Good evening everyone. To honor Black History Month I am featuring this brilliant poet, Haki Madhubuti and his work called “Is Truth Liberating?” Hope you enjoy it!
IS TRUTH LIBERATING?
By Haki Madhubuti
if it is truth that binds
why are there
so many lies between
lovers?
if it is truth that is liberating
why
are people told:
they look good when they don’t
they are loved when they aren’t
everything is fine when it ain’t
glad you’re back when you’re not.
Black people in america
may not be made for the truth
we wrap our lives in disco
and sunday sermons
while
selling false dreams to our children.
lies
are refundable,
can be bought on our revolving
charge cards as
we all catch truth
on the next go round
if
it doesn’t hurt.
Haki R. Madhubuti was born as Donald Luther Lee in Little Rock, Arkansas, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Wilson Junior College, Roosevelt University, the University of Illinois, and received an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1984. He served in the military from 1960 to 1963. Along with other early employment, he worked as an apprentice curator at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois (1963-1967). He was a writer-in-residence at Cornell University (1968-1969), poet-in-residence at Northwestern Illinois State College (1969-1970), and a writer-in-residence at Howard University (1970-1978). From 1967 onward he has served as editor and publisher of the Third World Press. He became a professor of English at Chicago State University in 1984.
KG Bethlehem 