usain - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-29T12:36:08Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/usainPraise Poem - Dedicated to Usain Bolt and all Black Athleteshttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/praise-poem-dedicated-to2010-07-27T12:00:00.000Z2010-07-27T12:00:00.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><p></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><img src="http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_athletics/BOLT_Usain_20080816_GH_T.jpg" alt="BOLT_Usain_20080816_GH_T.jpg" /></p>
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<p><em>"I was inspired to write after the Stirling performance by Usain Bolt and other black athletes last year. Coincidentally I did most of the work on my birthday. Have not given it much publicity since then except to show it to a few friends,"</em> <a href="mdedey02@yahoo.com"><em>Michael Dedey</em></a><em>.<br /></em></p>
<div><p style="text-align:center;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b><span style="line-height:115%;font-size:26pt;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="6">Have I No Glory</font></font></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:center;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><i><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">Dedicate to Usain Bolt and all Black Athletes.</font></font></i></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">You cannot miss me</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Melanin in my skin makes it impermeable to light</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">At night my teeth give me away</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My ancestors built the pyramids</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I have survived the slave raiders</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I survived the long voyages in bondage, darkness and pain</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I have survived the greatest holocaust in human history</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">But the world denies me</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">The world denies me glory</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My shame, their quilt, is wished away.</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">The holocaust of the 6,000,000 is more enduring than the holocaust of 60,000,000</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Yesterday I was shamefully bound and forced to leave Africa without a visa</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Today, I shamelessly flee Africa unbound but have to pay for a visa</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">After apartheid I was encouraged to forgive and forget</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I was encouraged to form a RAINBOW nation while Nazi war criminals are still pursued</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My land and its resources nourish and enrich the world but I remain poor</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">The world; East, West, North and South gang up against me and I see it</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">But my leaders say otherwise</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My leaders sit, dine and wine with my oppressors</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My leaders connive, steal, cheat and oppress me</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My leaders have become my oppressor</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">My spirit is low</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I have learnt to survive, my spirit is lifted with voices from the past</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Marcus Garvey</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Malcolm X</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Martin Luther King Jr.</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Steve Biko</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Amilcar Gabral</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Kwame Nkrumah</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Bob Marley</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">STOP!</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Are all my heroes dead?</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Mandela’s resilience and Obama’s achievement gives me hope</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">It tells me, ‘Yes We Can’</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Today I saw a Bolt of lightning</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">As if to re-assure me, it flashed 100 times</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Then it flashed 200 times</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">I smiled for that Bolt of lightning shook Hitler in his grave</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">That Bolt of lightning made Jesse Owens smile</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Subsequent bolts were all of my kind</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Impervious to light, strengthened by years of hard labour</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Emboldened by years of discrimination</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Run, my brethren, run</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">In this race, there can be no doubt, who the victor is</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Maybe some DNA test will prove that you are not one of us</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Until then, I say, run like no bodies business</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Bolt like thunder and flash like lightening</font></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt 18pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">For in you, I see my glory today.</font></p>
<p style="text-align:right;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal" align="right"><font size="3" face="Calibri">By</font></p>
<p style="text-align:right;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal" align="right"><a href="mdedey02@yahoo.com"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Kosi Dedey</font></a></p>
<p style="text-align:right;margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal" align="right"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">(13<sup>th</sup> September 2009)</font></font></p>
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