Black Butterfly

Photo By Ellen Gailing



Dedicated to the Survivors of Hurricane Katrina
And Everyone in the Struggle…


Scriptural Basis: Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze

Poem:
Looked at black waters the other day
Phoenix rose and fell in a ‘Nawlins summer
Leaving beauty for ashes
my soul gotta be well, soul, well, gotta be a well, soul well
well is it?
Gotta dip into my mind and make it whole
The waters echo as they make their way
Through hundreds of years of history in a single hour
Echoes of our ancestors heard in the streets
As the water sweeps over
Homes, Lives, Roofs
Ah the blackness of the blues
swirls around us, unrelenting power
Brown skinned and thin grinned
We huddle close in
Standing and waiting to be delivered

Nobody came for three days,
But didn’t God say he hears
Jonah in the whale
Jesus in the grave
The woman in the world
Pregnant with the word
Didn’t the Lord say he came to serve
Didn’t my Lord say
Do not be afraid, for I am with you

(whispered) and I said to myself
all is well with my soul

Lyrics: Beautiful Black, Butterfly
Beautiful Black…. Beautiful Black….
Beautiful Black Butterfly
Beautiful, Black Beauitful Black



(whispered) and I said to myself
all is well with my soul

Lyrics: Beautiful Black, Butterfly
Beautiful Black, Beautiful Black
Beautiful Black Butterfly
Soar High….So high….


My mind is filled with spring
reminding myself not to get beside myself
knowing that my help comes like payday
no matter how low budget my reality gets
Whispers of civil unrest
And like others, civil has been resting lightly for some seasons now
Sometimes these seasons of black reasons
are enraptured like jazz
“bluescale”
hope shed like the fall leaves
Fall from learning trees
Or eases into summertime
Easy living
But despite the moods of life
I fight and pray

(whispered) and I say to myself
all is well with my soul

Lyrics: Beautiful Black, Butterfly
Beautiful Black…. Beautiful Black….
Beautiful Black Butterfly
Soar High….So high….


Looked into the wilderness
And yesterday I saw it
Our destiny
Browned, glowing and blowing
Taking wings; multi-colored hues of Caribbean greens
Like fields of joy
soaring over our slings and arrows
with the eyes of sparrows
Yesterday I was pregnant with pause
everything absolved
the shade of sorrow
painting my blackened past

“Free at last, Free at last, thank God almighty we are…”

(whispered) and I said to myself
all is well with my soul

Lyrics: Beautiful Black, Butterfly
Beautiful Black…. Beautiful Black….
Beautiful Black Butterfly
I'd like to see you fly
I'd like to see you fly
Like to see you fly.....