Poetry

Savannah The Great

in quiet storms

stretched throughout the third quarter each day

streaks of lightning

birth themselves into dusk

almost sundown

around town

eventide skies

gone after an 8^th of a second

 

we see you

perfectly zigzagged lines shooting up from the earth

curving right for miles – then off to the left toward infinity

And it tells me everything about how you landed, lived, loved, and left

Great Mother Savannah

seems your timing is always just before liquid sunshine

showers fall

 

unfathomable depths of water

inexhaustible rhythms in our wombs

unending orgasmic tears

release themselves

from gramma’s eyes when you landed

entering this realm

purposed to tango before its time

young and barefoot on dry and thirsty clay

happily greeting mama dirt every step of the way

 

us sense

your life in the heart of

we god

we’own fathers who don’t quite know you

enty dem bukruh, too

coming to me

across lapsed timelines

fuh uhm s’posed tuh pray?

Bactize muh ‘gen mo bettuh

show me where forgiveness draws its breath!

b’kause augus’ jes lef,

Great Mother Savannah

seems your timing is always just before dat liquid sunshine,

showers fall

 

us hear

your love

as hard as dat fear in the priestess’s voice

when she speaks of Hevioso’s thunder

shock waves scattering

whisking bodies away from

what they will never possess

but auntie Gladys remembers your call to

your grand chirren

“here come my shango shanga’s”

reminding me to run to you arms, smiles open wide “we’re here”!

 

 

us touched

by bands of rain that replenish

muh inna umbra

cleansing prayers

nurturing gifts

loving beingness

giving we life

 

you left

transformed like the smoke

Of burning camphor,

positively

peacefully

pleasingly

when clouds give way to

love’s residue as golden rain

 

na us smell the favor upon our family today and fo ever

like the lavender, sage, and frankincense of ancient temples

where I pay close attention,

muhself study haa’d

while stann’n ona bank

of the Ogeechee River

den muhself know

your real name

a scarification

fierce, eternal

branding upon the left chamber of we h’aa’ts

sectembtuh yuh

Great Mother Savannah

seems your timing is always just before liquid sunshine

showers fall

—

© Copyright 2023 by InnaRae

Photos:

Ogeechee River – Savannah, GA
Great Mother Savannah

ancient shadow by the sea

each time I see Gigli’s “Girl On The Beach”

i ask this photo more than one question

soul of that inner girl, I yearn to reach

touch heart of every heart retained within

 

is it Mother with whom you are displeased?

or is your almost frown due to hot wind?

grandpa bite your right cheek behind the trees?

were ancestors beneath your feet summoned?

 

what lifts your hands to bare your cotton slip?

hidden harmonizing agents that glow?

do tides of fear ride larger waves that rip?

does emerging from sand help you to know…

 

…Great Mother gives us all to Gods at birth

Replenishing our blood through seas on earth.

 

© Copyright 2023 by InnaRae

Photo Credit – Little Girl On The Beach, Portugal 1952, Photographer Ormon Gigli

The Nile Delta

Government Name

in ancient times

greek merchants

sailed to Egypt

saw our Nile River branching into two streams before joining the sea enclosing a

piece of land shaped like a triangle

so, true to the colonizing character of our shallow brethren

they called this child of Mother Earth a delta because she resembled the fourth

letter of their alphabet (Δ)

yet of the Spirit of the Ocean and Holy daughters of the River held in the hearts of

our most beloved Ancestors, they knew nothing and had no idea that

deltas form without the imposition of a name

And while they played these games

She took on the meaning of their 4^th number and changed

 

nuanced, carrying sediment all the way to the reach of any body of water

did these merchants know about how her expansion of flow

decreases her flow velocity

diminishing this transported sediment

because it wills to still and build

all the while maintaining

the essence of our Mother Nile?

 

Her Spirit

let there be no blasphemy in remembering

that of all the deltas in this world… Mississippi, Yellow River, Ganges-Brahmaputra

this annual inundation

this pledge to feminine mechanism and life-giving force

knows the way of ‘embracing’ with love

turn around, face the morning sun emerging from the east, honor the survival

of immaculate, undefiled winds of sisterhood

dancing like a Ninja

through nothing like a red cobra

into everything with subtlety of a white dove

Her sweet breath, Her sharp wit

under wings of a northern cardinal

soundwaves, voices speak of

north African Shores

and just like that,

arrives in human form

may we recall The Nile Delta’s Essence was known by earlier ancient Egyptians as

SHE WHO EMBRACES and SHE WHO GATHERS

 

Her Mind, Her Soul

let there be no guilt in dreaming about

a deep dive into the moist, dark, powerful mind of the Nile Delta

setting the stage for the birth of intelligence, mathematical genius, wisdom

mm-hmm, she whose parents named her Shirley said 44

the honorable 22 or 2+2 equals four sisters of African lineage

saw the handwriting on proverbial walls and read the numbers

on the 13^th day of the first month of the 13^th or 1+3 equals four years of the

change into the 20^th century divided by 5 equals 4

placed right next to Sigma,

the 18^th letter of the Greek alphabet added to the 4^th equaling 22

add that to the 9^th Greek number theta or 9 equals 31, 2+2, 3+1, 1+3, 2+2

Adams, Murphy, Pitts-Campbell,

and was it planned or coincidence when you marched?

that you broke racial chains and moved out from segregated sections of the

women’s suffrage parade

and took your seat on 3/1/13?

 

Her Body

let there be no shame in embodying the Nile

for she sustains with perch, catfish

protects with soft palm and sycamore trees

and on their way home, your brilliant beauties

still in time

will to drop the idea of serving self

build for all who will follow in her footsteps

though headstones top their bodies

She who dared to break glass ceilings, rip brown paper bags to shreds

live to transport souls from one place to another

Daughters of the Dust

male merchant persuasion can neither compete for the light in your eyes

nor handle the beast resting in shadows of your being

so, keep nurturing

The Unbought

The Unbossed

and when the embrace of your natural mother grows frail

rest your head on the lap of what remains

ya’ll hear them coming….

shhhhhh…………..Listen….Listen

respect

—

©Copyright 2022 by InnaRae Guy

Photo Credit – NASA

Haiku: Baptized by Tenderness

It’s not that…

love’s spirit demands
that I master tenderness
my SELF of my heart

To allow its lure
to pull me into the deep
the condition of my birth

supple souls within
hope granted anew, begin
out, right, immersion

dunked in callous worlds
wading winds of ruthlessness
‘eternal’ revealed

It is that I must…

water tenderly
what ‘is’ my SELF of my heart
raise pumped blood and live