"Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" -Adrian Green*
Honestly, at first I could not fathom the potential energy that is stored in words. The poet, in whatever incarnation, is a wealth of potential and their words are like fully charged batteries.
I always had a leaning towards English and the subjects generally referred to as the arts in school, so History caught my attention more so than Geography, and I preferred English to Mathematics. I was writing poetry from the age of 6/7 and talking foolishness, a skill in its own right, for as long as I can remember. Still this did not leave me immune to the trappings of adolescence and the tricky teenage years, so a lot of the things I did or liked were directly and indirectly influenced by peer pressure and the expectations of my peers and the general teenage consensus. In simpler terms, consciously and subconsciously my movements were dictated by one simple thing, coolness. I wrote poetry, lots of it actually, but never really did much with it, and I sure as hell was not going to listen to poetry albums, much less buy them, and especially not the rootsy, culture filled ones like AJA's, "Doing it Saf" - jokes!
However, as I said I did like History, and I was writing and reading poetry, though not as often as I wish I did now, so when I got to around 5th form and I began to mature(even if my actions did not reflect the intellectual growth) my perceptions started to change, my attention to "cool" started to change. This was as I was preparing my History SBA (School Based Assessment) which was based on the work of Dr. Ivan van Sertima, and more specifically, his book, "They Came Before Columbus". The work of van Sertima opened my mind's eye and shifted my existing historical paradigm and set me on a course to find out about Africa, in a pre-European era. As I began to connect with this history and this culture of "enlightenment" I began to lose some of the romantic notions I had early on when I first read van Sertima, and I began to see that everything in this subculture was not pristine and perfect. There were lazy people in "the struggle", there were out and out frauds, looking to capitalise on the hopefulness of others, but those eye openers aside, there was work to be done and not much people knew exactly how to set about this work. This annoyed me a bit, probably because I was, as are most teens, anxious and a bit impatient and expected that the elders would at least know what they were doing. This led to me writing a poem called "Rant" and it was, as the title suggests, me ranting about some of the inadequacies in the "Black Power/Pan African" movement.
All of this was not said to initiate any talk about the movement and its glories or its short comings and misgivings, but was a convoluted way of getting you to understand the mindset I was in when I wrote the poem linked above.
"Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" I did not. My mother had AJA's album and I listened to it, under the rule of coolness, with the intention of getting some laughs at the "funny talking dashiki wearing rastaman", and I did get some laughs. The last laugh, however, was to be AJA's, because even though I was mocking the works at first, the words from some of the pieces became imprinted in my mind and remained there. Fast forward a few years and my mother, knowing I write poetry and do the NIFCA thing from time to time, brought home this book by a young Bajan poet who worked as the tech guy in her office, a little known guy with a sweet Riddim and Flo' going by the name DJ Simmons. I read the book, and at first the poems did not move me much, because at the time my poetry was in standard English with traditional structure and arrangement, so this dialect work was not so much my thing, it was nice, but just not my thing. Fast forward a little bit in time and I found myself at a show put on by "two roaring lions" and for the first time the question is posed to me, " Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?", and it was as if the poet had known that I was unsure, and he would have had to have been pretty damn intuitive because at the time I myself was not aware that I was unsure. He then told me what would happen if I understood the power of the words, he said," If you understood the power of the word you would understand and that you have the power to bring down the house..with a word", " because the power of life and death is on the tongue, but you know this, you feel it when certain songs are sung..when certain passages are read." In this moment I began to truly understand the power of the words and could answer the question that I had not known I was even to be asking with a quiet but certain; Yes!
As with my discovery of African greatness through the work of Dr. van Sertima, my fascination with the power of words was initially deeply romantic and a bit one sided. I had been fascinated with the potentially positive, almost magical, power of words and wordsmiths, but soon I would sober up from the romantic hangover and realise that with with all this potential that words had, there was no guarantee that once released their power would be used for good. Some of the most powerful words that can be uttered are "In the name of the Lord", and the evils committed under these words were/are unpleasant at best. Hitler and his Nazi regime were propelled largely by word power; manifested by means of his propaganda machinery, and his speeches.
"Djs and artists must know what their part is..."*, because "far too many of us are speaking poison."* Maybe the question that was posed to me should now be posed to them, or should be one of the questions posed during the interview when they apply to work at radio stations, "Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" They might be just like me and not aware that they are unsure, or that there is even something to be unsure about.
The poet is right, far too many of us are speaking poison, and it is time for the positive potential in the words to be released. Released in the form of Positive Energy...RAH!*
Honestly, at first I could not fathom the potential energy that is stored in words. The poet, in whatever incarnation, is a wealth of potential and their words are like fully charged batteries.
I always had a leaning towards English and the subjects generally referred to as the arts in school, so History caught my attention more so than Geography, and I preferred English to Mathematics. I was writing poetry from the age of 6/7 and talking foolishness, a skill in its own right, for as long as I can remember. Still this did not leave me immune to the trappings of adolescence and the tricky teenage years, so a lot of the things I did or liked were directly and indirectly influenced by peer pressure and the expectations of my peers and the general teenage consensus. In simpler terms, consciously and subconsciously my movements were dictated by one simple thing, coolness. I wrote poetry, lots of it actually, but never really did much with it, and I sure as hell was not going to listen to poetry albums, much less buy them, and especially not the rootsy, culture filled ones like AJA's, "Doing it Saf" - jokes!
However, as I said I did like History, and I was writing and reading poetry, though not as often as I wish I did now, so when I got to around 5th form and I began to mature(even if my actions did not reflect the intellectual growth) my perceptions started to change, my attention to "cool" started to change. This was as I was preparing my History SBA (School Based Assessment) which was based on the work of Dr. Ivan van Sertima, and more specifically, his book, "They Came Before Columbus". The work of van Sertima opened my mind's eye and shifted my existing historical paradigm and set me on a course to find out about Africa, in a pre-European era. As I began to connect with this history and this culture of "enlightenment" I began to lose some of the romantic notions I had early on when I first read van Sertima, and I began to see that everything in this subculture was not pristine and perfect. There were lazy people in "the struggle", there were out and out frauds, looking to capitalise on the hopefulness of others, but those eye openers aside, there was work to be done and not much people knew exactly how to set about this work. This annoyed me a bit, probably because I was, as are most teens, anxious and a bit impatient and expected that the elders would at least know what they were doing. This led to me writing a poem called "Rant" and it was, as the title suggests, me ranting about some of the inadequacies in the "Black Power/Pan African" movement.
All of this was not said to initiate any talk about the movement and its glories or its short comings and misgivings, but was a convoluted way of getting you to understand the mindset I was in when I wrote the poem linked above.
"Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" I did not. My mother had AJA's album and I listened to it, under the rule of coolness, with the intention of getting some laughs at the "funny talking dashiki wearing rastaman", and I did get some laughs. The last laugh, however, was to be AJA's, because even though I was mocking the works at first, the words from some of the pieces became imprinted in my mind and remained there. Fast forward a few years and my mother, knowing I write poetry and do the NIFCA thing from time to time, brought home this book by a young Bajan poet who worked as the tech guy in her office, a little known guy with a sweet Riddim and Flo' going by the name DJ Simmons. I read the book, and at first the poems did not move me much, because at the time my poetry was in standard English with traditional structure and arrangement, so this dialect work was not so much my thing, it was nice, but just not my thing. Fast forward a little bit in time and I found myself at a show put on by "two roaring lions" and for the first time the question is posed to me, " Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?", and it was as if the poet had known that I was unsure, and he would have had to have been pretty damn intuitive because at the time I myself was not aware that I was unsure. He then told me what would happen if I understood the power of the words, he said," If you understood the power of the word you would understand and that you have the power to bring down the house..with a word", " because the power of life and death is on the tongue, but you know this, you feel it when certain songs are sung..when certain passages are read." In this moment I began to truly understand the power of the words and could answer the question that I had not known I was even to be asking with a quiet but certain; Yes!
As with my discovery of African greatness through the work of Dr. van Sertima, my fascination with the power of words was initially deeply romantic and a bit one sided. I had been fascinated with the potentially positive, almost magical, power of words and wordsmiths, but soon I would sober up from the romantic hangover and realise that with with all this potential that words had, there was no guarantee that once released their power would be used for good. Some of the most powerful words that can be uttered are "In the name of the Lord", and the evils committed under these words were/are unpleasant at best. Hitler and his Nazi regime were propelled largely by word power; manifested by means of his propaganda machinery, and his speeches.
"Djs and artists must know what their part is..."*, because "far too many of us are speaking poison."* Maybe the question that was posed to me should now be posed to them, or should be one of the questions posed during the interview when they apply to work at radio stations, "Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" They might be just like me and not aware that they are unsure, or that there is even something to be unsure about.
The poet is right, far too many of us are speaking poison, and it is time for the positive potential in the words to be released. Released in the form of Positive Energy...RAH!*
Sample DJ Simmons' album or Buy it here.
Sample Adrian Green's album or Buy it here.
Buy AJA's album here.
*Blog title from Adrian Green's poem "Word Power". track 14 on his "Random Acts of Consciousness" album.
*quotes come from Adrian Green's poem "Djs and Artists", track 6 on his "Random Acts of Conscience" album.
*DJ Simmons' track "Energy", track 6 on his "Riddim & Flo" album. Check out track 18 for the remix with Adrian Green, its wickedly nice.
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