The National: Daughters of the Soho Riots

Intermezzo



Anyone

Can say anything.

Eyes look without obstruction,

And the nose, it sniffs everything.

Legs go where they want to. Hands reach.

The mind respects nothing. Even the heart is unsure

Where to stand. This is how things are.

Is something missing?

A human being can walk in different ways,

Deliberately, as though going somewhere,

Or strolling with no purpose, or marching,

Or limping, or pretending to be a gorilla

With arms hanging down.

He or she can curse you or trust you, comfort you,

Or act without considering anything or anyone.

Truth and lies, both glitter in the eyes.

He or she can hear and enjoy and embrace

The language coming in, but to understand everything

With divine wisdom is hard.

There is one clear truth, the pure loving.

When people do not have that, they are disconnected.

Words are just words,

And good actions are done for wrong reasons.

Paint on a red dot like the dancing Shiva,

But if you don’t know how to open your heart

With modesty, dignity, and respect for others,

It’s just collecting more honors and robes.

It’s easy to explain the condition of being human,

What’s missing and what’s here,

But if you don’t know God exists,

It’s foolishness. To know this and

Act accordingly is difficult.

Saying the words is easy.


Bawa Muhaiyaddeen


Robert Nesta Marley, February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981

52


Born fatherless,

never knew my father. My mother

worked. She didn’t have no way of keeping me

going to school. We don’t have education, we have

inspiration. If I was educated,

I would be a damn

fool.


Me don’t have

no prejudice about myself.

Why me don’t have no prejudice about myself?

My father was white, my mother black. You know, dem call me

half-caste, or whatever. Well, me don’t be upon nobody’s side. Me don’t

be upon black mon’s side nor white man’s side but upon

God’s side, de mon who create me, who

cause me to come from black

and white.



4631


Reggae music

is the the people’s music,

reggae music is news. It’s news about

your own self, your own history, things that they

wouldn’t teach you in a school. Reggae music is a music created

by Rasta people. And it carry earth force, a people rhythm,

earth people. You know, there’s a rhythm of

people working, people

moving.


Dreads of

the world suffer.

Masses of the people suffer.

And dis music come from

the masses of the

people.



bobplayin


Why one

race want to be rich and

the other one poor? Why one want

to fight on the other? It’s no more of that.

The youth of today say no,

that cannot work

no more.



bob


How long

have I been a Rastafarian?

I am a Rastamon, you know, I stand Rasta.

To say how long is like, again, I say, from Creation, if you

can overstand it that way. Because y’all like to say

15 years, 10 years, it’s not really so.

It’s from Creation.


The only law

which is law is the law of life,

the law of how to live. Me don’t want to get involved

in talking like me is a politician. Me just want to

talk about righteousness. Jah is

Earth’s rightful ruler.



bob872


I don’t come

to bow, you know, I come to conquer.

I don’t come to bow, I come

to conquer.


My home is

always where I am. My home is

in my head. My home is what I think about,

how I try to settle my mind. That is my home.

My home is not in the material

world but there.


I don’t really

have no ambition, you know.

I only have one thing I’d really like to see happen.

I’d like to see mankind live together — black, white, shiny,

anyone, you know what I mean?

That’s all.


We are revolutionaries.

Me see myself as a revolutionary, who don’t have

no help, nor take no bribe from no one, but

fight it single handed, with

music.



bob8734


My life is

important to me, but all

people life is important. My life is only

important if me can help plenty people. If my life is

just for me, my own security, then me no

want it. My life is for people. That’s

the way me is.



bob8272


I say to

the people that they

have a voice inside of them that

talk to them, you know. That is the voice that

people must listen to. Because in everything that you go

and do, there is a wrong way and a right way. And if

you listen good, you will know the right way.

You know? Because there is a voice

inside talkin’ to everyone.

Seen? Seen.



tricolorbob


Jah lives, children.