Category Archives: Poetry

ENCORE (PART 3)

 

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Seth Doyle

 

This is the part of the story that is played after the record has long since finished and is still spinning on the player.

Encore

The sultry sounds of your secret melodies surprise my consciousness.

The love patterns of my thoughts pursue a passion in partnership with you.

The lack of our romantic bliss has cluttered the spaces of my thinking.

My heated desires perspire through my pores.

I drink my thoughts to quench my thirst for you.

My appetite for romance is my habitual hunger that one plus one equals two you.

My mind’s symposium pulsates to the rhythm of your heartbeat.

It feels good to stay stuck playing head-banging tunes of you nonstop and in stereo.

 

At one time or another, we will make a love song together.

Today, I play you on repeat.

Please read my other written work.

I adore you for reading my writing,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

THE PENIS PARALLEL (PART 2)

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The pen is

Found

Grabbed

Felt

Contemplated

Nibbled

Erected

Ball-Pointed

Used

Moved

Curved

Moved

Curved

Moved

Curved

Exploded

Finished

Renewed

Stowed

…waiting to be used again.

Please read my other written work.

I adore you for reading my writing,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

Take My Out-Stretched Hand

My labored history,
Shamefully supplied economic expansion for white abundance
My black body is America’s citizenry encumbrance

Your eyes turn the corner at the declaration of your blood-stained wealth
Camouflaged the past to absolve it from the abnormal conditions of the Commonwealth

Constructing me out of sequences from unread history
Paralyzing the misinformed in the deformity of conformity

This lack of knowledge of my human heart
Reduces us to unequal characters and not counterparts

The packaging of your history are sold on shelves
This demand is supplied with white sales of yourselves

You cloak me in anger to defend your fragility
Mass-produced the slogan ‘Angry Black Women’ because you feared my fertility

Media covers you in black dresses of elegance
And, Black women wear black skin draped in irrelevance

You gloss over my humanity with chapped notions of superiority
The scarcity of self creates fictional characters of inferiority

Chest puffed out, wearing your moral code of non-racist
This is not enough given the historical traces

Activate your morality against the establishment
Make it clear racism is in need of banishment

Take my out-stretched hand
Let’s band, stand and demand freedom for me in this land

Dueling oppressive norms,
Recruiting disinterested and uninterested to fight fairness for us all
Your interest in my freedom is fundamental to break down the walls.

Please read my other written work.

I adore you for reading my writing,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

 

 

MUSINGS: WHITE WOMEN OBSERVATIONS AT THE WOMEN’S MARCH, 10 COMMANDMENTS OF RESISTANCE, A LOVE POEM FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE (TAKE MY OUT-STRETCHED HAND)

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“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”
Coretta Scott King

Women’s March

The day after America changed for the second time in 73 days with the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, I assembled in Washington D.C. to participate in the largest mass mobilization in US history — The Women’s March on Washington. The March was strategically planned to butt the start of the 45th presidency. This movement of collective action, knitted together by yarns of informal networks powered the wattage of our wired voices, to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and self-determination. This display of sisterhood spawned the globe to 60 countries and seven continents.

“There would be no future peace for me if I kept silent”
Rachel Carson

White Women Observations

The canvas of 1 million women mobilized in D.C. saw white women decorated with pink pussy hats. The hats exhibited a powerful public-facing symbol of unity. Not surprising to this uprising was the absence of color. Women of Color (WOC) did not saturate the imagery of the March. One reason for their absenteeism points to Election Day data where 94 percent of black women and 68 percent of Hispanic women voted for Clinton as compared to 53 percent of white women voted for Trump.

White Women Sold Out the Sisterhood and the World by Voting for Trump.”

WOC descended on the scene to handle the national business of the day on 8 November 2016. Poised in the resistance’s greatest hits, WOC voted for the first majority nominated woman presidential candidate only to be darkened by the red party traffic pattern of racial and gender bias voting. This voting behavior is seen not only in presidential elections but also in state and local elections across the nation.

“If you want to know if you are going the right way, follow women of color”
Linda Sarsour

womenmarchonwashington_21january2017_b

Digging Deeper – The Black Woman and White Woman Dichotomy

The messiness of US history, buried monsters and commoners alike, to subtract from the unequal past where the U.S.A. was handmade to oppress and limit inheritance to black and brown communities to enrich white families. This structure created a social order that benefits whiteness and fortifies the apparatus of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination. Data reported in 2013 reveals Black women are the most educated group in America, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. College-educated black women read the most books according to Pew Research. Paradoxically, white women earn 82%, as compared to black women earning 65% of the wage earnings of white men. Affirmative action policies are disproportionately beneficial to white women, too.

“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be antiracist.”
Angela Davis

To compound this narrative, our school’s blackboards have erased our uneasy history, contributing to a user-friendly version of our country’s ancestry. This co-opted truth has been passed down from generation to generation and lives vibrantly in our communities as the historical white truth. This white-wash version of historical facts has anchored a divide that undergirds the normative oppressive systems of position and privilege over racial inclusion and economic equality. This containment and control of historical misinformation hide our collective humanity from one another. The white franchise keeps intact the false black imagery that reproduces a narrative not befitting to a Queen. The sum total of black existence is packaged and assorted to redress white guilt. Anecdotally, some white individuals deny racism exists in 2017.

Sadly, the belief in whiteness and white superiority crowds the thinking of a reimagined American story. It’s time for truth-telling and courageous acts of participation.

Ten Commandments of Resistance

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
J. K.
Rowling

Democracy is a daily demonstrative process. The Ten Commandments of Resistance is a guideline for daily living.

  1. Read history not taught in schools. Read black, brown and indigenous people history.
  2. Reconciliation is required to avoid repeating historical patterns. Understanding suspends bias and judgment against black and brown people.
  3. Reframe your thinking to include compassion and care for individuals that have a different historical experience than your ancestors. The plight of black and brown people remains in contemporary times.
  4. Reach-out to form new relationships across communities to nurture your empathy and deepen your humanity.
  5. Reprogram your allegiance to include families and folks outside your tribal group. If your concern is only for your white babies and not my black and brown babies, we are all doomed. Our collective existence is interconnected. We need each other to survive.
  6. Recheck your privilege. It is unconscious and constantly working to your advantage and my disadvantage. My blackness is equally as deserving as your whiteness.
  7. Raise your voice in your families and in your communities against bias behavior towards black and brown people. Your courageous acts of protest in your love circles are critical for a cultural change.
  8. Remain or become involved in social justice work and economic expansion work for black and brown communities. Focusing on the lowest of society will raise the tide for all.
  9. Refrain from excessive media indigestion, sideline commentary, and observational critique. The goal of resistance is to implement change and renew America’s promise through our individual and collective actions.
  10. Recognize you have the power to create change. Do not underestimate the power of small actions. Perform small actions and share your actions within your love circles – on and off-line.

Repeat the Ten Commandants of Resistance until all can rejoice.

Once or twice in every generation, a line is crossed so egregiously that where you stood on the issue will forever define you.
Kara Vallow

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Take My Out-Stretched Hand

My labored history,
Shamefully supplied economic expansion for white abundance
My black body is America’s citizenry encumbrance

Your eyes turn the corner at the declaration of your blood-stained wealth
Camouflaged the past to absolve it from the abnormal conditions of the Commonwealth

Constructing me out of sequences from unread history
Paralyzing the misinformed in the deformity of conformity

This lack of knowledge of my human heart
Reduces us to unequal characters and not counterparts

The packaging of your history are sold on shelves
This demand is supplied with white sales of yourselves

You cloak me in anger to defend your fragility
Mass-produced the slogan ‘Angry Black Women’ because you feared my fertility

Media covers you in black dresses of elegance
And, Black women wear black skin draped in irrelevance

You gloss over my humanity with chapped notions of superiority
The scarcity of self creates fictional characters of inferiority

Chest puffed out, wearing your moral code of non-racist
This is not enough given the historical traces

Activate your morality against the establishment
Make it clear racism is in need of banishment

Take my out-stretched hand
Let’s band, stand and demand freedom for me in this land

Dueling oppressive norms,
Recruiting disinterested and uninterested to fight fairness for us, all
Your interest in my freedom is fundamental to break down the walls.

***********************************************************

Join me in the resistance.

Please read my other written work.

I adore you for reading my writing,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

My heart’s ode to the universe of love

frog_14january2017

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Why is my prince charming coming at the speed of a crawl?

Is it due to his high cholesterol?

As I work through my muck,

I believe my fairy godmother will send me a hunk

Thank you, in advance,

For the chance to dance with romance.

Faithfully yours, Rochelle

Please read my other written work.

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

A Vacant Love Story

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I need the punctuation of your persona to pierce my soul.
I’m lost in this flattened world.
The Christopher Columbus discovery of inhabitants already existing in this vast space underscores the sensational over the substantial.
The brevity of images defines the senses.

I am burdened by the binary sight and sound of you.
I’m enslaved by the thought of you.
The liability of your absence disrupts our connection.
The sum total of 1 plus 0 are not adding up 2 you.

I need to experience your truth, to inform me what I believe about you.
I’m filling the gaps of the unknown with figures of what is not fortified in my reality.
This confusion conjures beliefs once confirmed by warm and cold sensations.
You are a collection of curiosities.
Your casual hearts strings me along.
Your customs are not customary to me.

I lay my face on the screen to get as close as possible to your words.
Your texture is intoxicating unfamiliar.
I’m bathed in your light.
Your brilliance quickly dims because I haven’t touched you.

I long for your touch, taste, sound, smell & sight.
My eyes hold conversations you have never seen.
But in return I get syllables of silent sentences.
Your words are missing notes and are toneless.
The skeleton spaces between your characters are not fleshed out.
This longing for you is betrayal of my senses.

I sleep with you next to me, but I am restless and unsatisfied.
I need your sacred substance of significance stuffing me with the familiar.
I crave for the vibration of your organism.
I dwell in anticipation.
You respond.
I consume your fleshless character.
We light up the darkness with our back and forth intercourse.

Our characters
collide &
climax
2
completion.

Read my other poems.
A Different Kind of Love
Morning’s Prelude

Join Rochelle’s mailing list to stay up to date with my written musings.

****

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

 

Uncommon Calendaring Behavior: I use my online calendar to create new habits and pray

I’m a perpetual calenderer. I pencil everything in. My calendaring is my neon highlighter on what’s important to focus on. See my previous posts for my receipt on my ‘calenderering’ behavior and how I accomplish shit.

I am a creature of habit.
Crates, cages, coops, cuffs cannot contain me.
Though, my calendar can tame me.

My calendar is the intersectionality of my activities, appointments, meetings, events, prayers, goals and habits. I once heard someone say “I can tell you what a person values by examining their checking account, calendar and conversation.”

calendarimage_24october2016

Consider this.

Why be a perpetual calenderer?

  • Planning persistently permits a diary view of life at an atomistic level of detail
  • Compartmentalizing activities facilitates principled action and creates better cycles of completion
  • Provisioning of time controls for the unpredictable in order to stay on assignment to do the work
  • Investing in time when compared to careless consumption of it — yields increased work product returns

Let’s be balanced.

The disadvantages of crazy calendaring behavior

  • Getting stuck in the muddy mode of minutia and not executing on milestone activities
  • Stifling spontaneity

The approach to clocking my time.

Who

I manage my personal and professional calendars in order to have a wholistic view of my daily, weekly, and monthly activities across all vectors of my life.

Why

People, habits and goals are too important to leave to chance. Plus my memory is sporadic and over saturated with creating solutions, strategies, ‘n stuff. That said, calendaring lets me time box and prioritize the meaningful.

These inscribed markers of time transform the planned to the performed.

How

I use Google Calendar. Because it syncs seamlessly across devices and I can manage it across platforms, too. Work activities are managed by Outlook. The color scheme I currently employ has no rhyme or reason, other than my days need to be colorful.

When

All the time. I’m clocking my time.

What

As, I previously shared, I calendar my activities, appointments, meetings, events, prayers, goals and habits. You name it — it’s on my calendar to remind me of what’s next. Check out, my…

Uncommon Calendaring Behavior

Habits

First, I identify a habit to work on (e.g., read 50 pages of a book — daily)Second, I set-up a recurring entry on my calendar to pattern this practice for an established duration. Since, my habits are transitional entries, once the habit is mastered it’s no longer a tickler on my calendar.

Prayers

I use my calendar to affirm good thinking and the reciting of my prayers. I have to admit, I can’t always control all aspects of my day by calendaring. But, I can prepare my heart through prayer to be ready for anything.

Here is a prayer I am reciting for heart support:

I pray for wellness, love, peace and professional success for the project supervisor. I pray that our relationship be transformed by the renewing of my spirit, heart and mind and our collective renewing of our spirits, hearts and minds. May I continue to support the project supervisor in an exceptional way to achieve and reach higher professional heights on this project. God, please change me to be more compassionate and careful in my dealings with all people. My GOD, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, then ‘peeps’– peephole this.

My calendar is: 
The notes to my daily beat.
The staccato to my normal.
The rhythm to my routine.
The tenor to my time.

This story was inspired by reading Myleik’s Medium story “How To Get The Most Out Of Each Day.

****

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

A Different Kind of Love

I am itching for you.

We’ve been together for so long. Our intimate time is penciled on my calendar.

In preparation for this weekend’s steamy session —

I go to the drugstore to look for the product with the best slip.

Slippery when wet, is what is desired, when I brush up against you.

With great contentment, the date is here.

Our session begins with a shower.

Slowly, I wash you.

You’re soft.

I massage and coat you.

You hardened.

Fingers are used for separation.

My body bends forward like a F without a dash.

The hot sensations are hitting my mind.

Feel good moans become me.

I stand up and step aside.

The build-up is rinsed away.

Outside the shower, I stare at the mirror’s reflection.

You are no longer elongated. You have shrunken.

I am pleased.

You look good on me.

I gently towel and wrap you.

Hours later.

Intertwined. Braided together.

I fall asleep.

My hair is did.

****

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

Morning’s prelude

I rise before the brilliant star in the East.

I tip toe in the twilight, trying desperately not to create a symphony of pots & pans clanging.

My head makes a hit.

See, my pupils are not enlightened and by design have not increased their viewpoints.

I meander to the toilet chamber to sit on the numbing throne.

I dispose of yesterday’s waste, then

Bow my head in reverence, as I scroll through the scattered stories and the weighted happenings of humankind.

45 minutes is gone and I am weighted in position.

I hoist my torso onto the sink to form a boomerang with my body parts.

I plank myself up,

And scold the mirror with menacing thoughts,

“This will be the last time I’ll sit on this toilet in wastefulness.”

Tingly sensations soothe my senses.

I stand up and greet the sun.

           My day has begun.

****

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016