Black Super Hero Music

The history of black music in a poem :)

Can you hear it? 
That sound, 
Like flying insects 
Or, gravel churning 
It burns deep from with in 
The cotton plantations of their throats. 
Can you hear it? 
That sad sound 
Reminiscent of the Congo 
Blacker than shackles and chains 
He refused to hear it. 
Masta wasn't fond of that sound 
So their voices tangled 
With the late evening winds. 
Singing free inside shacks 
Made of dying wood. 
First, 
Would come their stomping 
Followed by, 
The clapping of calloused hands 
Then, 
The baritone, deep like 
Ocean blue emotion begins to sing. 
" Swing Low.... 
Sweet Chariot.... 
Coming forth to carry me home" 
Slaves sang songs to ease their suffering 
Soothing song lyrics were like 
Band-aids on bullet wounds 
However, 
The same songs that kept the slaves hopes alive 
Fueled the Civil Rights movement. 
Negro spirituals we're on more black lips 
Than sugar water. 
The negro spiritual, 
The Black super hero's theme song

Reviews

[LA Lorena]

The power of song is incredible, it can take us back in time, or urge us forward as an anthem....it can make us relive past lives and memories, and it can unite us as a people. (Except for disco, that s**t should just be burned!) ;)

[Emily B]

there is power in a song, and I'm not sure you have fully explored that

as a livinig historian, I feel that if you plan to take up a cross, preach on the wrongs of the past, you have to walk the path, pick cotton and walk the underground railroad, and suffer a little to know just how it felt

I say this knowing that my ancestors traveled on ships and were sold the same way, it has a prettier name, history books have sanitized it, indentured servitude was just as much a life sentence, I see the effects of that practise on the people who live around me. I guess I don't write poems about it.

I don't think your work does justice to the history of black music. The subject is too vast, too important to be summed up in "the negro spiritual, the black super hero's theme song."

[Tasha]

This was amazing! It felt as if I was going back in time listening to those songs. A lot of those songs and brave people have gotten us to where we are today. Outstanding job Elijah!!! :)

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

I feel this is a through back to a more event and cancerous time. the poem is grammatically astute and flows perfectly, I feel though that you are holding back, when it comes to using words such as Negro or black, in a poets wording the plan is to shock which you have done on many occasions so dont be afraid here, very well written my friend.