Harriet Tubman. She stands in my thinking a menacing presence balanced in her years after the Civil War with marriage, property ownership, the building from a vision she carried, and a life serving Colored folks in the hard years learning how to no longer be slaves! It was a hard time after the Civil War most have no concept of, but her depth is in the role she played during the freed times (1965-1876)! How to live when Southern whites unleashed their rage from 1866 on are a complex circle of interlocked stories making the buzzing sound in the undercurrent of modern life in the States!
Harriet Tubman is a complex part of America's contradictions, and the bane of the country's existence. If white Americans were to understand why an African freed slave would terrorize them freeing African souls, and why she killed those Negroes, who wanted to go back to their masters, they'd better understand the dark of their souls, and their existence!
When she said, she'd admonished slaves running north with the words: "If you hear dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going!" she was talking with and talking to the warrior spirit prepared to die to live!
I don't want to participate in the romanticizing of the woman, or her hard work. It is where she has slipped into in the expanse of time since her life was lived. And I do not want
Harriet Tubman is a complex part of America's contradictions, and the bane of the country's existence. If white Americans were to understand why an African freed slave would terrorize them freeing African souls, and why she killed those Negroes, who wanted to go back to their masters, they'd better understand the dark of their souls, and their existence!
When she said, she'd admonished slaves running north with the words: "If you hear dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going!" she was talking with and talking to the warrior spirit prepared to die to live!
I don't want to participate in the romanticizing of the woman, or her hard work. It is where she has slipped into in the expanse of time since her life was lived. And I do not want
HOLD ON...
by jojo brooks shifflett
And in the Winter of life, Hold on.
Hold on to you, Not who you think you should have been.
Hold on to what you know to be good, if it be but a bit of bread and honey,
or if it be a bit of earth that warms you,
or a face that makes you smile.
Hold on to these things that made you, you.
Hold on to what you must now do,
Even if it means traveling far away.
Hold on to life,
When it is easier to just let go.
Hold on to my hand,
No matter the distance between us.
For my dear one, you still hold my heart,
though we be so far, far apart.
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