We All Came From Borderlands

These poems represent a collection of poems from 3 different unpublished books, Tribal Cities Where Women Love In Broken Towns,  Wooden Nickels, Cold and Gentle Nights in West Africa, and Africa in Shades and Seasons.

My creativity was encouraged by my mother Dr. Zenobia White, an artist and also a creative writer who used to read the classics to us on the weekends for entertainment before we even thought about watching our television set. Many of these readings included Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and D.H. Lawerence to name a few of the many I was exposed to at a young age as well as the Bible.

I began experimenting with poetic ideas in my junior year at Des Moines Technical High School following exposure to poetry during the 70s' by our black history teacher Mr. Phillip Wiggins. Wiggins encouraged us to explore all historic, classical literature, the ideas of the great philosophers along with Nikki Giovanni, Don L. Lee, and Amari Baraka.

  In the late '70s' my ideas started to develop after Professor Gary Gildners' class and exposure to Theodore Roethke, William Stafford, Robert Creely and other 20th Century Poets at Drake University. After this class I was encouraged to do an independent study class offered by the brilliant Dr. Tom Swiss who guided and encouraged me to complete my first book of unpublished poetry entitled "Wooden Nickels".   In my junior year I also began marriage to a 3rd year pharmacy student from Nigeria and found myself involved in a multicultural setting which changed many of my views about my cultural genesis, and the problem of living in a country built on the backs of  native americans , slaves, asian americans, and other immigrants, who had no choice in their treatment, still sometimes being treated in unkind ways because of their differences in appearances and customs. A problem that should have long ago been resolved now plagues the second and third wave of immigrants arriving to make their lives better, when we all have come to America for other reasons from prosperity, to escaping past social injustices. After graduating in 1979 from Drake University with a B.A. in Journalism and English , traveling to Nigeria, England, Puerto Rico, France, and to other places from time to time I revisited many my thoughts about  social and cultural issues and former ideologies. Lately some of my ideas have become more forgiving since recent exposure to martial arts for the past 3 years and embracing those tenets of compassion,  integrity, honor and acceptance.

Acceptance of all people even though I may not be accepted, integrity and honor, to stand up for justice when there is injustice, but yet the strength to remember the sacrifices that my ancestors have endured to make me the person I am today and the knowledge with the recent elections here in America to hope to pass on a more hopeful world for all of our children tommorrow here and abroad  where we will sincerely

reach out to each other, for as the title of this book illustrates, "  We All Came From Borderlands" 

"You will come to America penniless,distraught with nothing but the shoes on your feet,

or wrapped around your shoulders, you may carry the precious

torn ancestral cloth handed down from

your forefather to protect you from the cold

in the wind whistling through the ship harbor,

or rains in the back window of a midnight bus.   

A train might lull you to sleep, and across the desert

sands where no crops have grown for years,

you will think of only your children looking to you

with frightened trusting eyes as you pass around the last

bread on the way over the streams streams and oceans

rocking your small crying babies

hoping for peace and a better quality of  life.

For you have heard that America is a kind and gentle place.."

This collection of poems concludes with the resolution and hope for all Americans in light of the present election as President Elect Obama is of multicultural heritage which represents many diverse groups and is a testimony that anyone who strives for success can truly be anything they want in America, even President.

 Premillenial Resolutions or History Made November 5th 2008 (Barack Obama President)

And now we celebrate hope renewed

And all I've belived in America has come true

One who'll bring us toghether as one nation in unity

As we as a people begin to see

All past differences start to mend

And in this land of diverse blends

That opportunity is real

Despite of what others believe or feel

For once we can view our people as one

Nation of Americans.