Freedom

Throughout life I’ve wondered what it means to be free
To me its to emcee and to help all people see
That if we have freedom it’ll be all we need
So I wait for sunlight as I plant all my seeds
Takin the lead as I fulfill my destiny
To open minds and make this a little more heavenly
Lettin free wisdom in each and every poem I write
Cause if one of us ain’t free then there’s still a war to fight
Usin insight and my sight to these heights that I be movin
Trainin soldiers I be groovin slowly buildin this movement
We improvin movin closer to limits in the sky
Usin these Los Angel wings as we learn to fly
Don’t just try-freedom requires you to do it
And once you’re free then you will never ever lose it
Freedom is love and truth this I guarantee
So we should never stop fightin til we all are free

Bringing Hip Hop Back

I spit this verse so you know what emcees is about
Steppin to wack rappers smackin the gold out they mouth
Nowadays all these cats wearin ice is tomfoolery
Where I come from, only females wears jewelry
So really all I’m doin is demonstratin
How Hip Hop’s innovatin when minds be elevatin
Always creatin genious rhymes and never fakin
Always givin to this culture and rarely takin
Hip Hop to me is more than art, it’s like religion
Openin up vision lyrically dishin while sparkin ambition
All I’m wishin is that real Hip Hop will come back
I’m tired of crunk beats with the same wack raps
They need to come and learn from this Hip Hop scholar
If 50 cent was my student, I’d turn him to a dollar
Make you hollar feelin cats like me
But know all I am is one underground emcee
It be Amado teamin up with the Darkside
With Bryan up and coming, there’s nowhere to hide
Only a matter of time til you no longer feel
Dudes who won’t stop til they got TVs spinin in they wheels
The goal to create more Hip Hop heads
Kick wack fools out the game leavin em all brain dead
I’m sick and tired of all these idiots soundin wack
So the mission of this club is to bring Hip Hop back

Who We Are

This be an explanation of who we are
We got so much light, we shine brighter than the stars
In all the skies rockin pads and pens gettin fly
Poets devastatin ear drums to help you recognize
That these pens turn to swords to make this situation greater
Steadily improving now so we can have a better later
Innovators gatherin around words and language
What we scribe keeps us alive and ends all anguish
Wanna step to my crew, you got some nerve
Don’t underestimate these teenagers, your bound to get served
What we do with words is bring you closer to heaven
The limit is the sky as our potential’s neverendin
Words manifestin to bliss whenever we come together
For the pleasure of this art we give you our treasure
Open up your ears, so you can hear these lessons
The poets are here to teach, so class is in session

A Letter to My Students...

Dear Fill in the blank
On most days
I would fill that in
With my beloved, beloved kids

And on other days
I wanna fill that in with
You lazy fuckers
Sit down!
Be quiet!
Do your work
Stop tagging on my desks
Stop makin fun of my hair
Stop being so apathetic!

But again
On most days
I would fill it in
With my beloved, beloved kids

I wanted to let them know
What they mean to me

Cause all I’ve ever done was
Try to help them realize the truth
That they deserve all the happiness
That this universe can give birth to

And that happiness
Isn’t found in the newest pair of Air Jordans
Or what cool color their ipod is

But in the fact that
All they should ever BE
All they should ever DO
Is pursue happiness

So I try to teach my kids
That the most important thing
In what they want to DO
Or what they want to BE
When they grow up
Is to be happy

And so they ask me
“Mister…
Are you happy…
Do you love your job”
And some days I’m honest
And I tell them
“hell no!”

Then I proceed to tell them
Why that is so
It’s because some days
My soul gets beat down with
So much of their apathy

And their apathy
Has taken me to a place
Where my soul is so lost
Where no matter how much I search for it…
My own happiness may never be found…
Doing this job
In a classroom with them…

Where I question whether or not
This job is truly what I want to do with myself
Because the real reason why I love my job

Is because on most days
I love my kids



And the fact that
It’s so hard for me to check my emotions
At the door that I walk through
Every morning to enter my classroom
I end up wearing my heart
Not only on my sleeve
But across my chest

And when I see
That they are really more concerned
With all the trappings
Of the manufactured values we have
In this capitalistic prison of a world…

My heart begins to crumble

So I want to tell them
Why it is that I love this job
It’s because on most days
They make me feel like
All that I could ever want to DO
All that I could ever want to BE
Is their teacher
And on most days
When I learn as much from them
As they do from me
What more can a person want to feel?

Together we’ve found a little moment of bliss
A moment of perfection
Where the quest for knowledge and wisdom
Reigns over any other desire






So this letter is being written
So that whenever they ask me again
Whether or not I love my job
I want to let them know
That standing in front of them
Watching them wonder
About possibility
About change
About what their life means
And about how there is meaning to life…
About who they are
And what they will become
And about the fact that
Because of them
I have discovered the greatest joy

Then the answer is yes
I do love my job
Not just on most days…
But everyday

My Beloved Lakers....

I wish you had never won any championships
EVER!
I wish that I would have never tasted
the sweet fruit
of winning
Because unfortunately...
Now...
You guys suck!
Freakin Kobe...
Needs to learn to pass or something
FUCK!!!! (Pardon my profanity)
But this is the frustration that I feel

PS-Dear Santa
I want a time machine
for Christmas
And please bring Shaq back to LA
To the good old times...

PPS-Dear Santa
Not the garbage version of Shaq
That the Heat have
The old dominant
LA Lakers Champion
Shaq

Thanks Santa...Big Up
Keep doing your thang.

Inception Part 2

So, since I don't really know what to say...Here's a poem

"Heaven and Hell"

Living in this life
I’m starting to see
Of how heaven and hell
Might actually be

You see to me
Heaven and hell is
This constant struggle
That I live on a daily basis
Teaching boys how to be kings
Giving the limit of the sky
To fulfill their dreams
And to have them respect women
Because each and every one is a queen

But then all of this gets wasted
By them turning on MTV
To see some dirty little hoochie
Acting all skanky
And like a ho
On a dumbass dating show like Next
Thinking that in order to come correct
And to get a man
You gotta floss in a dirty sort of way

So the boys end up being wannabe-pimps
And they think it’s okay
To objectify women
But really they need to step to me
With that male chauvinist ego
So I can just pimp slap the hell out of them


But to me these kids will never stop being brethren
So everyday it is my job
To try and bring them back towards heaven


Heaven is having a father
Who cannot even begin to be described with words like
Teacher
Provider
Role Model
Compassion
and
Strength

And Hell is watching that strength
Being taken slowly away
By cancer
So that my perception of strength
Got all shook
And so heaven again
Taught me that strength and bliss
Is my listless father
Who won’t let that cancer
Ever take away any of his content or joy

So now heaven teaches me
That no matter what
You gotta keep moving on
Even though hell is trying to keep you down
Everyday you need to become a little more strong
Fixing everything wrong in this life
We might actually start to see
Just a little of what heaven might actually be

When are supposed "to know"?

I was just wondering. There is something about American culture where we ask kids, often times when they are children-"What do you want to be when you grow up?" As a high school teacher, I see teachers asking their students what their major will be in college leading these students to really think about what they want to do with their lives. I personally think that this is the biggest mistake that you could do to a college bound high school student. I mean how is a 17 year old kid supposed to figure out what they are going to do with their life? I have friends who are ranging from the ages of 24-34 who still don't know what they want to do with themselves.

So what ends up happening is these kids go to college and all their minds are on is what they are going to "become". Never leaving their minds on the present moment. Never taking college for what it should be in my opinion-which is an opportunity to learn! So we end up with economics majors or pre-law or pre-med majors. The common question being asked to someone who revelas their major is- "So what are you going to do with that?"

Maybe it's just this capitalistic regime that we are in. But college for me was so much about potential job opportunities as opposed to actual learning and upliftment through knowledge. And so 2 changed majors, 5 years, and about $40,000 later I graduated with a degree in Religious Studies. And no... I am not a priest or anything like that. But I have to say I enjoyed the remainder of college when I was actually learning something. And this brings me to my post question. When are we supposed "to know" what we want to do or what we want to become.

I am asking because for about the past 8 years of my life I have known that I wanted to be a teacher. But high school teaching has become an embarked journey that has left me knowing that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. So I'm just wondering because the question of this post is the burning question that my self and almost all of my friends are yearning to answer. And I figured that after 28 years of breath in this existence, I would have more of a clue. But many days, I feel like I am back at square on trying to answer the very same question of-"What do you want to become when you grow up?"

Shit... It feels crazy because I have to answer this question again, but I'm all grown up now. So maybe I should panic. Or maybe I should just not care and let things fall where they may. I know the answer lies in between both of these extremities. But I just thought i would know by now.

Inception

So I have now found another way to procrastinate and spend even more time in front of my MacBook. Hopefully this will be something of substance. I would like to share some thoughts-unfortunately right now there aren't any. So I will leave y'all with a poem. Here it is:

WHAT IS POETRY?

What is poetry?
Poetry is the expression of light and freedom
Seeing the light is opening up vision that
You thought you never had before
Seeing with a third eye
That makes you see truth
Words bringing freedom
That guards you with liberty
Against the enslavement of your mind
Don’t let them fool you
Don’t let them fool you
This capitalist regime wants you
To stay a corporate slave
Billboards plastering ads
With Nike, Coca-Cola, and Ipods
Is the same thing as when they told Africans
That a better life awaited them in the new world
But “Mr. Amado, the new Ipod comes with better battery life and different colors”
Man, I don’t care if that Ipod is gonna come with
A Laker girl that does your homework
It’s all just a plot to keep us slaves

So what are ways we can fight this system
Through Art
Through Hard Work
Through Love and
Through always keeping our minds open

You see they’re even trying to enslave hip hop
Taking knuckleheads off the street
Putting chains around their necks
Which are like chains around their feet
You see I don’t want to
Catch Chamillionaire ridin dirty
Cause the only thing dirty about him
Is his jacked up lookin teeth
With all that gold in it
I mean how you supposed to keep your breath fresh with a grill?

There’s not enough poetry
In the music these days
Music needs more poetry these days
Music should never be a gimmick
Just sounding the same

Now no offense to anyone “emo”
But I wanna get those “emo” singers
Some nasal spray so they could start singing better
And not sound the same

All I’m trying to do
Is to get you to see that
There is still art left in this world
Art that does what it is supposed to do
Which is to open you up
Art that opens you
To what is beautiful
To what we could change
To where we are
And to where we need to go

So what is poetry
Poetry is me
Poetry is you
Poetry is we
Let me say it again
Poetry is me
Poetry is you
Poetry is we

So poetry is one tool to help bring change
Poetry is one jewel to help rearrange
That state of mind that keeps us in confusion
Poetry is one way we can have a solution
To end this madness and to start a revolution
Poetry wants to come back and is so fed up
So if you’re down for this, then it’s time to STAND UP!