When I first moved to Philadelphia from a small little Western PA town I was in the third grade. I entered a public school where I was the only "white" child in my classroom. My parents told me that the children in my class were God's children just like me. I wasn't sure at first though. They eyed me suspiciously, told me I had "baby doll hair" and played a rope game called " Double Dutch " that I had never seen...
Then came the day when my third grade teacher pulled out a special poem that students were told to memorize. Each student was given one line and we were to recite it together. I LOVED this one ! I knew this story...it was part of me. The next day I returned to class with not just my line but the whole poem memorized...I had listened to poetry recited by my Irish/Seneca Grandpop for a while now so this was nothing for me to pull off.
The teacher asked the students to stand in order at the front of the class...everyone struggled with their lines...after an unsuccessful run of trying to put the whole thing together, the teacher asked students to go home and try again to learn their lines...
MY HEART POUNDED AND I KNEW WHAT I HAD TO DO NEXT...I boldly raised my hand and told the teacher I had memorized the whole thing and could I please recite it for the class. Being outspoken since birth this was a no-brainer for me as I strolled to the front of the classroom...this one was important to me...important for them too...I wanted them to know my heart as well as I knew that poem by heart !
And so I began...slowly and softly at first...and as it developed it got more, shall we say, "intense"...when I was finished the classroom erupted in applause...NOW WE KNEW that we were THE SAME...we had the same Creator who looked down on us and said " I made you and GOD DON'T MAKE JUNK...and God saw that WE ARE GOOD! "
Here then for your review and enjoyment is that poem...it may not be in line with your belief system but for one small moment in time I ask you to humor me and try to visualize this little tiny girl with blond hair and green eyes and big voice standing barely 3 feet tall belting this out...with NO FEAR and a conviction that knew it was do or die...HERE'S TO LIFE and the continuation of CREATION!
THE CREATION
by: James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
AND God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world." And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp. Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, "That's good!" Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, "That's good!" Then God himself stepped down --
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up. Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down. Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder. Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, "Bring forth! Bring forth!"
And quicker than God could drop His hand.
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, "That's good!" Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, "I'm lonely still." Then God sat down
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, "I'll make me a man!" Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image; Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
"The Creation" is reprinted from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed. James Weldon Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922.
