seems jesus
& his big daddy
both white men / to me
else what the hell do that pair / have
against the poor
& brown
& free
the pale trinity
hz crushed haiti in their fist
did it feel as good as phuket
tsunami / quake / or lava
what jacks them off the best
long bone fingers at the throb
aiming down on new orleans
jesus is a white man / i'm sayin
jesus is now a white man / to me
Maxine Beneba Clarke's new poetry collection Gil Scott Heron is on Parole will be launched at Readings, Carlton on February 18.
spoken word 'bourne
Maxine, this is powerful and beautiful work. I simply love "long bone fingers at the throb /
ReplyDeleteaiming down on new orleans."
Is that your artwork you have in the column and below (flier for new writers)? If so, you are one multi-talented lady. Hope you are well.
How could I possibly respond to this? What the hell is happening to the world? To all the innocent people? God is a liar, I don't want to see another rainbow until he / she sorts all this out.
ReplyDeleteThat's a brilliant poem, full of controlled power. I think you have found a stability inside to work from again. The idea of things being 'acts of God' is endlessly intriguing. Religeon was invented by White Men, for sure. Spirituality on the other hand,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to find words...
ReplyDeleteThanks all, for coming here and reading this. One of those poems that just seemed to come: from nowhere and everywhere. I won't say 'wrote itself', cause that just sounds trite:) Anyhow, then I wouldn't be able to take all those credits you're handing over to me...
ReplyDeleteSometimes they 'do' write themselves. :)
ReplyDeletenicely done..
ReplyDeleteyou are awsome..
No, he's not a white man. I don't think he is, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis is good work.
Let me post this on Poéfrika.
ReplyDeleteHi Rethabile - Have you met him? If you're tight, could you put in a good word for me with the brother :) ? I'd be most honoured for you to post this on Poefrika. Please post away!
ReplyDeleteIt is devastating what has happened in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteYay, for the permission to post. That's cool, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOn the other subject, I have thought extensively about this, and blogged it here and also here.
Thanks again for the poem.
powerful and fierce!!!
ReplyDeletexoxox gypsy
Brilliant Maxine. This piece quakes and trembles with our pain; our searching for the reason, whose massive 'fault' it is, that it happened. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame god for the earthquake, as those happen to all people.
ReplyDeleteBlame god for the African's low IQ, which renders him incapable of dealing with disasters.
Who's low IQ Anonymous? I have a law degree. Judging by your comment,and the fact that you have time on your hands to lurk around making racist remarks in people's lives I'm faring much better than you in life.
ReplyDeleteJesus is a white man? Well, them fundamentalists won't give you any argument there ! (Great FIRE here--love it, Maxine.)
ReplyDeleteMaxine,
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the discrepancies in response are partly due to groups evolving different average traits.
What seems to be true from preliminary studies is that the gene variants that were under strong selection over the past 10,000 years are different in different clusters. That is, the way that modern people differ, due to natural selection, from their own ancestors 10,000 years ago, is not the same in each cluster (population or racial group). We have been experiencing divergent evolution.
Recent research shows that at least 7% of the genome has undergone recent selection over the past 10,000 years. Some already seen such as DAB1 or SLC6A4 relate to neurological function and are likely to affect behaviour in some way. So it is likely that average differences in cognitive ability have arisen, in addition to the average differences in athletic ability, testosterone etc..
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"jesus is a white man / i'm sayin
ReplyDeletejesus is now a white man / to me"
Thankfully White Jesus is getting White countries, to hundreds of millions in public and private donations and construction skills.
"jesus is a white man / i'm sayin
jesus is now a white man / to me"
Thankfully White Jesus is getting White countries, to send hundreds of millions in public and private donations and construction skills.
India and China, who both have over a billion people pledged to give a mere one million dollars to Haiti. That’s $2 million from 2.5 billion people, or less than 0.1 cent per person.
These countries are not as wealthy as the US, but I would think they can afford more than 0.1 cent per person.
And yet, nobody will complain. Nobody will say they didn’t give enough. You know why? Because these countries won’t take any crap from anyone. If the Haitians don’t like getting one million, they won’t get one penny.
Maxine, given that whites will be coming to rebuild the place, I'd like to suggest you stop your hateful rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you're living in a majority white country too isn't it? Why don't you leave and take your racial bitterness with you.
great poem. but what if jesus was black though? it's possible. then what?
ReplyDeletei thought jesus was a jew--a race of people that have been discriminated against the most such as in the holocaust.
ReplyDeleteUmmmm, to the anonymous who talked about a white Australian country, it is a country that was taken through the massacre of the black, indigenous inhabitants. I'd suggest, in fact, please, that you open a history book.
ReplyDeletePoetry is renowned for not being literal. ‘Jesus’ in this poem are the powers that be. ‘Jesus’ in this poem is the contingent which failed to properly evacuate new orleans, despite the information they had at hand. ‘Jesus’ in this poem are the post-colonial factors which lead to the appalling third world living conditions which make tragedies such as the Haitian quake so much more devastating. In this sense, ‘Jesus’ in this poem is a factual construct, rather than a fanciful, or religious figures.
In this sense, the hysteria this post has resulted in speaks more to commentator’s imposition of their own assumptions about my intentions on a piece of creative work, than in does to the intention behind the work.
The people coming to Haiti’s aid are those who have the power, resources and training to do so. I won’t go into he social and historical origins of this power, resources and training as they seems fairly obvious.
In closing, I’d like to say that I have nothing against white people, God or males. Some of my best friends are white male Gods.
All anonymous comments should be completely disregarded. They are usually just people trying to provoke an argument for their own perverse pleasure. Personally I just delete them, don't even read them. Hold every single comment that contains any links for checking. And when the inevitable ignorant racist scum show up, smack them, Maxine style. I have been reading a lot of Angela Davis lately and I discovered a new word, which I will tell you soon. You are fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul
ReplyDeleteI also discovered the rest of the above passage (posted by the anonymous 'Realist') over at NewScientist:
"They spoil their argument by contending that the majority of the differences that have an impact on individuals are differences between one racial group and another, rather than those within individual racial groups. As they acknowledge, the evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin has pointed out that at least 85 per cent of human genetic variation is within racial groups. They do not deny this, but they do make the entirely specious argument that human evolution is like that of domesticated dogs, where between-breed differences are far more important than within-breed differences.
The history of domesticated dogs, however, is very different from that of our species. For us, while there has been selection for superficial differences like skin colour that enable groups to adapt to different environments, there has also been strong selection for high levels of diversity within each group. By de-emphasising within-group variation, the authors ignore some of the most powerful trends in our recent rapid evolution and resurrect dangerous arguments about the importance of racial differences."
Ad hominum: how can anyone possibly believe the statements being vomited from the minds of the brave person behind the 'anonymous' tag and behind the flagrant misnomer 'realist'. White countries should be contributing more, they are steeped in a history of rape, to the point they have accumulated so much they have left the rest of the world with nothing. As for your 'god'? I will leave that for the next comment. Please respond, keep in mind that I am a white man, so you will have to type slowly, use short words, and for fuck's sake don't attack me personally, I don't have the ego that could take it.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteMaxine wrote: "In this sense, the hysteria this post has resulted in speaks more to commentator’s imposition of their own assumptions about my intentions on a piece of creative work, than in does to the intention behind the work"
OUCH! My god Maxine, I heard that slap around the world.
Why did you have to hit the mental midget with a brick?
The movie "Life": Cuz you're a nasty MFer. *LOL* But you know what, after listening to his messy mess, I doubt he has the capacity to understand your above comment.
At any rate, you're a better person than me. I do not answer "private" phone calls or address individuals that post under "anonymous". What's the point? I mean, if I am not responding to a "person" (don't know if I am) then why should I waste my time.
Plus, as witnessed, the topic of race and racism is a very slippery slope. There's generally few resolutions when debating this issue in a forum such as this.
You are an artist, don't let some fool take you down their path.
Now, the following is old school: My daddy used to say, don't be nobodies fool. If you argue with a fool, there will soon be 2 fools arguing.
Also, game is made to be sold and not told.
This is yo' house! Just delete that fool. He's not paying rent or running a goddamn thing up in here. Move him to the trash bin. You owe him NOTHING!
God isn''t white or black He is a Spirit and you must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. you can't blame God for disasters could you blame your mother if you fell.earthquakes can happen to anyone stop blaming God for what happened
ReplyDeleteI second that
ReplyDeleteBoth Anonymous commentators, I refer you to my previous comment:
ReplyDeletePoetry is renowned for not being literal. ‘Jesus’ in this poem are the powers that be. ‘Jesus’ in this poem is the contingent which failed to properly evacuate new orleans, despite the information they had at hand. ‘Jesus’ in this poem are the post-colonial factors which lead to the appalling third world living conditions which make tragedies such as the Haitian quake so much more devastating. In this sense, ‘Jesus’ in this poem is a factual construct, rather than a fanciful, or religious figures.
In this sense, the hysteria this post has resulted in speaks more to commentator’s imposition of their own assumptions about my intentions on a piece of creative work, than in does to the intention behind the work.
Anon Ymous, these comments aren't brilliant. However, you have come up with some magnificent quotes in the past. I'd recognise your first name, Anon, anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe people who blame God the most are those who blindly follow him and curse him for not helping them carry the large and heavy sack of gold they have over their shoulder that they gained from yesterdays conquest of the naive and weak.
ReplyDeletehey maxine;'
ReplyDeleteget fucking real!
This black man says your prog-ebony-granola trip is real weak!
Ah, but see you're not black as far as I can see, you're Anonymous.
ReplyDelete