Aberjhani
Long-time advocate of principles and programs associated with PEN American Center and the Academy of American Poets. My newest books are: These Black and Blue Red Zone Days, Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind, and Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah. Other titles include: Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black; and THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS. In addition,the year 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love with the artist Luther E. Vann.
My work as a visual artist can be found at: https://pixels.com/profiles/posteredc...
I'm currently working on several important projects, including a second edition of The American Poet Who Went Home Again. In addition, I have had the honor of serving as an editor for the Civil War Savannah Book Series published in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War. The first title in the series is Savannah Immortal City published February 1, 2011; and the second is Brokers Bankers and Bay Lane Inside the Savannah Slave Trade.
I don't recall a time since adolescence when I have not been involved in a deep relationship with writing, reading, and other forms of creative expression, which is why I remained so deeply involved with Creative Thinkers International for many years.
Prior to joining any of the above, I was born in Savannah, Georgia, eventually left to attend colleges around the country, and served in the U.S. Air Force for 8 years total.
I lucked out and got so furiously inspired in the course of producing some of my work that folks were kind enough to give me awards for it. These include the CONNECT SAVANNAH 2006 Readers Poll for Best Poet and Spoken Word Artist; the Choice Academic Title Award for "Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance," (co-authored by Sandra L. West); the Thomas Jefferson Journalism Award; and the Freedom Foundation essay competition bronze medal.
The year 2007 marked my 10th publishing works in ESSENCE Magazine. I'm particularly happy about the fact that my "Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance" was listed by Black Issues Book Review as one of its “essential reference books for the home library.”
“Art gives its vision to beauty not always recognized. And it surrenders freely -- whatever power it possesses to every sincere soul that seeks it. But above all else--it presents us with the gift of ourselves.”
“At the edge of madness you howl diamonds and pearls.”
“With its leaves so rich and heavy with elation and its crimson face made brighter with visions of divinity the shadow of a certain rose looks just like an angel eating light.”
“Got just enough room to be a friend of yours. Oh I hope you got room to be a friend of mine.”
“Hope drowned in shadowsemerges fiercely splendid––boldly angelic.”
“Beneath the armor of skin/and/bone/and/mindmost of our colors are amazingly the same.”
“The whole purpose of the construction of The Bridge of Silver Wings was to provide a path leading to The River of Winged Dreams, or to serve as a resting place until the river’s deeper and truer nature revealed itself.”
“Now come the whispersbearing bouquets of moonbeamsand sunlight tremblings.”
“Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart.”
“We can cry for years but sometimes gotta smile too.”
“Upon the lips of babes asleep I saw light embracing light and so allowed my syllables to rest there as a prayer they might sing in their dreams...”
“I place my fingers upon these keys typing 2,000 dreams per minute and naked of spirit dance forth my cosmic vortex upon this crucifix called language.”
“Change is one of the scariest things in the world and yet it is also one of those variables of human existence that no one can avoid.”
“First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.”
“Poetry looking in the mirror sees art, and art looking in a mirror sings poetry.”
“If it wasn’t for all those silver wings spread out to help you on your journey, you would’a been dead or someplace screamin’ in a nut house a long time ago.”
“In my head this cruel unspeakable truth: that we battled and we cursed and we spilled each other’s blood, we relished our taste of hell and strangled heaven’s love.”
“Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.”
“Between death and hell a bridge shining silver wings offers his soul hope.”
“Know yourself fearlessly (even quietly) for all the things you are.”
“What can bombs know of the illuminated fields so golden with heaven in your heart’s sacred lands?”
“An outrageous instinct to love and be loved blinded your arms to lines of propriety––Women and Men, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, white, black, red, brown. An outrageous instinct to love and be loved executed your brain every hour on the hour.”
“What hell condemned, let heaven now heal.”
“This rose of pearl-coated infinity transformsthe diseased slums of a broken heartinto a palace made of psalms and gold.”
“Dreams dress us carefully in the colors of power and faith.”
“Where humanitysowed faith, hope, and unity, joy’s garden blossomed.”
“History dressed up in the glow of love’s kiss turned grief into beauty.”
“Un-winged and naked, sorrow surrenders its crown to a throne called grace.”
“Everywhere we shine death and life burn into something new…”
“Love, Mercy, and Grace, sisters all, attend your wounds of silence and hope.”
“This is what our love is––a sacred pattern of unbroken unity sewn flawlessly invisible inside all other images, thoughts, smells, and sounds.”
“The music of revelation announces itself to the reader in somber brooding tones or in melodies light as air and one is invited to dance with the most captivating of partners: poetry.”
“The reality of a serious writer is a reality of many voices, some of them belonging to the writer, some of them belonging to the world of readers at large.”
“Feet sandaled with dreams tread paths of vision leading to wisdom’s sharp peaks.”
“Compassion crowns the soul with its truest victory.”
“A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmareto the jeweled vision of a life started anew.”
“Oh what a wonderful soul so bright inside you. Got power to heal the sun’s broken heart, power to restore the moon’s vision too.”
“Souls reconstructed with faith transform agony into peace.”
“A poet is a verb that blossoms light in gardens of dawn, or sometimes midnight.”
“Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives.”
“The job facing American voters… in the days and years to come is to determine which hearts, minds and souls command those qualities best suited to unify a country rather than further divide it, to heal the wounds of a nation as opposed to aggravate its injuries, and to secure for the next generation a legacy of choices based on informed awareness rather than one of reactions based on unknowing fear.”
“Poetry and art nourish the soul of the world with the flavor-filled substances of beauty, wisdom and truth.”
“The best of humanity's recorded history is a creative balance between horrors endured and victories achieved, and so it was during the Harlem Renaissance.”
“A world without poetry and art would be too much like one without birds or flowers: bearable but a lot less enjoyable.”
“Rainer Maria Rilke greeted and wrestled with the angels of his Duino Elegies in the solitude of a castle surrounded by white cliffs tall trees and the sea. I greeted most of mine in the solitude of a house that still vibrated with the throbs of a singular life that had helped shape many lives and with the ache of attempts to render useful service to that life. The River of Winged Dreams was therefore constructed as a link between dimensions of past and future emotions and intellect and matter and spirit.”
“I called it a baptism in flaming ink that forced me to shed my shyness about recognizing myself as a poet and to accept the fact that life had never given me any choice in the matter. And then I had to discover exactly what that meant.”
“The American identity has never been a singular one and the voices of poets invariably sing, in addition to their own, the voices of those around them.”
“On faith’s battered back calm eyes etch prayers that cool a nation’s hot rage.”
“The same hot lightning that burns your blood with passion–– cools your fears with peace.”
“In honor of Oprah Winfrey: Even greater than the ability to inspire others with hope is the power to motivate them to give as much to the lives of others as they would give to their own; and to empower them to confront the worst in themselves in order to discover and claim the best in themselves.”