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+--- Thread: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams (/showthread.php?tid=9070)
Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - native - 05-02-2014
The poem is from this book.
Make sure you watch the video..some of the lines of the poem aren't below. He's known for his slam poetry and is one of the best selling poets alive, so you have to hear it performed. Beautifully written I think.
Live performance of the poem: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/ie7s2m/saul-williams----amethyst-rocks-
What I got, come and get some,
get on up, hustler of culture.
I stand on the corner of the block slinging amethyst rocks,
drinking 40s of mother earth’s private nectar stock,
dodging cops, cuz’ 50 be the 666 and I need a fix of that purple rain:
the type of s*** that drives membranes insane.
Oh yeah, I’m in the fast lane snorting candy yams
that free my body and soul and send me like Shazaam,
never question who I am. God knows, and I know God personally,
in fact he lets me call him “me”...
I am Horus, son of Isis, son of Osirus, worshipped as Jesus,
resurrected like Lazarus, but you can call my Lazzy, lazy,
yeah I’m lazy because I’d rather sit and build
and work on top of a field and worship the
daily yield of cash green crops,
your evolution stopped the evolution of your technology:
a society of automatic tellers and money machines.
Nigga’ what, my culture is lima beans and tambourines,
dreams, manifest dreams real, not consistent with rationale,
I dance for no reason, for reason you can’t dance,
call me an activist of intellectualized circumstance,
you can’t learn my steps until you unlearn your thoughts,
spirit, soul, can be store-bought, f*** thought,
leads to naught, simply leads to you trying to figure me out,
your intellect’s disfiguring your soul,
your being’s not whole, check your flagpole,
stars and stripes, your astrology’s
imprisoned by your concept of white, of self,
what’s your plan for spiritual health? Calling reality unreal,
your line of thought is tangled, the star
spangled got your soul mangled, your being’s angled,
forbidding you to be real and feel, you can’t find truth
with an axe or a drill in a white house on a hill or
in factories or plants made of steel. Selling us was the
smartest thing you ever did, too bad you don’t teach the
truth to your kids. My influence on user reflection you
see when you look in your minstrel mirror and talk about
your culture, your existence is that of a schizophrenic
vulture who thinks he has enough life in him to prey on the dead,
not knowing that the dead ain’t dead, that he ain’t got enough
spirituality to know how to pray. Yeah, there’s no repentance,
you’re bound to live in infinite consecutive executive life sentence.
So while you’re busy serving time I’ll be in sync with the
moon while you run from the sun. Life of the moon,
reflected by guns, worship of moons, I am the sun,
and I am public enemy number one, one one one, one one one,
that’s seven. And I’ll be out on the block, hustling culture,
slinging amethyst rocks.
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - Melissa - 05-03-2014
Raw, lyrical and quite fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
Never heard of him before but checked him out on YouTube (the linked video doesn't seem to work)
Love this performance as well; http://youtu.be/KJHquOEChRg
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - Spaced - 05-03-2014
Very cool. I've only heard one other thing by Saul Williams but it left quite an impression on me
Inner breathlessness, outer restlessness
By the time I caught up to freedom I was out of breath
Grandma asked me what I'm running for
I guess I'm out for the same thing the sun is sunning for
What mothers birth their youngens for
And some say Jesus coming for
For all I know the earth is spinning slow
Suns at half mast 'cause masses ain't aglow
On bended knee, prostrate before an altered tree
I've made the forest suit me
Tables and chairs
Papers and prayers
Matter versus spirit
A metal ladder
A wooden cross
A plastic bottle of water
A mandala encased in glass
A spirit encased in flesh
Sound from shaped hollows
The thickest of mucus released from heightened passion
A man that cries in his sleep
A truth that has gone out of fashion
A mode of expression
A paint splattered wall
A carton of cigarettes
A bouquet of corpses
A dying forest
A nurtured garden
A privatized prison
A candle with a broken wick
A puddle that reflects the sun
A piece of paper with my name on it
I'm surrounded
I surrender
All
All that I am I have been
All I have been has been a long time coming
I am becoming all that I am
The spittle that surrounds the mouth-piece of the flute
Unheard, yet felt
A gathered wetness
A quiet moisture
Sound trapped in a bubble
Released into wind
Wind fellows and land merchants
We are history's detergent
Water soluble, light particles, articles of cleansing breath
Articles amending death
These words are not tools of communication
They are shards of metal
Dropped from eight story windows
They are waterfalls and gas leaks
Aged thoughts rolled in tobacco leaf
The tools of a trade
Barbers barred, barred of barters
Catch phrases and misunderstandings
But they are not what I feel when I am alone
Surrounded by everything and nothing
And there isn't a word or phrase to be caught
A verse to be recited
A man to de-fill my being in those moments
I am blankness, the contained center of an "O"
The pyramidic containment of an "A"
I stand in the middle of all that I have learned
All that I have memorized
All that I've known by heart
Unable to reach any of it
There is no sadness
There is no bliss
It is a forgotten memory
A memorable escape route that only is found by not looking
There, in the spine of the dictionary the words are worthless
They are a mere weight pressing against my thoughtlessness
But then, who else can speak of thoughtlessness with such confidence
Who else has learned to sling these ancient ideas
like dead rats held by their tails
so as not to infect this newly oiled skin
I can think of nothing heavier than an airplane
I can think of no greater conglomerate of steel and metal
I can think of nothing less likely to fly
There are no wings more weighted
I too have felt a heaviness
The stare of man guessing at my being
Yes I am homeless
A homeless man making offerings to the after-future
Sculpting rubber tree forests out of worn tires and shoe soles
A nation unified in exhale
A cloud of smoke
A native pipe ceremony
All the gathered cigarette butts piled in heaps
Snow covered mountains
Lipsticks smeared and shriveled
Offerings to an afterworld
Tattoo guns and plastic wrappers
Broken zippers and dead eyed dolls
It's all overwhelming me, oak and elming me
I have seeded a forest of myself
Little books from tall trees
It matters not what this paper be made of
Give me notebooks made of human flesh
Dried on steel hooks and nooses
Make uses of use, uses of us
It's all overwhelming me, oak and elming me
I have seeded a forest of myself
Little books from tall trees
On bended knee
Prostrate before an altered tree
I've made the forest suit me
Tables and chairs
Papers and prayers
Matter vs. spirit, through meditation
I program my heart to beat breakbeats and hum basslines on exhalation
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - Fastidious Emanations - 05-03-2014
he has an album, it's called.... amethyst rock star
not the one by joey bada$$
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - native - 05-04-2014
(05-03-2014, 09:25 AM)Melissa Wrote: Love this performance as well; http://youtu.be/KJHquOEChRg
Very powerful as well..lovin his stuff!
The link in my original post is working.
(05-03-2014, 11:22 AM)Spaced Wrote: Very cool. I've only heard one other thing by Saul Williams but it left quite an impression on me
Yeah, everything I've heard so far is great.
(05-03-2014, 11:25 AM)dynamic equilibrium Wrote: he has an album, it's called.... amethyst rock star
not the one by joey bada$$
I'll check it out.
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - Fang - 05-04-2014
Quote:The link in my original post is working.For yanks perhaps lol, don't think it works outside the US
RE: Amethyst Rocks by Saul Williams - Parsons - 05-04-2014
Beautiful poetry, thanks for sharing.