THE POSITIVE PRIME
(A Book in Poetry)
Jeffrey Perry
SMASHWORDS EDITION
Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Perry
This effort in poetry is dedicated to my grandfathers,
Calvin "Mack" Edwards, and G.A. Perry (a poet himself);
They are “My Gemini spirits."
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Ann Lennon for her supporting work in this project.
Thanks to Marty Cohen for the photos that he took of me
Thanks to Dexter Perry for the pictures in the Photo Gallery
Thanks to Dr. Thomas Edwards and Carolyn Green for their sound advice (and as my uncle and my aunt.)
And thanks to all my family, my friends, co-workers and all those who have given their opened-ended support!
And a special thanks to Esther B. Perry, my mother, and my brothers; Dexter, Zeggory and Stuart there is no more I can say…, just read it.
(William “Oba” Perry, my father. Rest in Peace)
And by the grace of God!
THE POSITIVE PRIME
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1- I LOVE AMERICA
1. Still Here - Millions Strong
2. The Positive Prime
3. One Cell at a Time (Sounds like prison)
4. Soul
5. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (The poem)
6. Blood is Thicker than Time
7. I Love America
8. Gladio (Part 1 & 2)
9. The Impossible
10. Honestly
11. Ode to Will
12. Junkies
13. The Big "O"
14. Martin
15. Rap Music
16. I Don't Know No Black People!
17. to Black Women
18. Street Change
19. Blacausion
CHAPTER 2 - THE ROOM WITHOUT A WALL
1. My Gift
2. Room without a Wall
3. Lust
4. My Misfortune
5. Land
6. Intelligence
7. Anger
8. Beyond Good and Evil (Part 2) -Balance
9. Respect
10. Rain
11. I Give to Me Love
12. The Gift
13. Special Love
14. Hopes
15. Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1) – Faith
16. Good to Be Near
CHAPTER 3 - UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE
1. The Ghost with the Most
2. Money
3. Got It Wrong!
4. Gemini Spirit
5. Emptiness
6. Humanity
7. Faith and Truth
8. The Promise
9. The Truth
10. The Calling
11. Self - ID
12. Understanding the Universe
13. Endless Love
14. Talent
15. You Are What You Eat
16. The Cream In - Between
17. Devil and Angel
18. What You Going To Do?
CHAPTER 4 - WORD ON THE STREET
1. I Know What They Pull!
2. New York City Winter
3. Poets and Prophets
4. Some Are Too Fat...
5. to Bill Gates
6. Our Mind's Hearts
7. It's Been a While!
8. My thoughts on 9/11
9. Words
Chapter 1-
I LOVE AMERICA.
STILL HERE – MILLIONS STRONG
It seems like forever and a day
That we have been on American soil
From Captive people men and women from African soil
Transported to this land from far away
Inhumane conditions to have to produce free toil
And how the blood does boil!
We’ve come through it all with just our song
From the beginning still here Millions Strong
History does not want to even record our plight
We remain a legendary soul in humanity’s sight
From behind the mask (of darkness)
We waged the fight
Call it faith or truth
We have the might
To endure times challenge
Because we know what is right
Although in the eyes of Dr. King
(He) was not thinking of blink-blink
And Dr. Dubois in his mind could not have
Imagined being a professional athlete making millions
It is not written in a fairy tale
That we would be killed and sent to jail
Or eat at McDonald until our ankles swell
From rages to riches we are here to tell
It has not been the best of times
Crying for civil rights all the damn time
To cry for freedom in the land of the free
You know it would seem to me
That in America there’s nothing free
We’re saying that we are just like everybody else
We like no one but ourselves
And why by the grace of GOD should I really care
How somebody else wear their hair
It is just there on their head
In blonde, black, brown and red
But I am so proud of the people with skin like mine
Especially the ones with flat noses, big lips and big behinds
Because these are my people you see
Doing exactly the same as me
I think we all live as one on a spiritual plane…
But mostly because we shared a slave’s name
But now the day has come
To let you know where we’re coming from
We come a long way baby
From a slave to a designated minority
(When will it ever end?)_
THE POSITIVE PRIME
When looking at the primal man
The first roots of Africa
Then correlate that to the world of Eden
They are beginnings in simplicity
Of a primal innocence
Also one of goodness
Beyond our understanding
Who is the Father of invention?
And is necessity his mother?
When we say yes to one thing
Then there is a start.
What we will agree on is a fact
Like the Sun came up today
There that is a primal science
Our religion says
That the sun was always that way
Our science is like
When Hansel and Gretel left breadcrumbs behind
To remember their path
Because they could not remember
The Woods on their own
Returning to our humble beginnings
In our time’s intelligence
(Time is a man-made thing)
We have reached the moon, the Sun and the mountaintop.
We complete a day!
If we fish a nearby lake
Where we fished yesterday
Will the world not be better for that?
(A bird in the hand is better than two or three in a bush or the bushes?)
Is it fear that scares us to death
Or the actual war that is waged
If we knew them
Would we have killed first?
Can you know intelligence?
Before it happens?
If my black skin is less than
Then am I the only one who knows
How to count?
Then is one the only number?
When the idea of equality
Becomes popular again, yet I
Still do not count as one.
I am the mathematical genius
Who believes that one plus one has always just been two,
Not one and a half,
-Nor one and four-fifths.-