Schooled by the NOI and 5-percenter types
Inspired by the Garveyites
Preached by the holy-rollers, evangelicals, and pulpit pimps
Prayed by those with a 'personal relationship' with Isa bin Maryan
Lectured in classes by leaders of the masses
And hipped by the wannabe-poets at coffee bashes.
Stuck around to hear Tony Brown
On symposium with Van Sertima, Sanchez and Gregory
Listening to Akbar in my car
Impressed by Douglass
Read the works of Woodson...Videos on Clarke and Robeson
Checked everything Panther while my Eyes Were on the Prize
Books and books, seems like a thousand
Music by Coltrane and Roland Kirkland
Scriptures by Tailsman, folk songs by Shaman
Even took out a while to visit a voodoo peristyle.
Yet for all these ways my midnight gaze catches the starts ablaze
And I wonder, what spell I have been under.
