Rev. Crystal's Full Moon Blessings

With the upcoming anniversary of Katrina I am reminded of many things that evoke emotions within me. Seeing the devestation of a community and the disregard for life as we watched them die and float on the waters trying to survive, I am still so saddened by the disregard for the lives of our own....those of my people. So I posted this poem before but feel it is time to post it again to honor the anniversary of the water that changed many peoples lives....

And the Water Said....By Ifalade Ta'Shia Asanti
A Poem For the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Survivors, All Rights Reserved @August 2005


And the water said, "listen!"
I am coming to show you truth,
I am coming to shake the grains of sands beneath you
Show you that which is hidden but in plain view
And the water told us why she had come--
I have come to stroke the skin tones of America
To comb the roots of racism
Expose the scalp of discrimination
Make it bare like the parts of newly plaited hair
"Can you hear me," the water asked?
I'm here to purify these nations
To wash the streets clean of their denial
To reveal faulty foundations and forked tongues
And I shall not be ignored
And her rain created cities of tears
Waves of brutal reality
Demanding transformation
Commanding our world undone
She woke us early
When the white house phone line was busy
About a quarter to one she woke us
Before our comfort arrived in monthly envelopes
Made us remember the unity of a million maafas
Showed us how genocides join sons

She carried our vision to rooftops
Where the shepherd revoked our salvation
FEMA dollars transformed into tombstones
Homeland Security became a funeral home
And the water returned to her garden
An ailing levee beckoned her backwards
Back to the streets
Back to our homes
She wasn't sure we had remembered
She was sure that we had forgotten

And the water rose
She embraced our memories
Ran up our steps to our doorbells
She knocked but we didn't answer
She stretched higher and higher
Found us waiting in the sunlight
Waving to strangers in electronic birds
Whose wings made us invisible beneath the sleeping sun
Do you remember now she asked?
Do you remember Rwanda & Benin?
Do you remember the captive passage?

And she beckons us to forward
To new land
Under new realities
She calls us to independence
Not theirs, but our own
She turns our eyes inward
She moves our hands together
And the water said: "seek one another!"
Hear as you've never heard
Understand how you've never understood
I am parting my tide for your safe journey
So you may discover what I already know

You have survived
Let this message wash your ears alive
I am here with your salvation
I have delivered it on the words flowing from my tongue
And She retreated from their doorsteps and porches
Let the son return

She sent them into the wilderness
With prayers already done
Daughters of the ocean
Sons of the storm
Our God has not forsaken you
But come to reshape your love..