Aquarius

By Charles Sapp II

The water bearer of life
invokes the essence of animated matter,
flowing through the passageways of time.
The fluid nature of innovation fruit ideas abound,
in an ethereal sense with embodied vision towards the future.
The silhouette from the Moon’s gravity on the surface of the ocean,
draws the body of water closer,
where aquatic boundaries are claimed under the rule of Aquarius
as water dominates the blue planet.

Uranus speaks with an enigmatic voice
this evokes direction as the Earth cycles.
The water bearer delivers consciousness and compassion
where human emotion revolves in patterns persuaded by universal concoctions.
The element of air eccentric and elusive,
invisible to sight and presence felt when summoned.
The oceans are receptive while the wind flirts with the course of change.

A humanitarian by impeccable design;
the watchful eye within the zodiacal domain
brings forth the dawn of a new age, a new millennium
as time escorts the energy from the past by flushing old concepts
with liquid love raining down upon the parched Earth,
delivering the equinox of the Sun as a gift
with all of its purity and divination of day and night.
Mankind embraced by the outpouring of heavenly love,
reinforced by altruistic fate
we begin to return our gaze to the stars focusing on the future.

Heroes & Heroines

By Charles Sapp II

Heroes and Heroines forgotten within the present,

to become remembered in time’s passing.

The ones that devoted their lives

for unification, harmony, and the good will of fate.

Repelled by the succumbing darkness that waves its hands

by dimming the light towards receptive spirits.

Heroes,

humble with accordance to nature;

battle the shallow beasts’ attempt to overturn the bouts of grace

with anguish and tumultuous tribulations of humanities insubordination.

Heroes that replenish the body of water

with open wounds pouring their life force in sacrifice to the source

that sustains the proliferation of tranquility and peace.

The face of mankind speaks with great fervor,

yet the language of action is felt by the commonality of faith

where truth outweighs the subterfuge of the few.

Galactic graves and constellation memorials ignite the skies with honor,

as the beauty of purity pervades the emptiness of lost hope

and fills the void of eternal despair,

mankind can reflect on those that evoked consciousness throughout history.

Heroes that paved the road to the future

encompassing global change,

environmental awareness,

human rights

and the preservation of beauty through human compassion.

Voice

I have pondered and reflected on the age of my writing and its process. I found that it was influenced greatly by various of my favorite writers and poets. I realized that my voice was a mirror of those that I aspired to be like. I was most influenced by those that had a knack to verbally paint pictures with descriptive ease and utilized the powerful imagery to motivate, inspire and reflect.

By Charles Sapp II

I’ve been searching for decades for my voice,

foreign and unfamiliar it has been.

My voice has been hidden beneath the layers of influence and inspiration,

found within the writers and poets of the past and present;

my identity was not of its own.

My voice

became the voice of Saul Williams’ spoken word that was heard from the distance

and echoed the whispers of Khalil Gibran and the words from the Prophet

and the Neon Vernacular of Yusef Komunyakaa illuminated my written verses.

The power of these writers and countless others have transformed my voice

and the development of heightened states of awareness.

My voice,

surfacing through the ages towards maturity

and conceptualized to define the soul and spirit of the collective,

My voice is merely the intertwined vocal intonations of self,

manifested through my predecessor’s dialectic wisdom.

My voice,

verbal with optimism as it reflects the surface of galactic waters,

and reverberates the serum of truth that pours out of each spirit encountered,

while journeying through the vocal cords of life.

My voice

has grown, enriched vision

with human awareness coalesced with cosmic concoctions

that speaks my words into existence.

My voice is the voice of humanity,

my voice is the soul that is buried deep within,

my voice has always been my voice,

made up of you and me.

Blackness

I was fortunate enough to watch the first part of the CNN Black in America special yesterday evening. It became my inspiration to write this poem and allowed me to reflect on my experiences as a Black man in America and in the world. Interesting enough the experience I had in the world speaks volumes to how Black is perceived and how it was established.


By Charles Sapp II


I was told that Black is the color of darkness

and represented by the negative nature that looms

in shadowed corners and dark alleyways.

They said Black is not beautiful,

but an ugly representation of ill fate

and the absence of the Sun in full gloom.

I was told that the word human is the derivative of a man with hue.

The complexion of culture symbolizes this true,

The Sun has not forgotten us,

the brilliance lies within the melanin.

I was told that my flesh does not determine how the world views me,

although the world blindly mistaken me

for having the mindset of centuries worth of castigated slaves

instilled with an inferior complex,

When spoken, my words undulate on deaf ears.

The Earth remembers

while the universe forgets as scars fade with time

and knowledge is the remedy for the future.

From what has been said and what I’ve been told,

spoken is the translated language of ignorance,

a language I cannot comprehend;

passed on by generations, its effects are evident.

The Black that I represent,

is in the unity of color

found in all human skin.

Evolution in Continuance

By Charles Sapp II

The growth that separates living flesh from the Earth’s grasp,

seeking the living light that nurtures with divinity

and where the secure roots are twined deeply into evolving sanctity.

Learned to walk on ancestral soil with patience,

mobility embedded into memory as an earthbound walker,

following the sound of its own voice

as it echoes off the man-made boundaries.

Trespassing the line between dreams and imagination as figments dissipate;

reality becomes defined and validated by achievement.

As soon as water was able to walk on land

the oceans have rejected us from returning.

Taking a deep breath, while leaping into the sky

and swimming the cosmic sea,

the tethered roots snap and the cyclic nature of life repeats.

Learned to fly through inherited skies with grace,

without looking backwards

the Sun illuminates the path towards the future—

as settlements of dreams are constellated

for shared memories of an evolving species

recognizing its potential and redefining its future.

Thirst & Hunger

By Charles Sapp II

The sensation of thirst and hunger intensifies daily;

examining the better half of self and its desires.

Identified by the mirroring image of nature inside,

the reflecting heart of the universe, coiled into radiant love;

the perpetual emotion of self love

that acquaints its alignment to raw truth and rare elements

fused at the core of all that matters,

exempt with no words to taint the composition of purity

found in all human integrity.

Silence is golden as the weight of the world

becomes buoyant and gravity ceases to exist,

succumbed by the magnitude of presence

and the sense of oneness,

one must retreat to the source of common equality.

Only there,

it breathes and swells upon inhale

as a collection of cells represent that within star systems;

within personal universes, time oscillates experience for comparison

past versus the future as an amalgamation of knowledge.

Only here,

I find peace and recycled love from the beginning

as it penetrates my personal space and quenches my thirst and satisfies my hunger.

Inward Recognition

By Charles Sapp II

The first of my journey has been complete.
The winding roads have taken a straight path towards home.
The comforting arms of familiarity truly exists, like tomorrow’s nested hopes that bear fruitful futures.
Normalcy lost, in search to be found.
Faint subtleties appear then disappear into the calm waters of recognition of what once was,
as time changes paths and altered in accordance to the law of contentment.
The stars look back with recognition awaiting approval by the morning Sun,
granting a new day and rejecting yesterday’s doubts.

A colorful wheel of fortune spins for my choosing, but not for myself,
but for all whom may encounter my touch.
A conscientious decision made with eyes closed
and silent gestures of prosperity enriched with happiness
with an edge of fulfillment as I inhale opalescent colors and exhale translucent words of expression,
manifested silently as emotions that soothe thy soul
and atone my transition as a whole, like the eclipsing shadow that shrouds the visionary quest within,
questioning the day’s moment.
The digestion of time,
full from life’s experience and the exposure to truth.

Embrace of Change

The homecoming back to the States has been a warm welcoming from family and friends. It has been a little longer than a month since touching down on California soil and since my farewell to China blog entry.

Ever since, my perspective has never been the same despite the economic grim, my optimism for a bright future grows exponentially. The road towards adjustment proves to be difficult from the ever present culture shock to the looming inflation of gas prices, but motivation of starting anew has kept me stable and the love from family has kept me grounded.

My writings have been put to the wayside during this transition period, as I filter through my experiences to project the new found consciousness my life has yet to be explained. This entry is my first step towards releasing the newly acquired forms of ideas, perspectives and outlook of the future when compared to the recent past.

To summarize my time back home, it is nothing more than self evolution in progress and I am happy to introduce a new chapter of me, while exploring limitless dimensions of unchartered regions as they are encountered.

I embrace change.