Spirit moves through space and time
Trying to find home again
That place where border crossing is not necessary
Because borders don't exist
Boundaries are blurred
Self is collective
And collective is self
The universe is perfect
Nature is complete
And the body is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit moves through space and time
Trying to find home again
That place where omega meets alpha and light no longer shades darkness
Where air, and water, and earth meet
And person and personhood become one
Where breathe equals life
And life meets spirit
Where spirit is complete
And the soul is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping out of first space first
No more hiding within the walls of the only earthly home self and spirit has ever known
Where love is unapologetic
And personhood is nurtured
But spirit, living in self, must hide
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping out of second space too
No more switching codes and wearing masks
Silencing tongues and
hiding behind respectability and identity politics
No more!
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping through and over third space
Where yearning for understanding within public places become normative
And sharing ways of being becomes the roots of my talents growing in someone else's garden
No more consuming my culture
And leaving me starving for myself
This fruit I bear, belongs to me!
And watching me! It! fade to white! ness! in third space
No more!
Spirit moves through space and time
Unapologetically reclaiming fourth space
Not first space, or second space, or even third space
"FOURTH SPACE"
space void of reconstructions of uncritical multicultural co-constructions
Not built in the waste of Europe's colonial project
A space without remnants of self retold as half-truths
Half-truths narrated in the tongue of the oppressor's performance
A space resistant to disrupting everything in me and dismantling nothing!
A space blind to calls for transformation wrapped in sweet drippings of progressive liberalism,
A space that refuses to give in to language appeasement, patience, and time as enough!
A space I reclaim as my own! OURS!
Spirit moves through space and time
Standing here in fourth space
Looking back no more
Unapologetic and unafraid
Walking in indigenous ways of being and knowing
Speaking in mother's tongue
Reclaiming cultural truths
Engaging spirit and uninhibited personhood
Being
And becoming
No longer seeking
Home Again
Spirit moves through space and time
Trying to find home again
That place where border crossing is not necessary
Because borders don't exist
Boundaries are blurred
Self is collective
And collective is self
The universe is perfect
Nature is complete
And the body is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit no longer moves through space and time
Because she has arrived
Out of the light that became Whiteness and restoratively reclaiming the darkness that is my Blackness!
Liberated and liberating
In Fourth Space! Home Space! My Space! Our Space!
In this Space, Spirit Moves!
MY POETIC REFLECTIONS ON MY POETRY
I hear folks speak about "creating space" in the academic worlds I inhabit. It seems everybody is in the practice of creating or needing space. It's almost laughable! Almost! Until it's not!
When I consider the discourse of “creating space" within the context of the colonial project it is no longer laughable. In this context, space becomes something that whiteness hoards for itself while those living outside of it grovel to be let in. Whiteness owns this space we speak of; explicitly and implicitly, in ways that endow it and those living within it with the right and privilege to share it, give it back to us, make us ask for it, so they can create it for us again, as if space is not something we already collectively inhabit, have inhabited in the past, and will inhabit in the future! And because whiteness claims space was its own, a "thing" that others must ask for, and/or be granted to inhabit and use, we do just that, we ask for it, and it is granted, or not, and in this way, this phenomena of creating space, and the discourses that live within, becomes yet another tool, used by the oppressor, to advance the colonial project!
When I consider the discourse of space in this way, it lends voice to the early musings of Julia Anna Cooper whose works breathe life into my own multi conscious musings, giving birth to my questions: How does one gift another, space, time, and place? Are these things not something already gifted to us by the universe simply because we ARE? I might conjecture the answer to the latter is an emphatic Yes! They are! I guess that's why when I hear folks, including self, talking about creating and needing space, my initial reaction is an inner eye roll, causing me to engage some pretty clever self-talk to remind myself that space as a property right to be gifted to others is part of the lie called whiteness that the colonial project created!
What is whiteness anyway? No, not white people, though many live within its trenches. Whiteness is a lie that forces us to believe in white supremacist ideologies, even when we don't know we harbor them. Whiteness creates the socially constructed lies that inform our sensibilities about people, places, and things-sensibilities that would have us believe that all things white are right. Whiteness also forces us to view blackness as its diametrical opposite. It is not! Blackness is not dependent upon whiteness to exist, just as my Black body is not dependent upon whiteness to gift me the space to be. Blackness existed before whiteness was created! This I know because the existence of diametrical extremes, bifurcated positionalities, and opposite sides of the same coin is also an alternative fact that whiteness has created and requires us to believe to survive and thrive. The truth? There is no either or. There only IS! And the truth? Blackness is that thing we call alpha and omega. It is truth before we created a white lie. It is grace and faith without knowing the lie whiteness created because in blackness we could not see the lie. We just were! Blackness is taking up space the universe gifted and reclaiming it as our own without waiting for whiteness to gift it to us, create it for us, make it with us, because like Blackness, space too, just IS! And within it, my spirit moves freely, allowing me to BE even as I am BECOMING!
Trying to find home again
That place where border crossing is not necessary
Because borders don't exist
Boundaries are blurred
Self is collective
And collective is self
The universe is perfect
Nature is complete
And the body is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit moves through space and time
Trying to find home again
That place where omega meets alpha and light no longer shades darkness
Where air, and water, and earth meet
And person and personhood become one
Where breathe equals life
And life meets spirit
Where spirit is complete
And the soul is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping out of first space first
No more hiding within the walls of the only earthly home self and spirit has ever known
Where love is unapologetic
And personhood is nurtured
But spirit, living in self, must hide
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping out of second space too
No more switching codes and wearing masks
Silencing tongues and
hiding behind respectability and identity politics
No more!
Spirit moves through space and time
Stepping through and over third space
Where yearning for understanding within public places become normative
And sharing ways of being becomes the roots of my talents growing in someone else's garden
No more consuming my culture
And leaving me starving for myself
This fruit I bear, belongs to me!
And watching me! It! fade to white! ness! in third space
No more!
Spirit moves through space and time
Unapologetically reclaiming fourth space
Not first space, or second space, or even third space
"FOURTH SPACE"
space void of reconstructions of uncritical multicultural co-constructions
Not built in the waste of Europe's colonial project
A space without remnants of self retold as half-truths
Half-truths narrated in the tongue of the oppressor's performance
A space resistant to disrupting everything in me and dismantling nothing!
A space blind to calls for transformation wrapped in sweet drippings of progressive liberalism,
A space that refuses to give in to language appeasement, patience, and time as enough!
A space I reclaim as my own! OURS!
Spirit moves through space and time
Standing here in fourth space
Looking back no more
Unapologetic and unafraid
Walking in indigenous ways of being and knowing
Speaking in mother's tongue
Reclaiming cultural truths
Engaging spirit and uninhibited personhood
Being
And becoming
No longer seeking
Home Again
Spirit moves through space and time
Trying to find home again
That place where border crossing is not necessary
Because borders don't exist
Boundaries are blurred
Self is collective
And collective is self
The universe is perfect
Nature is complete
And the body is gifted the Grace universe provides
Spirit no longer moves through space and time
Because she has arrived
Out of the light that became Whiteness and restoratively reclaiming the darkness that is my Blackness!
Liberated and liberating
In Fourth Space! Home Space! My Space! Our Space!
In this Space, Spirit Moves!
MY POETIC REFLECTIONS ON MY POETRY
I hear folks speak about "creating space" in the academic worlds I inhabit. It seems everybody is in the practice of creating or needing space. It's almost laughable! Almost! Until it's not!
When I consider the discourse of “creating space" within the context of the colonial project it is no longer laughable. In this context, space becomes something that whiteness hoards for itself while those living outside of it grovel to be let in. Whiteness owns this space we speak of; explicitly and implicitly, in ways that endow it and those living within it with the right and privilege to share it, give it back to us, make us ask for it, so they can create it for us again, as if space is not something we already collectively inhabit, have inhabited in the past, and will inhabit in the future! And because whiteness claims space was its own, a "thing" that others must ask for, and/or be granted to inhabit and use, we do just that, we ask for it, and it is granted, or not, and in this way, this phenomena of creating space, and the discourses that live within, becomes yet another tool, used by the oppressor, to advance the colonial project!
When I consider the discourse of space in this way, it lends voice to the early musings of Julia Anna Cooper whose works breathe life into my own multi conscious musings, giving birth to my questions: How does one gift another, space, time, and place? Are these things not something already gifted to us by the universe simply because we ARE? I might conjecture the answer to the latter is an emphatic Yes! They are! I guess that's why when I hear folks, including self, talking about creating and needing space, my initial reaction is an inner eye roll, causing me to engage some pretty clever self-talk to remind myself that space as a property right to be gifted to others is part of the lie called whiteness that the colonial project created!
What is whiteness anyway? No, not white people, though many live within its trenches. Whiteness is a lie that forces us to believe in white supremacist ideologies, even when we don't know we harbor them. Whiteness creates the socially constructed lies that inform our sensibilities about people, places, and things-sensibilities that would have us believe that all things white are right. Whiteness also forces us to view blackness as its diametrical opposite. It is not! Blackness is not dependent upon whiteness to exist, just as my Black body is not dependent upon whiteness to gift me the space to be. Blackness existed before whiteness was created! This I know because the existence of diametrical extremes, bifurcated positionalities, and opposite sides of the same coin is also an alternative fact that whiteness has created and requires us to believe to survive and thrive. The truth? There is no either or. There only IS! And the truth? Blackness is that thing we call alpha and omega. It is truth before we created a white lie. It is grace and faith without knowing the lie whiteness created because in blackness we could not see the lie. We just were! Blackness is taking up space the universe gifted and reclaiming it as our own without waiting for whiteness to gift it to us, create it for us, make it with us, because like Blackness, space too, just IS! And within it, my spirit moves freely, allowing me to BE even as I am BECOMING!
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