Forcibly and Against Her Will

Tags

a woman knows her body, a woman's choice, art is activism, forcibly and against her will, HB 481, heartbeat bill, women's rights

Call me old fashioned but I still believe A WOMAN’S DECISION is a woman’s decision.

I mean, how can the same idiots that oppose Affordable Health Care impose bill in the best interest of women?

Are we supposed to forget Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rates in the United States?

I mean, how could the same state that put educators in prison possibly care about fetal life? When are we gonna talk about juveniles being sentenced as adults in this state?

Don’t worry we’ll Reclaim Georgia by electing delegates that actually confer with the constituent body.

Question: How do you suppose we #endrapeculture while legislation is being forced to take hold of a woman’s body?

I don’t understand why the State of Georgia wants control of a woman’s body…

Does anyone else see the elephant in the room?

Can’t you see, they’re stripping “the rights” right off of women? How long must ye pretend to turn a blind eye?!

How’d we’d let these weak men legislate rape? Why isn’t the LIFE Act considered as a form of forcible rape? I mean, Kemp just signed a bill to coerce consent of a woman’s body!

My poemsvarevnot poems…
and I say that to say: May the words “Forcibly and Against Her Will” resound throughout the room.

But don’t mind me, I just tend to think rape occurs when the victim may be legally incapable of consent…
Then again, who am I to ponder historical legal definitions, the police shoot and kill people that look like me on Facebook Live and the grand jury seems to always find a way to turn a blind eye.

–@StevieStreets #womensrights / #artisactivism #poem | Forcibly and Against Her Will

・・・
📷: @naralprochoicega

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When Did Rape Culture Become Pop Culture?

Tags

a woman knows her body, a woman's choice, art is activism, forcibly and against her will, HB 481, heartbeat bill, women's rights

Right wing fanatics have no regard for WOMENS RIGHTS!

When we gonna talk about how the idiots behind the hashtag i am the pro-life generation are staunch proponents of mass incarceration?

I mean, how did we put A WOMAN’S DECISION in the same hands that write tough on crime laws and death penalty legislation?

We can’t even get the GOP to talk sensibly about gun reform yet they expect me to believe HB481 should be used to determine life?!

If you ask me why this heartbeat bill breaks my heart, I will ask you: Where is your regard for life when women are raped?

How does Ed Setzler (and the Republicans who campaigned on conservative values) plan to eradicate the State of Georgia’s sex trafficking epidemic?

When did A WOMAN’S CHOICE become pandemic? When you gonna see we need more euthenics and less eugenics?

I guess anything goes but Kavanaugh is still a nah; I don’t understand how a man accused of rape was not recused from the Supreme Court Justice of the United States.

When did rape culture become pop culture? This can’t be America!

Then again, we let a man who alluded to sexual assault become President of the United States of America.

Sometimes I wonder: Why do assault rifles get more support than survivors of sexual assault in America?

How does “a state that values life” impinge the toughest abortion bill in the country?

Is it me – or did the LIFE Act kill the morale of women throughout the country?

My poems are not poems…
And I say that to say: I jus’ wanted to illustrate how I stand with those that want to Reclaim Georgia and draw attention to the state with the highest maternal mortality rate in the country.

–@StevieStreets #awomanknowsherbody #poem | When Did Rape Culture Become Pop Culture?

・・・
📷 : @millennialsforabrams

The Poet, The Muse, and The Poems

Tags

hopeless romantic, muse, petrarch, poems, poet, romeo & juliet, shakespeare, the balcony scene

For the same reason that sonnets were written about Laura;
like the balcony scene in Romeo & Juliet,
like the sweet sound of songbirds in duet,
I became a hopeless romantic the moment I saw her.

–@StevieStreets | Love, Love, Love (the poet, the muse, and the poems) abridged

Calla Lilies

Tags

afro bloomin', calla lily, hopeless romantic, invocations, no bed of roses, red lemons, wcw

lovely as a calla lily…
magnificent and beautiful,
sophisticated and powerful;
she bloomed mystically.

sweeter than a red lemon…
radiant as a yellow calla lily,
iconic as an afro bloomin’, sisterlocks, or 9-ether versatility;
the black woman blooms a little brighter than most women.

–@StevieStreets #wcw / #nobedofroses #poem | Calla Lilies: Invocation to the Muse revisited

February 14, 1991

Tags

happy birthday, homage, schlobohm, schroeder street, the hole

February 14, 1991

I’ll never forget the day; I’ll never forget the year

 

I remember when them dirt-bags tried to jump and you suddenly appeared

 

You stood there to make sure I got a fair one, they ain’t wanna shoot the fair one

 

Edwin and I never got chased after that day in ‘85,

Lord knows I was so glad to run into you and Saint-Claire that day in ‘85

 

My mind state was “I might be young but I can still hold a gun,” after you died

 

I was riddled with so many questions – at first glance I had to second-guess the who’s, how’s, and why’s – after you died

 

Sometimes, I still wonder: who could kill the coolest man alive?
You’re still the coolest dude I ever knew, dead or alive

 

It’s been 27 years to date and I still wish you were here

Sometimes I see you with the LL Kangol, frontin’ in the square

 

Heaven only knows what I would do to hear you say: “if you don’t look like your cousin Taylor ha, I swear”

 

It’s been 27 years to date and I still wish you were here

 

Sometimes, I wonder: how it feels to celebrate a birthday knowing your twin is not here

 

Long story short, cousin Dan – you was the man,
I just wanted to take a moment to let you know you still got love out here

 

–@StevieStreets #homage #poem | February 14, 1991

 

Burning Sage

Tags

black girl magic, good vibes only, hey natural hair, sage, smudging, sweetgrass, wcw

I got a thing for women that burn sage
And rock box braids

I’m a fan of sisterlocks with the updo or the french braids
I know my wcw is out there somewhere knockin’ Erykah Badu smudging sage
Wafting good vibes in the air

I got an affinity for kinky hair
I’m looking for a melanated sister, crowned with natural hair
She could don a headwrap or rock Jane Carter Solution in her hair

I got short hair love too, you could shave your head boo
I don’t care
I’ll take a baldheaded queen with style and flair
Long as your energy is soothing to my soul, we could roll

I need someone whose energy is healing to my soul
Hey Natural Hair, I could feel it in the air
I love you’re energy, you’re such a beautiful soul
Maybe we could stroll through a bookstore
Or discourse privately amid swirls of incense and remnants of neo – soul

You can catch me manifesting with ancient mystics, scrubbing sweetgrass smoke into my palms
But don’t be alarmed
Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on

I mean…
It’s nothin’ but good vibes over here
Dear Black Coffee,
There’s no need for chamomile tea or lavender oil whenever you are near

To clear the air
I represent the good vibes only tribe over here
Yet I find myself awaiting that sweet awakening, my dear
Yeah, I’m sweet on that Black Girl Magic
It feels like daylight, daylight whenever you appear
I gotta keep you near

I mean,
Everybody loves the sunshine
Uh, yeah
I’m digging your whole vibe
Oh, gonna make you mine
Light the sage, let’s vibe

 

–@StevieStreets #hopelessromantic #poem | Burning Sage

Starry Night

Tags

afro bloomin', black girl magic, cafe terrace at night, dawn, hopeless romantic, star eyes, starry night, sunflowers

Sweeter than the sound of mandolins on starry nights

Timeless as the beauty of the Starry Night

 

Oh star eyes,

Let me stargaze at the magic in your eyes tonight

Meet by the Café Terrace at Night

 

Maybe we can go on an art stroll or finger paint by candlelight

Let my fingers trace your outline

Let your hands fade into my hands,

I don’t want to know your hand from mine

Let me marvel at that Black Girl Magic neath the moonlight

 

I wanna serenade you with poems like:

“She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright” 1

 

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” 2

 

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where…” 3

 

“I carry your heart with me (I carry it my heart)

I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear…)” 4

 

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” 5

Thou art the dawn that draws songbirds,

My Woman Crush Wednesday, everyday

 

Sweeter than the sound of mandolins on starry nights

Timeless as the beauty of the Starry Night

 

Oh Queen of 10,000 moons,

This loves jones got me seeking to be your Brother to the night

 

Come ‘ere,

I wanna shower you with kisses,

Plant a flower in your hair

Is that alright?

 

It’s like I wish upon a star when I smell the coconut oil in your hair

I got a thing for that twist out with the flower near your ear

 

Portraits of you in a yellow sundress with the afro bloomin’ dawn on me

Like honeybees alighting on Sunflowers on sunny days

 

Oh, how I adore your natural hair journey

And ah, that body language has so much to say…

That inner glow is like whoa

Oh, star eyes,

In the darkest hour you tend to brighten the day

 

Picture yellow roses with a message card that reads:

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” 6

And I say that to say…

I wanna shower you with flowers just because…

Just because you brighten my day

 

The very thought of you is reminiscent to Nina Simone’s Wild As the Wind on replay

Thank you for the essence of all that is you…

Consider this a memento to immortalize the beauty of your dark skin,

Those star eyes,

And the way you brighten my day

 

–@StevieStreets | from THE HOPELESS ROMANTIC COLLECTION: Starry Night

_______

1 She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

2 Sonnet XLIII: How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

3 Sonnet XVII: One Hundred Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda

4 I Carry Your Heart With Me (I Carry It In My Heart) by E.E. Cummings

5 Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare

6 To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick

 

🎨: Van Gogh

Dear Awkward Black Girl, I Get You

Tags

000 moons, 10, black girl magic, dear awkward black girl, i get you, she's strange and i like it

Sundress looking lovely as the sunrise
All that Black Girl Magic with the magic in your eyes
How could I not get you? Lets make it official
DEAR AWKWARD BLACK GIRL, I Get You
Who would’ve thought I’d get you
YOU’RE ALL I NEED
I see 10,000 moons when I’m with you
I’ll gallivant around the galaxies and swoon Oshun just to get you

–@StevieStreets #igetyou #poem | Dear Awkward Black Girl, I Get You [she’s strange and i like it]

 

To The Women Whom I’ve Loved and Lost

Tags

emotionally scarred, INFJ, insecurities, languages of love, maybe i deserve, to the women i onced loved, vulnerability

To the women whom I’ve loved and lost:

Thank you for putting up with my shenanigans and antics

Thank you for giving hope to this hopeless romantic

And to the one that got away, I hold you in my memory banks at all costs

 

To the one that could be my baby’s mother and to the one that should be my Misses

 

I never meant to hurt you

And apologize for leaving you emotionally scarred

 

I want you to know, it wasn’t that I was emotionally unavailable;

Pretending I didn’t care for you when you left was incredibly hard

 

You gave me the kiss of life

Yet my foolish pride turned a piece of paradise into a cemetery of kisses

 

Maybe I deserve to watch you get married

Maybe a part of me died the day you miscarried

Maybe a fistful of tears is too much to carry

 

To the woman whom I’ve loved and lost,

May you find it in your heart to forgive me?

 

If my inability to love you gently led you to leave behind a trail of broken men,

Please forgive me

 

And to the woman that reads my poetry and can’t understand how I find it hard to express love:

I’m not blackhearted, I don’t have a blackheart

Black Love is beautiful, loving you is easy,

However, I’m learning how to accept love

I’m opening the dialogue to express love, albeit through a poem

I know you think I don’t have feelings

I’m learning to put my vulnerability out there,

Understand, I want to be a better man, I want to right my wrongs

I’ve been deflecting my insecurities for years,

To communicate better, I literally write my wrongs

Incidentally, my languages of love have destroyed women that I truly love;

If you look into my heart you’ll see, I wanna build God Body Knowledge

But my demons are living with me

I got feelings, I just lost a portion with each abortion;

You cannot love me if I don’t love myself,

I still ain’t forgive me

If you can’t understand how I’m antisocial yet social,

Please forgive me

I know my INFJ Myers Briggs is hell

But I see heaven in your eyes,

May you be patient with me?

 

–@StevieStreets #ode #tothewomenionceloved | To The Women Whom I’ve Loved and Lost

Poem in A Pocket Day Ode

Tags

library out loud, petrarch, pocket-sized verses, poem in a pocket day, poetry aloud

PUT A POEM IN YOUR POCKET!
It’s poem in your pocket day;
Celebrate by carrying a poem to share with others today.
Give the gift of poetry, don’t get out of pocket.

Start a poems for pockets giveaway.
Distribute pocket-sized verses to senior centers or nursing homes.
GO TO THE LIBRARY, memorize a poem.
EXPLORE THE STACKS, discover 811 [eight-one-one] today.

LIBRARY OUT LOUD!
poetry is allowed,
POERTY ALOUD.

A-B-B-A A-B-B-A C-D-E C-D-E,
If you love the art.

A-B-B-A A-B-B-A C-D-E C-D-E,
One time for Petrarch.

A-B-B-A A-B-B-A C-D-E C-D-E,
For the little song in your heart.

–@StevieStreets #sonnet | Poem in Your Pocket Day Ode