Abesha.Com

kristos/love/consciousness

"are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?  
just so's you're sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed,  
cause wholeness is no trifling matter.  
a lot of weight when you're well..."1


in the stillness
of a queens night
i breathed my menfesawi 2
creed into your essence  

we are so powerful,
you and i.
we are so powerful,
you and i.
we are so powerful,
you and i.

powerful enough
to levee
the infinite, raging
rivers of love
which attempted to  
breech a lustsober thursday's  
whispered intention

because two healers:
one, steadily learning, following, climbing
the rugged mountainous region
her ancestors tread for millenia
as they discovered
the beauty of kristos love consciousness3  
eyes, dark brown and wide with the mystery
skin, bronzed gold intensity of ra's4 rays
lips parted to reveal splendored joy
in the birthing cleanse of may cholot's5 body
in a debtera's6 profoundly bowed meditation
heart vigilantly attentive to the village's
woes and wounds:
from the enduring black and blueness  
of patriarchy's stain on nigisti's7 face
to the frail, bruised persistence
of nascent/ancient zelalem's8 heart

a white netsela9 gently caresses
her head and shoulders
as she kneels,
kissing, absorbing, breathing
the ground of her ancestors
their spirits enshrine her energy
blessing her fertile womb,
fueling the flame within her eyes,
inspiring the joy in her gait,
soothing the aches of her heart,
brightening the white of her smile,
coaxing heat into the frigidity
of a new world reality

because two healers:
one, cimarron10 brown
imhotep-blessed11 new afrikan healer melakh12
gusts and bursts of divine, ancestral
oxygen filling his lungs with the  
purity of their insight
head bowed in awestruck reverence  
for the eternal wisdom
of maafa13 horror forged boiling energies of
communal spirituality
shining light fills his space
a circle of spirits crowns his head
nyame, asaase afua, obatala, olokun, aja14
in him beats apatrapa's15 heart  
beloved believer in the healing force of  
those who wept, bled, suffered, loved, departed  
in the soil of the new afrikan world

"in this here place, we flesh;
  flesh that weeps, laughs, flesh that
  dances on bare feet in grass."16

those beating hands drums and soul vibrating organs
filling the chapel altars with the elevating gravity
of omnipotent hope


because two healers:
converged at an unexpected intersection
love propelling them into a fleeting blink of eternity
a moment manifested eons away
by highest selves' purest state of awakening

and  
a wisdom,
unwavering, knowing,
in lovehealing,
in ourselves,
in you,
in me,
in our people
soaring endlessly
energy floating high
into the arms
of loving freedom.

we are so powerful,
you and i.  
we are so powerful,
you and i.
we are so powerful,
you and i.


in this prayer poem  
beloved and i
beloved  
and  
i
beloved, i
evoke kristosloveconsciousness.17



1 Passage from Toni Cade Bambara's, "The Salt Eaters," a classic New Afrikan novel in which an essential community mother and activist has a complete spiritual and physiological crisis. These words are spoken by one of the shrewd, elder healers who surround the protagonist as she attempts to heal the traumas and tragedies of her past. The question is being asked to the readers of the poem as well as to the narrator's beloved, specifically in reference to the multifaceted internal and external oppressions that both face in late modern, Western society comprised primarily—but not solely—by the complex intermingling of patriarchy, capitalism and white supremacy.

2 Translation from Tigrinya, a language spoken in the highlands of Southern Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia: menfesawi means "the spirit's" or "that which is possessed by the spirit."

3 Kristos love consciousness is a reference to christ or god-realization or god-consciousness; something which the narrator believes that her Eritrean ancestors and all human beings strive to achieve at every moment, but particularly when engaged in healing and prayer work.

4 Ra is a reference to Sun-Ra, the ancient Kemetic sun god.

5 May Cholot is a body of holy water located in Southern Eritrea. Believers in its healing properties—generally Eritrean Orthodox Christians—travel far and wide to engage in spiritual-medicinal rituals.

6 Debtera is a Tigrinya word which refers to the position held by spiritual healers trained in the indigenous medical systems of the Eritrean Orthodox Church.

7 Nigisti is a female name in the Tigrinya language as well as a word meaning "queen."
8 Zelalem is a male name in the Tigrinya language as well as a word meaning "eternity."

9 A netsela is a delicate cloth, similar to a head scarf, made out of a chiffon material, and worn in a casual manner by Eritrean and Ethiopian women; it is often but not exclusively worn during church rituals.

10 Cimarron is a Spanish word referring to maroons, Afrikan people who escaped slavery and subsequently established free, communally-based societies founded upon indigenous African cultural/religious practices. In this context it is also a reference to the deep brown-purple color, maroon.

11 Imhotep was a Kemetic doctor, architect, scholar and poet. He is widely recognized as the world's first doctor. He is "the one that comes in peace."

12 Tigrinya word meaning angel (masculine).

13 Maafa is a Kiswahili term referring to the Afrikan holocaust/genocide created by the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

14 A reference to various Yoruba and Akan gods and goddesses, particularly those with special significance for New Afrikan peoples. Both spiritual systems are invoked because of their symbolic significance for the narrator's beloved, who as a New Afrikan, is a living manifestation of the diverse, indigenous Afrikan peoples of West Africa. Nyame is the Supreme Being/Creator in the Akan theological system; Asaase Afua is the Earth Mother and a counterpart to Nyame.

15 Apatrapa is the name of a village in Ghana.

16 A passage from Toni Morrison's riveting story, "Beloved" referring to the unique challenges faced by New Afrikan people in learning to embrace and love the entirety of their minds, bodies and spirits as well as the innovative approaches cultivated and manifested in soul-liberating music and dance.

17 Kristos love consciousness is a reference to christ or god-realization or god-consciousness; something which the narrator believes that her Eritrean ancestors and all human beings strive to achieve at every moment, but particularly when engaged in healing and prayer work.