WELCOME HOME
Jeffrey V. Perry
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Jeffrey V. Perry
DEDICATED
To Mom
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Elwood “Gene” Edwards, PhD, editing
THANKS!
Thank “...the Lord that lead-eth me, yah” – Bob Marley
I-N-T-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-O-N
WELCOME HOME is a book of beginnings, where to start. After we run here and there in our travels and escapades, we finally return to the only place where we are sure of ourselves and know our needs. WELCOME HOME is a return to “home, where the heart is,” back to basics, and core of our values. Our mystery, like the “prodigal son” and the circle of Jude o - Christian belief is that we one day, inevitably learn that valuable lesson in life, as even Dorothy, in the “Wizard of Oz”, summed it up, “there is no place like home!” Since, home is our first beginnings, why is it that we have to leave? Maybe our lessons are somewhere out there, where we do not belong. Life is not just our birth and because we seem to grow bigger despite any effort we make in trying to stay a small cute bundle of joy. We cannot remain a small size, or in one place to eat just, once. But, then, why should we ever need to return home to simpler undertakings? If we are ever to succeed in our lives, maybe we should go home “from school” to remain out of trouble, or to complete your chores first before playing. Maybe, it is very important to be safe, familiar, and welcomed.
In a poem, entitled, “Humanity,” I wrote:
“In this realm of all
The world's treasure,
Humanity sits as a diamond in the rough.”
WELCOME HOME is about this reality and humanity as a gem, waiting to be polished and refined. It is a book that speaks of the human family, to the human family. We have neglected ourselves badly! Though conventional wisdom says that a house is not a home, it is right now, “At This Defining Moment,” that we must begin to repair that house that sheltered our needs, protected us from those monsters under the bed, and shielded us from the wrath of an angry God. Welcome home, because, as usually, there is still work to do! (Maybe that is what we do not like about “coming home.” So do your part!)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WELCOME HOME
THE BLACK MAN'S STRUGGLE
PARTLY IN PARTY
HAPPY
HARLEM NIGHT
IT'S HIP-HOP, YOU DON'T STOP
KEN S.
PAINTED WOMAN
PERPETUAL LIES
PROGRESS
SABBATH BORN
MY EYES SEE TRUE
THEY ARE PLAYING THEIR LIVES AWAY
RECOVERY (TRIPPING)
WATCHFUL EYE
FAITH AND FERVOR
A GRAY AREA
INCOMPLETE
DOES GOD NOT KNOW WHY?
– THE BLACK MAN'S BURDEN
WE STAND ON THE VERGE
OBAMA TREE
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
THE MIRROR IMAGE
POETRY
COMPLETED LOVE
QUASI
IF YOU ONLY KNEW
EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT
AT DAWN
FIRST IN OUR LIFE
WHO PUT A VALUE ON LIFE
A MAN NEVER WISHES
THE KARMA OF LOVE
THE WRIT
DO NOT FOLLOW: I HAVE GONE TO FUNKY TOWN
TERROR DEFINED
THAT IS WHY I AM FIGHTING!
QUEST FOR LOVE
THE DIFFERENT “N” WORD
LET'S BE TOGETHER, NOW
ALLOW US TO CRY OURSIDE
POET
ONE PAIR OF SNEAKERS
GOODBYE IS NEVER GOODBYE
TEMPTATION
LOVES ECHO
VALUES
GREED (1)
GREED (2
BABY DOLL
SAD GIRL
THERE
MY GIRLYGIRL
PEACE OUT!
SOME JP'S
IF
IF I COULD EVER GIVE LOVE
MY DECEITFUL HEART
REVELATION
POETRY IS -
GOD CAME QUICKLY
WHAT IS SPECIAL
-WHERE WENT THE POETS
MAN WITHOUT A HEART
THE APPROACH
HE IS NO HATER
THIS DEFINING MOMENT
I NEED TO BE ARROGANT ENOUGH
YOU CAN THANK RICK
REAL JUSTICE
TO BLACK WOMAN (2)
PROPS TO JAY -Z
GOD OF LOVE
NBNC
HOW DO YOU LOVE ME
THE RETREAT FROM HOME
WELCOME HOME
The millennium begins
Eight years in,
Welcome home humanity
Here on Earth as we have always been
As the Era Modern blew to a close
Planes flew excusing our nose
With lost of innocence
Without any reason
A flight became war
Warfare not compelled before
It was fact changing
Transitioning from our standards
Known as the status quo
Heaven lit up intellect
Now on for the show
Led by our decisions
Reflect upon true insanity
Retracts from life’s eternity
“Welcome Home”
Times closer by,
Moments grasp us a steady why
Our brother’s keeper
An Earth people
Face the wind
It smells to taste
Time we smelt it again
We respond to no one
We have said!
We respond in deeper souls
As parts from a humane whole
We brush on each other
Seeing death on every face
We remembered it in another place
Each other killed becomes nearer
Numbered by ones not here
Welcome Home
My human being
My humanity near
Unscheduled friend
Here within our hearts
There under our skin
Welcome Home
Where none have fallen off
While the changing of an age
Life lived outside
I find it inside
I reach around the Earth
Home to humankind
Turns its new page!
Live its rage
You feel it!
In comes Our Human Age!
THE BLACK MAN’S STRUGGLE
Black man struggles to get ahead
With baby on the way:
“As I run in front of a young pregnant Black woman
As she takes her toddler to preschool“
A little boy who I must show
There are jobs more important to do
Than “meeting and greeting” him on his way
Then, back from preschool
“I don’t have his spot
Out here on this block-“
I struggle telling them
To go to work with less
Than a Gucci suit on,
That their chosen paths are not
Out of reach
A job is where he should be.
I struggle letting their mom know
I am not trying to out run her,
Passing in front of them -
I mean “no disrespect”
Toward his mother
Time has its limit
In my struggle
“Having to feed another’s mouth
The Father sends to us”
Brothers, we want for much
When it seems not for my touch
I struggle to keep a job
Where greed and need
And with needs
A depraved people
We continue striving with injustices
Embattled in this confusion
Forever I do fall short
In a race to the end of my life
With that Black toddler (and the one inside)
Need we think twice?
About me coming up too close
Where will they be coming from?
They shall not be limited
With my arrival
As I got ahead of them
“I waded through quicksand,
Excused myself,
And I made my way on!”
PARTLY IN PARTY
I go to party!
Party hearty
Party, party
I have to be there
More than
Music shared
I want “in,” it all
Even that Monster’s ball
Partaking party
Does not leave me without!
I know what’s about
Right now is everything,
It’s everything out of sight
Just give me an invite
See yah’ tonight!
I got no time for losers
-Those one - time boozers-
I got work here to do
Party here
And a party there
‘Going to see me through-
I go
I know
‘Who's - who’
‘What’s the do?’
I shall lose all mines
With all I find
Enough for my behind
Now hopes blind
She was never mine!
Now I am here
I share my time.
Just a dance
Give a sign
Get a chance
Hoped I get to call
I search out love
I find no romance
Looking good “n” all
Fairy-tales are the dance
For Cinderella lives the ball.
HAPPY
Make happy
I am proud
Glad for the South
We all love it so
Made me happy
The spirit’s way
Soul content with peace and rest
Everybody say, Amen!
Two passed the best.
Happy, when joy fills a heart
Happily knowing, feel the part
It is forevermore
A little more than before
Hope cannot have more
Happiness within
Happy togetherness
Found Hap’s
Best friend
HARLEM NIGHT
Kept me in your warmth,
Stepmother’s bosom smothers.
I feared not the touch.
It is a secret, a serene peace,
-A comfort place-
Harlem is like the home.
This space welcomed me in,
Into her reality,
Into her real life-
“Harlem was on my mind”
She is my baby
-And my good babysitter-
In your bosoms
We are pleased,
Dark full moons alone-
I scare not for crime streets.
I cannot take it all away
None here will hurt me,
You protected me near.
As a wild animal, you can roar.
Still I have no fear!
-Under streets night-
I am wild, also,
I too untamed, unsure.
You my victor,
Against all hope
You control my fate
Half –brothers I never knew
The other half I never cared for
It was news as it happened,
A body found dead;
Where children at play
Bad kids are they, so said.
No one stole from poor,
Each other haves not;