Nikki: And you’ll say, “but I still think, Dr. Giovanni...” And I’ll say you still have to learn. I have to teach you what
I know because that’s all people can do for young people. We can only teach you what we know, so you can take thatas a basis to learn what you have to know. That’s called life. It’s why we have children, whether they’re biologicalchildren or they’re emotional children, as you are to the teachers, my students are to me. I am not their motherbiologically, but I am their mother emotionally. And I have to teach you what I know so, you don’t have to learn again
what I know. If I teach you what I know, then you can use that and go forward. If I don’t, then you’ll have to learn it
at some other point and that’s taking up time that we don’t have to spend.

32

Poetry
poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eyefinding peace in a crowded room
we poets tend to think
our words are golden
though emotion speaks too
loudly to be definedby silencesometimes after midnight or just before
the dawn
we sit typewriter in handpulling loneliness around us
forgetting our lovers or children
who are sleeping
ignoring the weary warinessof our own logic
to compose a poem
no one understands it
it never says “love me” for poets arebeyond loveit never says “accept me” for poems seek notacceptance but controversy
it only says “I am” and therefore
I concede that you are too
a poem is pure energy
horizontally contained
between the mindof the poet and the ear of the reader
if it does not sing discard the earfor poetry is song
if it does not delight discard
the heart for poetry is joy
if it does not inform then close
off the brain for it is dead
if it cannot heed the insistent message
that life is precious
which is all we poets
wrapped in our loneliness
are trying to say
Nikki Giovanni

Choices
if I can’t dowhat I want to dothen my job is to not
do what I don’t wantto doit’s not the same thing
but it’s the best I cando
if I can’t havewhat I want thenmy job is to want
what i’ve got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more
to want
since I can’t go
where I needto go then I must go
where the signs point
though always understanding
parallel movement
isn’t lateral
Nikki Giovanni33

Me
I look so good,
I have an army of bodyguards
To take the girls off men
When you look in my eyes,
You will fall into a trance and love me.
Just face it—
I look better than you.
I am so rich,I own Asia, Europe, and most of America
I have my private plane take meto the premieres of all the movies.
I make King Midas jealous;
I have lunch with Bill Gates every day.
I get shoes so new they won’t be
out till the year 2050.
My shoes are so shiny,
I can give myself a tan with them.
My teeth are so white,
They look like Casper the friendly ghost.
I am so strong,I lift weights with mountains.
I am so strong,
I can beat up Sumo wrestlers with my pinky.
I am so powerful,
I can turn an old toilet into pure gold.
I am so powerful,
I can turn dirt clumps into diamonds.
I am so smart,
Everyone comes to me for advice.
I am mysterious, powerful, and strong,
all of my answers are never wrong.
Justin Grell

34

Delonte Williams, Kevin Nowlin

Good Times
My father smells like
Peaches and cream.
My sister looks likeApples and oranges.
My teacher feels like pink roses.
My mother sounds likechurch music and slow dance music.
That is good.
Hear, and sing:Good times
Good times
Good times.
Nadaisha Martin

Never Noticing
I probably never notice the simple
things you see every day.
Things likea bee pollinating a flower,or theedge of the sidewalk where you
could fall or slide.
I probably never notice
the hummingbird
floating next to a flower,or thepeople on First Street starting fights,
the simple ant crawling in someone’s shoes.
Or
I might not notice the way the wind blows.
Joshua Waiters

My People
My cousin is an electrical current
because he is always bursting with energy.
My teachers are computers
because they’re always telling me things that I
don’t know.
My grandma is a goodie bag
because she’s full of surprises.

Point of View
I see birds taking baths and then flying sky high.
I see trees waving happily through the midnight sky.
I see people walking, talking, and fussing.
I see homes with happy families.
I see schools with children walking to them
I see cars racing in the roadI see fights with cussing and then police
I see light turn to night
I see the bright sun shining on me
I see people eating honeybuns
I see movies with action and emotions
I see boys playing b-ball
I seegirls running the halls
I see my family waving farewell as they go
I see stores with food and goodies
I see night when the sun slowly goes down to rest
I see light when the sun pops up early in the morning
I see fear when I walk through a dark alley
I hear, I see near, I see far
But most of all I see me.
Cieara Holman

My mom is a car
because she’s always going somewhere.
My grandfather is a balloon
because you never know when he’s gonna pop.
I am a neverending story
because I never know what’s gonna come next.
Virginia Rodgers-Owens

35

Lady Brown Upward
Bicentennial woman lying acrossher chenille carpet, with an indigo ember,eternally birthing her child in November,
thinking of which word she didn’t already say.
Unused shoes, worn down and abused,
can this be a time that I must refuse?
With a curious sensation, I bring the nationout of this depression of an unmatured crescent,this be the lesson that matures in the intangible flame.
Aligned and abiding, I shall stand by his side,
coming eternally alone, forever.
Brimstones dazzle in this bedazzled world,
harmed and unharmed by this dark gloomy cloud,she punished us aloud, and gave in to the crowd.
The man is awaiting, her sons now elating,while she is shared and shrewd, she doesn’t want to be rude,
but cruelty is all she knows.
He nestled by her window when it came upon
midnight of smoke, he inhaled, but didn’t choke,snuck in upon her bed and whispered these words in her ear:Let’s go to the alter, let’s sail the sea,
Let’s get you out of your nameand call you
Lady Brown Upward.

Connections
Liquid eternity, delicious poison,translucent present, describing memory,
devouring life, broken cloud, velvet sacrifice,porcelain ice, blazing cup of fate,drinking smoke, coffee ocean,rusty star, fresh decay, dirty purity,
stinky perfume, pierced color, unhealed day,vast angel, dark examination, webbed universe.
Surrounded in questions,haunting voice, born for darkness,
Sinful goodness, andI keep connecting.

Amani Al-Fatah

James Saunders

36

I learn by going where I have to go
I learn by going where I have to go.
I need to do what I have to do,but I learn by going where I have to go.
I have to learn never go the fast way—
It can lead you to the way you don’t need to go.
So I learn by going where I have to go.
If you want to get there fast, just go
but hurry up, because I learn by going
where I have to go.
I didn’t take the fast way,
I just take it slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Let Me Out
Pain is in this dark room like many speakers.
The cold drifts through the crack in my window.

Johniece Simms

My mother is gone
and I am home alone.

I Sit and Look Out

Alone where no one can find me.

I sit and look out thewindow at home, looking
at the cars passing by andthe kids running up anddown the street.
I see the sky and the birds fly.
I see the grass on the ground, and the trees,
and the leaves blowing my way.
I sit here andsee the drug dealers selling
drugs, saying Whitehorse,
Whitehorse, that’s what I see
looking out the window.
I smell people smelling very bad.
I hear peopleusing profanity.

In my soul, I am trying to break free,Free to get out and be happy.

Sharelle DoyeI feel like I am trapped inside a tower,
A tower with no windows or doors.
Someone please help me
and come rescue my soul.
Christina Ashford

37Top (left to right): Myana Gray, Sade Rauch, Charmyonne Bailey
Bottom (left to right): Chakia Chatman, Amani Al-Fatah

I sit and look out

A Clock’s DreamI sit and look out upon
all the shame of the worldand upon all the depression andsorrows

When a clock wants to go to sleep at night,
He firmly decides to stop ticking.

I hear kids’ convulsive sobs
from young teenagers at
risk with themselves
hurting themselves
after deeds done
I see in low life
Whitney Starr

He realizes the consequences,
That if he stops ticking,
There would
Be no day and night, but doesn’t
Care.
In his mind it’s going
Tic toc
Every tic toc that he hears
makes him ever-tired, and he eventually
goes to sleep.
Kimberly Settles

38

If You Need a Reason

Good Times

If you need a reason
come ask me.
You desire to know
where you come from.
You come from a connectionof two who are in love from the heart,
who softly confess their love.
You come from history,
who your grandmother gave birth to.
You come from cuts and wounds
from when you were little,
falling and falling.
Who was there to pick you up?
You come from people who wanted you in this world.
If you need a reason, justcome ask me.

I’m walking with my friends.
We’re talking and playing, just doing nothing,
But still they are good times,
Not worrying about anything,
But still it’s good times.
It’s the kind of good times that don’t
Require much.
Desmond WrightJessica Young

I sit and look
I sit and look and see
children running around at night.
Smell nothing but gun smoke and heat,kids throwing rocks
and busting bottles.
I look out my window and seetrees and the high-rise.
I listen out my window, hear shooting
and drive-bys.
And look out your window and
watch the kids play and have a good time.
Emmanuel Solomon

Hands
I can’t forget those hands you have,soft gentle big and strong.
When we go handin hand, I can feelthe fire between us.
but when you get violent I canfeel those big strong hands on
my body leaving
bruises and black eyes,
they turn rough and thefire got put out by
the beatings.
Jessica Young

39Wishing
That I can be the blue of the sky
and the three clouds in the sky,burning my heart with a warm
feeling that can’t let go.
Hating myself for being ungrateful,but now I knowthat I’m just as bright as the sun in the sky.
Pretty personality, beautiful as can be.
My sister, loving, but torn
by my outrageous anger
Now I’m a star in the sky,doing what I have to do,
not only following my heart,but following my mind,
doing my best
being as perfect as I can be.
Dreaming and wishing upon
the stars in the sky, and loving the moonthat shines at night.
Making my dreams come true,
but, at the same time, doing what I have to do.
Making the life that I want to live,
and dreaming of the wishing starthat I wished upon that night.
Chakia Chatman

Left to right: Jessica Young and Charmyonne Bailey in “Antigone”

Street Change
What happened?
everybody’s
gone, the street’s dead oldfriends move, no new friends
today all the ones who
we used to play withain’t our age no more, allthey do is drink and smoke
hey, everybody gets oldhouses, people, even thestreets change.
Jessica Young

40

Playground at Night
The playground goes to bed
he hears noise and gunshots so
he doesn’t go to sleep,and grown men play on the slideand climb on him.
The playground does not go to sleep
cause grown men play and slideand climb on him
he wants to be alone in the indigo forever,and this man makes him furious
slowly, slowly making him furious
and making him want to beunusedDelonte Williams

NaturalMe, I am natural, original that’s me
I’m the one who tells you
not to run from yourself.
I’m your counselor
your helper, I’m originally natural.
Nothing fake or fancy—
just the way I was made.
You see, I’m naturallike the orange juice you drinkor the pure vanilla in your ice cream.
The only, no one else can bemade just like me, I am originalnatural that’s me.
Claudia Butler

Death
The last deep breath, with a cold sigh.
No more pain, that corrupts your bodywhen you argue with the husband you once knew.
Gone, everything just gone.
Everything seems white.
You see yourlife flashing in front of your eyes
like a car hitting a deer or asudden loud scream.
The last deep breath,with a cold sigh,then death.
Claudia Butler

I Am Alone
I am alone, singing a songas a girl walks up on her cellphone.
I wanted to meet her so I could treat her,so she gave me a number for me to beep her.
I called her that night, she had me so hyped
I wanted to fight.
The next morning I pulled in the Rolls Royce,
took her to Toys R Us to play with some toys.
I took her back home to watch a DVD,and she told me, next time I am alone to stay in a tree.
Richard Williams

41

Left to right: Larry Robertson, Charmyonne Bailey, Londell Swales, Jessica Young, Pamula Twyman

2nd StrikeIn the Nile

This is about peace and harmony,love and ease, care and passion.
This ain’t about hate,burning crosses and breaking windows.
This one is for everyone who gets picked on
the bullies, the haters.
Doesn’t it feel good to be me at all?
See me ball, and you know
I ain’t gonna fall.
See me shine, burning your eyes,
smile like a sunrise,anger like a thousand midnights, but
I’m tired of seeing dead bodies on the news,
the war, the filth, the bloodshed, the guns,that Osama Bin Laden hating on us.
What happened to them old songs and poems?
Ya’ll people that don’t understand,just listen:
A song that weeps is a song of peace.

As I listen to the river
I can hear
the crying insanity oflost souls who can’t
remember their lastbirthday present from the sea.
It seems that the river
makes the sand dry.
And my dream becomes nothing morethan a rotting corpse.
It kind of reminds meof tomorrow’s newspaper
and yesterday’s television show.
So until I reach my watery destination
my next door neighbor will continue
to know my business andI will never be free

Kevin Nowlin

42

Londell Swales

Run Down...
Mmm. So sad. All the things sovulnerable to breakage. Like a
relationship. Kind, passionate, feeling likea duo of butterflies, metaphoricallythey flit to and fro.
Or family—
Mmm. Sometimes.
What does it take?
Lack of cooperation.
But what about the beauty, unity?
Okay, but still vulnerable to breakage.
Or self image. What does it take?
Anything like reflection, for instance,
every time it makes you feel uglier,until you feel hideous. Or anything.
What does it take?
Anything.
James Saunders

Hope For The Future
A smokey-gray worn out building,hoping and dreaming
for better windows, wonderfulbrown bricks, not remembering
the past, which was yesterday,
or last month.
He hopes soon to unravel the future,with blue skies, withwhite clouds sitting upon him.
He wishes he could be dressed up
in, not that smokey-gray like the past,
but the new brown bricks
with the black and white streets
for the future!

Butchers at Rest
Here they stand, restlessoutside of a butcher shop withnothing to do, taking
a cigarette break.
The cigarette is burning out,
without a doubt, memories unravel.
Remember thatold blue-black muddy building?
Thinking about the lives they havetaken away from animals.
Bloody, shredded, and it is dripping,
dripping all over the countertop
when they see a bird theytake a shot gun andshoot it off of a tree branch
What do they see?
Light.
Monique Covington

LonelinessI never knew loneliness
until I moved away.
It laylike a stone in my lap.
No matter how hard I try
it simply will not
go away.
I never knew loneliness
until I moved away
Timothy Miller

Kimberly Settles

43Boys with Swords
Boys with swords, balancing between
who’s right and who’s wrong. Just watching
the way they use their swords, as if
they were professionals, fighting in a match.
Boys with cardboard swords
caught every inch of my interest.
Cloudless skies of Harlem’s 1930s streets
make the performance more riveting. The action of
the boys and their cardboard toys is burning.
And burning with excitement.
Sade Rauch

Slow Time
Forever breeze, engaged in a maze
all locked up in a blue round ballsitting there,
looking out the window. What do I see?
Nothing. Just a bird trying to get
inside another bird’s nest,
knocking with anger,a very weird look.
What it was,it was this boring
Slow time.
Monique Covington

Poet
As I stare down at the pictures
in my photo album, I try to remember
the moments as they were happening,each moment no clearer than the last,more opaque and blank,
like the tired face on a willow tree.
As I try harder and harder
it starts to become
clearer, more translucent, like thewindows of my heart and soul.
Hakeemat Ayodeji

The True Words of My Prayer
The distance between the sky and meis unaccountable. I breathe a little ofthe sky at every breath,taking a glance at each countryside.
Watching the way things moveis filling my mind, making me wonder
how life can be so quiet. Watching the light kissmy voice, my soul will never die from hunger.
As challenging as it is to be here alone,with no one to talk to, this is quite peaceful.
The true words of my prayer.
Sade Rauch

44

When I Grow Up
When I grow up, I wonder if people will be
more afraid to cry than they are to die?
Would I be able to see a rainbow
in the small field’s sky?
Would there be any trees alive?
If not, how would the planet survive?
Would the Internet have a website—www.life-time air supply?
When I grow up,
will the existence of dolphins and whales
just be a story I tell,starting with once-upon-a-time,ending with, Where did we fail?
Would schools be next door to jails?
Would the truth be illegal to sell?
When I grow up, will anything be on the news
for anything besides killing?
Will those drug dealers still be standing
in front of my building?
Will TV and music videos still raise American children?
Will they ever learn how to learn,or stay afraid of the feeling?
Cause I want to be happy.
When I grow up!
Tiara Stevenson

Life
When I was born,
I waslittle and loved.
My parents’ eyes
glowing around me.
They loved me.
Nowthat I get bigger, if
I let a glass shatter,I get a belt blatteron you know what.
I’ve gotten bigger,
I have tosee poorness, meaning
people on the streets
asking for money.
Chantz Claggette

Untitled
Poles, knives,
these are things that gangs use.
Words, weapons,
that’s what hurts my feelings.
Bleeding or blood,that’s what makes them happy.
Gangstas killand killing makes the world a worse place.
They call each other names
to sound tough and mean.
Ferocious face of danger anda translucent mind of liquidsurrounding death and hatred.
45
Delonte Williams

The Reflections of Abuse
I thought it would be all right.
It turns out they will continue to fight.
I tried not to say anything
because I was afraid
to lose myself, like my mom.
They tried to keep it from me.
He probably will be moving.
Soon I hope. But it was
hard not to notice all themisplaced things, no clothes
on the racks, my lamp is
now cracked, and motheris no longer here.
I hope she’s okay.
Because I only think the worst
Is she dead, or is she hurt?
But one day I hope
to find her alive, healed, and well.
Only then can we start life over.
Without the abuse.
Nakeisha Winkfield

Left to right: Kevin Nowlin, Antonio Ashford, Robert Robinson

Abandoned
Boarded windows brought secret lies
Of a man withholding treachery.
Sad girl opens her thighs in the mist
Bringing out remembrance of drugs,
And the word no.
Calming her hand of bruised veins, of sassiness, andFiring shots.
Lured to the home of a man running the slalom,
He coerces her to get onto the floor.
But before all of the abruptness and shock,
Police come through the door,
With nightsticks, and cuffs, and black blood bricks,
With the man wielding these fierce fire sticks.
Woman cries, for her secret lies
Live inside the shackled apartment.
And to this day her pain lives on, of her baby departed.
Seven years later became 84 months or theHarlem gas station where boys buy their blunts.
The home is a liquor store, not sold with liquor.
And the homeless still try to pry openThose boarded up windows.
Lady left out at age 37,
Remembering her precious thighs,
Now abandoned.
Amani Al-Fatah

46

The Question to My Future
Would someone please help me
define the character of my future?
There is no
eternal answer to how my life will turn out.
The truth may not appear in my dreams.
Beginning a new life can be lonely.
Glorifying my life is like working a maze.
I wiselyclutch my glowing memories
to my past life.
I burn the embers for the winter breeze.
The shadow of my next life furiously
worries me with the troubles
this life will bring.
Shattering smoke slowly
dazzles the night,
making me ask the question,
How will my life be?
Sade Rauch

Little Boys on the Corner
Little boys on the block,gambling their day away,along with their future.
And the more they gamble,
the more their ambitions slip their mind.
They become pessimistic.
They have not been exposed
to many things in their lives,
so this is all they know.
But the little brother with the different father
that was accepted to Harvard, and put through college
is shouting, let’s go read a book.
The big brother screams, I can’t read.
He has a decision:
His brother or the boys,
and he picks the boys,
because this is all he knows.
James Saunders

Revenge
When the world ends
I’ll go to the movies with my friends.
We’d walk in and say
Give us all the food we want,
Cause today’s our last day.
We wouldn’t even watch the movie,
Just have a food fight,
Since there’s no one who has toClean it up the next night.
Then I would dig a very deep holeTo put my brothers in.
I’d laugh and smile and say
That’s what you get
For ripping off my fish’s fin.
I’d walk away as happy as can be.
Since there’s no tomorrow,
My parents can’t beat me.
Then I would go to my school,
And tell all the teachers they stink,
Then I’d wave my hands and say
Ha, ha—made you blink.
Yup, that would pay everybody backI’m happy and there’s no tomorrow
To be exact.
Emmaly Curry47

Questions
Will you learn from yourerrors, on your bike from falling
every time?
Will the truth to you be like a
blue landscape in the sky?
Will a cage to you belike having yourself trappedin a rock?
Will sand stick to yourfeet like glue?
Are your phalanges as solid
as a stone?
Antonio Ashford

Will a rhinoceros be likea bolt of thunder in the sky?
Does a monkey show indifference inthe way he acts?
Will you smile at theface of danger?
Will a mouse shoot up
and be gone like a fountain?
Will you think hard as askull about tomorrow and thenext day?
Antonio Ashford

What I Believe
I say to myself, you are not a child now
If the night is long, remember your importanceSleep
The sky begins to get dark
It starts to rain
I start to feel pain
Why am I feeling this way?
I begin to cry
What I live for I can seldom believe in
What I try to do is never enoughAs I start to dream of some words
Books and poems
I begin to speak
Am I still a child?
I start to think,
No, I’m getting older and I have to beMore mature.
Tyesha Tyson

48

In This WorldIn this world,
Flowers are as soft as clouds are,Glass, which is hard, shatters like thunder.
Danger is the funny business to those who despise it,
Like a fountain with no water, or a bird with no wings.
It’s indifference, it makes no sense.
Water flows, like people walking down the street,
Busy at the moment, never taking a rest.
Even though people think that tomorrow
Is the new aurora that will dawn a new day,It may be the same as Tuesday, or Friday, or Sunday.
Sometimes people see colors as a feeling
Instead of something that can be different, pretty,
That can make people feel happy,
Like blue or black, sorrow, pain,
Or pink, happy, glorious,
Or purple, tension, confusion.
In this strange world, where people swear they know the truth,
Act as if there is no error to what they are doing,
Stone is like sand, sometimes wet, smooth, prickly, sharpness,
Grass waves in the air, as the wind forcefully and defensively
Blows it away to sheer death.
Dolls climb trees, mostly because their owner mistreats them.
The most imaginable, dead strangeness
Comes to life.
Buses roar down the street
Like animals caged, like they’ve done something wrong,
Even though they were just living their lives like normal.
Would I want to live in a world in which everything is different,
Maybe complicated, scary?
I don’t think anyone would live through this nightmare.
I wouldn’t, anyway.
Kiona Bean

Danger Begins
The truth shatters like a black cagein a sandbox that’s worn out,
and stone soup
that’s just too plain to eat.
Thunder hanging
off an indifferent friend
and that’s how danger begins.
Delonte Williams

49

As I WalkAs I walk down
the street
I see the calm indigo skies.
I see sorrowful flames.
I see men in monochromatic clothes
looking out of a
glowing window.
During winter it is cold.
It is also beautiful.
But in spring it shatters.
Antonio Ashford

Dream
I look through thesilver window of the pastand see my grandmother, her shadows
her fear is staring at me.
I then decay andfall from my last
grandmother’s back from the past
Her pale face withers
and I scream.
Thank God
this was only a dream.
Monique Covington

Tangled Thoughts
When the thunder created the cat,that was indifference,
When the danger of endangered species
lived tomorrow and not today,
When on a playground you see the winter starmaking an error of
the stone
who once was sand.
The picture of young Ismene
tells the story of Oedipus, but
still the trumpet glorifies
his sound, to warn usof the useless flame of yesterday.
For every error, there’s an answer.
Nakeisha Winkfield

Untitled
I never noticed thehatred in the world. I heard
it a lot on MTV, but I justdidn’t care. Now I recognize
the hatred people haveagainst people of other races, religions
and sexual orientation.
When I think about it, it’s justso egocentric. How can you notcare about another human being?
I mean, we was all made the same way.
Janay Bailey

50

Moons Smile
I thank you God for making me mother’s baby and father’s child,for making moons smile and sunshine,
for making tears fall like frost’s crystal.
I thank you for making grass green and yellow sunlight.
I thank you for making me Charnise Lajaun Bell.
Charnise BellA Lonely RoomAs I stare into the four corners
I wonder, why is the child balled up
with her head to her knees? Is she lonely?
When I splatterthe black paint in the corner,
I say to myself, what do I see in this color?
Is it dark skies
for the end of the world?
or the sadnessof a mother losing her child at an early age?
While I stand in the middle of the roomwith bloody tears falling from my eyes,
I feel the sorrow and pain
in a corner of the room with chipped paint.
As I look to my only hope, the last corner
I see a bookbag full of old memories
and the good things life used to bring.
I start bleeding from my pores as I cry
Oh Lord, please take meout of this lonely room.
Claudia Butler

Dark Eternity
Waves of poison breath all around,Sea of souls inhaling lives,
The earth devouring lives like an army,
Blazing cup of darkness,
Choosing if you stay or go,
Surrounded in darkness forever,And a dark voice saying—
Are you eating yesterday,
Or is it eating you?
Reginald Williams

Can’t Stand It
Marooned in the uneven four-sided room.
Hunger is moving in, but
the faith is moving away,
full of fear and rage, black andcrimson red. Where am I?
People dressed up in worn-out white cover
performing Hamlet and you know me,
I got to watch.
Other side, that side-tracked prideis flying away, the busted-up, fried-up,
off the wall trust is all lies, and you think
I don’t have problems.
They lied to ya.
This room is like a technicolor fluteused to catchthe sorrows of dead princes that dieda long time ago.
I just can’t stand it.
It ain’t easy being me, but nobody
can do it better.
Kevin Nowlin

51

This RoomThis corner is closed up
with no air but
I wish it wasan A.C. there.
Just like in space, objects floating in
one corner and big dust balls
gliding toward me.
The next corner is filledwith a dead prince, it does notmake any sense.
The next has fear and rage
Just like you are ina locked up cage.
The last corner has black dustwith darkness of death.

If Everyone Had Amnesia
If no one remembered, I would...
I would help people who don’t know me,
like an elf helping Santa...
I would help my mother’s friends
with their kids, like a mother and a baby...
I would tell my friends the truth about me,
like a lawyer nagging the prosecutor...
I would release my anger on a canvas,
the paint is my feelings as the red oflove takes over...

Chantz Claggette

Then, done, all I would bring them all
back, and start over again.

Do We?

Jade Mayo

A leaf drips into a puddle of cries from me.
It glows with a radiant light from the sky
Called the sun, or is that what it’s called?
The flipside of me has mood swings,
A perpetual motion of my grateful heart.
We all try to live right, or do we?
Freedom of my heart bursts out like a wildfire in the jungle.
One threw a cigarette out while driving, or did he?
Nobody knows for sure, or do we?
Charmyonne Bailey52

In this room

Bad Times

In this room
I dream of every night
there are four corners.
Corners of color,
people, emotions, and objects.

I’m falling into a dim light,
Frozen as an ice cube,
Hoping to rise to the top.
With hardship going through my mind
And thawing at the same time
These are bad times.
This is what I’m talking about:
Poverty’s in my house,
Just wondering how I am going to get out.
Eating food off the floor,
Why can’t I be adored?
These are bad times.

In the first corner
there is my grandfather, theperson who fills me withjoy and happiness.
He alsocan fill me with tears.
In the second corner there isa Michael Jordan basketball,a ball that I got for Christmas
and will keep
for the rest of my life.
In the third corner is agold and silver color.
Some parts
are platinum, reminding meof rap music, which
I listen to.
There are emotions in
the last corner.
Happiness, anger, and joy.
What I feel for
my family.

Ashlee Owens

Stuck
Yet you say those rumors are indifference
But let’s take a glimpse of God’s error.
Falling from emerald trees because
too much green falls into a sand trap.
Stalling and weeping upon fall
into a stilled stone.
Angels’ truth tarnishes
your every waking moment.
Like caged animals attacking you
while you try to jump.

Antonio Ashford
There is soon to be athunderstorm of envied souls.
Your car gives bad luck and leads
you out of danger.

53
Blood portrays the angry
water fountain.
Another tomorrow in sadness.
Amani Al-Fatah

No Longer Existed
You’re no longer there. You’re nowhere.
You’re just as transparent as the wind that blows.
As far as I’m concerned,
I don’t even know you.
You’re a window I can see right through.
You’re the filament of my imagination.
Your words have no meaning.
When I think about you,
You make my brain suffocate.
Now my memory of you is lost.
Now my memory of you is just another passing day,
So go away.
I can’t see you, you’re not there.
You’re just a breeze that blows in the air.
You’re just a dream that went away.
So all I have to do is wait another day.

Anna Myers adds music to “Antigone”

Difference

Chakia Chatman

Bad Times
Stuff falling, roaches crawlingcarpet dusty, forks rusty
cold nights, many micecold food, very rude
ugly floors, broken doors
lots in store, clothes that can’t be wore
old shoes, lots of rules
lots of boys, not a lot of toys
many fights, not much light
but when the good times comeeverything will be all right.
Robert Randolph

He dreams as if he has no meaning.
He dreams of different-looking nouns
in their different-looking corner.
He has been through a lot already,but the birds flying away from him is too much.
He wonders, if he can wonder,
if there is a different person
who will not stereotype him for his different looks.
Or can that person afford to have a stereotype?
He dreams of everyone having
their arms wrapped around their body,with a discomforting expression on their faces.
He is so used to rejection that hedoesn’t know how to approach anyone.
But he doesn’t know that they
all have something in common.
I wonder how much longer
can he hold onto self destruction?
Whoever that person is, I hope he doesn’tfeel different forever.
James Saunders54

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○hArtworks possible!

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55

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Clockwise from left: Charmyonne Bailey, Reginald Williams, James Saunders, Chantz
Claggette, Amani Al-Fatah

This magazine was made possible
by funding from theCommonweal Foundation,
the Arcana Foundation, andThe Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz FoundationhArtworks
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