(All poetry on this page is © Teena Marie)
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I come full circle mother Ever wild and ever peaceful City upon city piled high upon my back Ten thousand years before Christ I tilled this earth and from me sprang poetry, astrology, music, sensuality, symmetry, and industrialization. Mine was the first important work of society. Since Day One I ruled Supreme. I reigned my lands nobly and justly. Loving my sons and my daughters equally well. I possess outer beauty coupled with inner strength. I have always been woman and I have always been a backbone. I have been called many names by many peoples. Athene, Dianna, Minerva, Hecate, Hera, Rhamnusia Quan Yin, Amaterasu. "But the Egyptians which are excellent in all kinds of ancient knowledge do call me by my true name, Queen Isis." "From out of Africa I came." I gave my angels charge over thee to keep thee safe in the fruit of my womb, Jesus. I am Mary the mother of grace and my smile will Light your Primordial Dawn. I am queen of the Nile. The Lion and every living beast submit tenderly to me, for I am the last word Momma, and the true first wonder of the world. I am a direct descendant of the royal house of David, and the tribe of Judah. My blood is blue and my lineage is long. They can destroy my records, but I keep coming back. For I am a symbol of what will survive.
For My Mother and Yours. Lady Tee
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Life is pristinus and deep A bordello and a shallow ovation A phantasm, set somewhere between rhythm and rhyme Tubular bells and the bottom line is Reality is a clap of hands or a pat on the back, so few and I am a saxophone solo, seductive and pure, resonant I am upper suburbia and I am Venice Harlem. I am one million and one contradictions to my Lady Tee--imperfect happy me, loved and hated and I Aah but I try. I am the answer to a question asked -- where have To and from Bali Hai and New Orleans -- Romantically I am the warrior and And I can hang tough, even when And you, you are a pure and Your simplicity will quench the Sweet chariot of humanity, you will never die. Sweet children of Yahweh, you have made my You and I are no more or less than each other -- small fragments of the master's imagination, For it takes a million fragments to build Eli -- you have placed me here in Sodom, I have seen the blood of the prophets Grant that I may save at least one Alas! Alas! The great city, her I have felt the pains of striving to be free, no irons or screws to crush my thumbs -- 'tis the ignorant thoughts of man that have I have been persecuted and labeled just like you Aah but you label Campbell's soup cans . . .
Alhumdulellah, Teena Marie
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The Verbs
The Nouns
The Double Entrendres
The Nakedness that we
use as an action word
Can we categorize a
mixed emotion
And is it possible that
vulnerability
Can not lay forever in
the cut
Where old wounds bleed
and scars never heal
With a child's heart, I
have lived
For the sensual sexuality
of Marvin
And the purity of
Minnie
I drown in still waters
when Donny sings
to me
I know heaven rocks
How can I ex-per-ess
to you
What music has meant
to me
How Rachmaninoff
makes me think of you
Always in time and how
the Primordial soup
Thickens when I say
That my world spins on
your axis...
Just because I make my
living in the Land of
Prose
Does not lessen the
pain of the words I
just said
There are equal parts
of joy and pain
In every note I sing
In every inflection of
every word
The scale balances out
somehow
If not in my life then
perhaps in yours
"A million and one selfish
hearts and but one
Altruist too many"
If I loved you
In all of my lives madly
and incurably
As you might have
expected
If I gave you my essence
keeping nothing for
myself
If I loved you so much
that I would even
forgive you
When you wouldn't
allow me
To keep a sand of my
own time
Or a capsule-as you
might have expected
Would that be enough-
enough love
In all "seriousity," I am
Surrealistically speaking
as the pillow talks
Loud and clear
There is something in
here for you
For I have seen you,
naked to
ah-The World
From Naked to the World, 1988.
