My Clinched ...

My Clinched Fist

A Poem By Brother Tracy Gibson

Yes I Clinch My Fist

From Time to time...

It is out of respect for the many

Hundreds of Black

People who have made things

Easier for me...

Or who died for me in the struggle

\Or in the Middle Passage

[Thies bones now at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean]

It is to shake thing up for

The ``too comfortable''

And let the oppressor

Know who I am

and What I want

And that I am far from satisfied and that I am unfraid

Of his bullets, bombs and bayonets

It is for people who

Have paved the road and the Way, though it

Still be bumpy at times,

For me to follow

It is for people like.....

Those on my Freedom Wall:

Ms. A Harris

Aretha Franklin

Samuel F. Yette

Robert Mason

The Late Writer / Visionary / College Professor Manning Marable

Bradley Manning -- [Who may well be being tortured as I write this...]

Delbert Africa

Denise Nichols

Trent Pettus

Chancellor Williams

Brother Tracy Gibson

Vicky Wilmore [For the Courage to be a Grandmother to Nine Black male children]

Author Leslie Peterson

Ms. Iola Nelson-Harper

Ms. Kim Nelson

My eight Adopted SOns

The African American Freedom And Reconstruction League

My Eight Little Cousins and the REst of My Family

Charles S. Gibson And Beverly McCullough

Filmmaler Michael Moore

Steven Biko

Charles Ogaltree

Given Shakur and Sons

Marcus Garvey

Keith Bright

Muhammad Ali

Sistah Claudia [Aziza] Gibson Hunter

Huey P. Newton

Doctor Keith Hunter

The Liberation Book Store

Dennis J. Kucinich

Marie Nelson

Barbara Lee

Art and Stevie, and John Speer

Brother Brian Robinson and Brother Carlos Carter of UFCCP

Charles Gilpin

Brother Denzel Washington

Pastor Jeffery Haskins

Chris Blandfor from Adodi Philadelphia

Greg Reis

Gregory Jones and His Lover

Minnie Ripperton

Boris

Brother Paul Darling

BJ Tillman

Kamau Hunter

Jeffery Osborn

Anoa Hunter

Sistah Rosita Johnson

Minister Rodney Muhammad

Sistah Debbie Moore

Author Walter ROdney

Erth, WInd and FIre...

Mother Charlotte from UFCCP

Tyrone Smith

Doctor Ben

Minister Louis Farrakhan

Reverend Jesse Jackson

Chikh Anta Diop

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

Attorney / Activist Michael Coard

Earl Graves III

Medgar Evers

Chaney, Swerner Etc.

The FOuor Little Girls

Ms. Carris Engram

Reverend Al Sharpton

Wanda Wheeler

Brother Bruce Harvey

Brother Aaron DOnnerson

Brother Steve from Adodi

Delmar Thompson

Brother Haynes

Elsie Erwin

Sistah Gwyn Lawrence

Arthur A. Edens

Eve Thornton and Her Husband Levy

Cheryl and DOn FIscher

Godfrey Sithole

Ella Baker

Rosa Parks

The Queen Mother of South Africa Winnie Mandela

Senator Robert F. Kennedy

Senator Paul Wellstone

Malcolm X

Cynthia McKinney

Filmmaker Mrlon Roggs

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad

James Baldwin

Paul Robeson

Essex Hemphill

Harold Washington

Reverend Paul Washington

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis

Clifford A. Rawlins

Ida B. Wells

Darrell Waters

Bill Smith

bell hooks

Old Time Activist and Trouble Maker Bill Hill

[Who was like a Father to Me]

Berta Jobert

The SIster who Started the New Democratic Party Down South

And Walked out on the 1964 COnvention

Charles Harp

Yupac Chakur

Michael Otis

Common

Stokley Carmichael

Maurics Bioshop

Ernesto Che Guevarar

Sister Falaka Fattah

Angela Davis

Ernesto Philpotts

Caesar Chavez

Asada Shakur

The Reverend Leon Sullivan

Spike Lee

Writer Joe Beam

Bishop Desmond Tutu

Bishop Carl Bean

AIDS Activist Arnold Jackson

Poet Audre Lorde

Patrice Lumumba

Professor John Henrik Clarke

Jose Martine

Hugo Chavez

Binta Edwards

Ardie Brown

Phylicia Rashad

Phillis  Hyman

Phyllis Wheatley

Harriet Tubman

Zachariah Jones

Gwendolyn Brooks

David P. Richardson

Pattie LaBelle

Senator Chris Coons

Senator Russ Feingold

Brother Rob Gray and Sister Silvia Gray

Maisha Sullivan

Aunt Helen Peterson

Mao Se Tung

Aunt Doris Thornton

Oaula Peoples

Daniel Ortega

Author Eduardo Galeano

Uncle Irv Thornton

and

Charlene Arcila

Sarah Burton

Cheryl Smith

Audrey Skeete

Mother Doris Lofton

and

Author Frantz Fanon

Mrs. Jessie M. Gibson.....

The Nation of Islam

Poet Sistah Sonya Sanchez

And Many Others too many to mention

It is for their continuing legacy

That I raise my Fist and

Fi=or this I do NOT apologize.....!!

But Remember, my fist,

Like the Thousands of other clinched fists,

Are not clinched

All the time.....

We also lend a hand where there os

a Fire or a disaster and open our hands

When the collection plae comes around

in church.....

We also pass the food around when there are needy people

in our midst...

We also stretch out our hands

And our arms to hug the ones we LOVe

And Care for

We also spend money with our hands,

in Black Communities.....

and at Black stores

Our hands are NOT always clinched...

But a time will come when you will

Realize in a steady and on-going fashion

The work that we have done

To help you maintain that job you are so satisfied with

OR

That job you hate and want to give up...

[It is a job none the less]

So let us do our Job....

And Our Work 

nd Clinch our fists at times.....

It is Well and Necessary

Freedom To The People NOW!!!

I clinch my fist.......

With PRide, Dignity and a Positive Temperament

I clinch my fost

As long as there is a foot on my neck

With Pride, Digniety and Positive Temperamant

I am Proud to be Gay

I have the Dignity of a Black man who sprang

from The Ancients

I have the Positive Temperament

of a man who wants to see and is dedicated to positive change

TODAY!!!

NOT Tomorrow or next week.........

A clinched fist is NOT something to scuff at or take lightly.....

Anger, defiance, oilitical resentment and oppression

Are all serious business

And harsh realities for far too many people on the face of

this great earth...

YES!!

I RAISE

AND

Clinch

My Fists!!

Get Used to IT!!!

Get Over IT!!!

And

MOVE on With Me to Help Others to see why

I Clinch My Fist.....

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