Abdalla Straker
This book contains many, many words. But these words are not just words. They tell stories. They create images. They inspire. They lift up. They speak life where there is death. They speak hope where there is despair. They touch minds, hearts and souls.
These words are not just words. They breathe life. They create hunger. They stimulate growth.
These words are not just words. They make you think. They make you think about yourself, your life. They make you think about others.
Try these words.
I challenge you.
Taste and see if they are just words.
The author is a teacher at Naparima College in Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies). He is also involved in his local church, particularly the choir and music ministry. He is an actor with the San Fernando Theatre Workshop and is a gifted writer of both poetry and song. He is conscientiously involved in using his talents and helping others to develop and use theirs for positive upliftment and education.
12. WHERE ARE YOU
They look at me, they say who he,
He just like the rest of them,
Don’t know where he is.
A victim of circumstance, born into a world that slowly but surely woos you down a
path to self destruction.
They look at me, the way I look, the things I wear, my attire,
But don’t know like the chameleon it’s to camouflage what’s within my heart,
my desire.
They look at me struggling to break free of the bondages that society and its
misconceptions itself has placed,
And quick to bawl, he playing rebel, don’t want to conform.
They look at me and quick to judge,
Under the guise of analyse,
And fail to see their own shortcomings,
And to know that to every finger they point, one points back at them.
And want to tell me, I don’t know where I am.
Where are you !!
Boy, look where we’ve reached.
We want to be everywhere else but where we’re supposed to be.
Boy, look where we’ve reached.
We want to be everyone else but who we’re supposed to be,
But fail to see that the success of men like Martin Luther and Ghandi was based on
that within, a quest for originality.
Boy, look where we’ve reached.
We see everything else but what we’re supposed to see.
Overlook poverty, just discuss it.
Overlook greed, just become it.
Overlook life, make a mess of it.
Overlook purpose, don’t become it.
Who and what we’re supposed to be,
For a specific purpose and destiny.
And always, it is the blind leading the blind.
We’ve seen so much, our visions impaired, smoke fills our eyes.
And want to tell me, I don’t know where I am.
Where are you !!
Where am I you ask.
I’ll tell you.
Unlike many that sit and philosophise with closed up eyes, I DO.
With clear vision and approach, I begin my search with action,
Knowing that a stationary vehicle is reluctant to move, but once in motion,
direction soon follows,
Don’t with the intellect scream inertia, PRACTISE IT!
And don’t even claim that you’re waiting,
After education you’ll be starting,
Time waits for no man, this could be your last day,
understand and do something about it.
Or are we content to sit and say, what he talking bout where I am,
I’m here.
But where are you, your heart.
Where are you, your mind.
Where are you, your soul.
Don’t wait, this hour, this minute, this second, determine where you are.
Don’t wait for anyone else to ask you,
Where are you ?
