The Climb , livre ebook

WestBow Press - Skinny Hightower

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

104 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

From jazz musician and poet Skinny Hightower comes a memorable poetry collection about race, loss, love, and spirituality. With the musical cadence of Langston Hughes and the free verse of Nikki Giovanni, Hightower writes to awaken and encourage.
The Climb is a book of poetry that encompasses a wide range of experiences, moods, settings, and philosophies, all of which are based on biblical principles. Textured with the sights and sounds of modern schools, to church in the South, through the sunflower-ridden fields of Kansas, all the way to deserts and dark waters, these stunning poems tackle racism, depression, loss, and folly, but also love, hope, spirituality, wisdom, and potential.
Through an aesthetic given to montage using an assortment of styles, these poems address the uneasy questions about relationships, love, death, forgiveness, riots, entitlement, and God’s unfailing love in spite of us. Hightower assesses America’s predominant fascinations with wealth, fame, pleasure, and acceptance. What is the meaning of life? How important is being accepted? Who are we beneath the surface of our flesh? These questions resonate within the halls of Hightower’s poems, and seldom are the answers reflected back without first requiring the reader to ponder.

Sujets

Inspirational

Themes

Subjects

Religious

Poetry

Christian

Informations

Publié par	WestBow Press
Date de parution	16 mars 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781664294172
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THE CLIMB

A BOOK OF POEMS

SKINNY HIGHTOWER

Copyright © 2023 Skinny Hightower.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9418-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9419-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9417-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904085

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/16/2023

Contents
Be
Three Seconds
Let’s Start a Riot
Weeds
Control
Back and Forth
Distant
A Disgrace
Times Have Changed
My Last Valentine
God Will See You Through
Let Him
The Veil
Zoo
Swing
A Better Day
I Think of My People
Make Room
This Land
Many Sides
You
Tune Me Up
Priceless
Fresh Love
Strong
We Love Social Media
Slaves
Twisted Society
Lighthouse
Life
Spark
The Climb
Eyes Front
Lemonade
101 in the Shade
Listening Ears
Dam
Cheers
One of One
Payday
This or That
Divide
Philosophy I
Surrender
Genuine
Sunflower State
Blood in the Water
Alien
The Traveler
Fire Truck
Philosophy II
Gaze
Gone
Timing
Let Go
Irreplaceable
Branch
Soldier
Philosophy III
Jazz Is
Hunt
Hurricane
Snowflake
Good Inside
This Day
Dreamer’s Soul
Gun To School
Mondays
Let Me In
Sittin’ Down
Tired
Enough
Break
Jump
Seasons
Scales
Lose My Mind
All Sinners
A Story Untold
Second Lady
The Healing Blanket
Barbershop
Soul Food
Mark Time
Black on Black on Black
Thirst
Shadows
Coat of Skin
A Teacher’s Lament
Seeds
Rare
I’m Still Here

About The Author

Be
Be.
And if you cannot be,
Become,
For being and becoming
Are the only foundations
Upon which to build.
Pray for those who only wish to have,
For having is merely holding.
And if you lose your grip,
Well,
You hold nothing.
Therefore,
Be.
And if you cannot be,
Become.
Be.
Become.

Three Seconds
It took me three seconds to hand my life over to someone else.
Three seconds cost me dearly.
It took her three seconds to change her last name.
Three seconds unwisely spent.
It took him three seconds to call that four-cornered thing
His residence.
Three seconds with a sizable price.
It took me three seconds to be someone’s modern-day slave.
Three seconds with a chain attached.
It took her three seconds to officially belong to someone else.
Three seconds on impulse.
It took him three seconds to give up thirty years.
Three seconds seemed right at the time.
How I regret those three seconds.
How she wishes she could get those three seconds back.
Oh, how he longs to rewind the hands of time.
Three seconds is all it took.
A crying shame it truly is.
Here’s a bit of advice for you
Just in case you, too, wish to spend
Three seconds on something:
Think before you sign.

Let’s Start a Riot
Do people often say, “Let’s start a riot,” or do they tend to
just happen?
Out of frustration, anger, and pain, they tend to be the language of
the unheard.
The outer eruption of inner grumblings due to the inner eruption of
outer grumblings;
often the knots in a daisy chain of events—to include looting and vandalism—are sometimes for a good cause but occasionally fueled by some pointless tantrum-ridden motive.
By the damage done, who knows the reason?
Nonetheless, when we empathize with the rioters, it’s hard not to condone
their actions.
But when we know not the severity of a rioter’s vexations, we cannot see beyond
their actions.
The damage done causes some people to stop—whether stopping to think or stopping to repair, stopping to question or stopping to shake their heads in disgust—and we never know which result our riotous actions will
bring about.
One thing is certain: you will take part in a standoff of sorts with
the law (boy, do they hate riots … makes you wonder if they hate
the rioters,
their actions,
or both).
The start of a dance with pepper spray, tear gas, dogs, shields, rubber bullets, and batons usually begins when the tune of a riot is played. Sometimes, however, the dance partners come out in error when there’s
no music.
If a riot is music to dance to, a protest is a recital to be observed
in admiration.
At any rate, best be aware of what you’re getting into when someone near you says, “Let’s start a riot,” or if one
just happens.

Weeds
Weeds are easy to find,
Easy to grow,
Easy to see.
Takes no effort at all.
In fact, do nothing and they’ll yet grow tall.
Just remember that weeds grow faster than grass.
Look at the weeds
And watch the grass carefully.
Both are green
And can be found right next to each other.
Funny, isn’t it?
They can be found in the same place.
They often come up together,
Yet their differences show in the change of weather.
Just remember that weeds grow faster than grass.
So the next time you see folks
Rising like the tide
In a blur, it seems, with little to show for it
While you slave
Like a slave
For years on end
Over the gifts you have—
As the years go by and you seem shorter than the rest,
As they give so little while you give your best—
Just remember that weeds grow faster than grass.

Control
Who’s in control here?
Is it you who dictates the position of the stars?
Is it you whose voice the sun obeys?
You must be the one.
Who’s in control here?
Do you command the wind to blow?
Do you tell the waves how high they can stand?
Do tell.
Who’s in control here?
Did you exist when the earth was formed?
Did you instruct the lions to hunt or the gazelles to flee?
Answer me!
Who’s in control here?
Are you able to prohibit rain?
Are you the one who gives the clouds orders?
Surely it’s you.
Who’s in control here?
Can you calm the rivers?
Can you invoke the mighty volcano’s wrath?
Can you actually
Control
Anything?
The answer is quite obvious.
Control
In the hands of a human,
Or any creature for that matter,
Is merely an illusion.

Back and Forth
Church used to be the hub—
Mothers donning the biggest church hats
And ushers adorned in spotless white gloves and
Choir members in robe and step
And pastors preaching with sweat-glazed intensity.
Fingers were ready to pinch
Children who couldn’t keep quiet;
Hands were ready to be lifted
And feet were ready to dance.
Musicians were ready to play
As the pastor took a loud breath.
Pews were filled to capacity
With saints and sinners alike,
And air-conditioning
Was a figment of the imagination,
Hence the church fans swaying
Back and forth, back and forth.

Distant
For some, social distancing makes being social distant.
Rather, one must focus on practicing distance socially.
Distance mustn’t always affect sociality.
Until distance is no concern,
One must be distant and social,
Social while distant.
The result of social di