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Tanisha Jackland Jul 2020
To make corduroy cool
you'll need to be
the grand ole size of a
5'2 sprite
Be perky having
thrift-shop lovin flip-flop
wearing, I'm going to
make a bold statement with my
clothes inducing, young
and up and coming, professional
with a namaste projecting
attitude.
Tanisha Jackland Oct 2016
You fell at my feet
before I picked you

Done and ripe already
as sweet as pretty
painted lips

You swore to have
me upon you
My undoing

The feast of me
come salivating
down your chin
Tanisha Jackland Nov 2018
Leave it all behind
the stories, the pain
the worries of you
Let it all go
whatever it is
impeding you
embody the now
for it is you
within the present moment
would it ever go
this you that is the
is-ness of totality
or is it you weaved in it
and would it fade when you
succumb to death
or will it and you
last forever...
spiritual thought
Tanisha Jackland Mar 2021
I am awake love
watching you
dream between
the soft moments
you are deity
to me
my naked shrine of glory
I have sent you
a dozen kisses on
your way to
the moon
so dream sweet
my love
until I return to
greet you in
the dearest
slumber...
Tanisha Jackland Mar 2017
She fears its omnipotence
It breathes in the quiet
scans her humanity,
her fire

She holds tight
to the golden refuge
and plants sweets
in the bottom of
blossoming trees

The void is a savage lover
with delicate fingers
and a pretty mouth
Tanisha Jackland Jun 2019
They don't see us

We are the shadows
of white men
with whips
tearing us to the bone
for cotton filled dreams
of greed and betrayal

They don't see us

We are the
product of their hatred
in the flesh
look what they've done
stained our skin
with our own blood
then convict themselves
with impunity

You don't see me

My skin is black
and I am human

After all the fatal cuts
you gave to me
Quietly looking the other way
hoping not to
catch a glimpse of God
Tanisha Jackland Feb 2019
The ego leads to suffering
but without these
challenges to your soul
who would you be.
none would aspire to greatness.
None physically phenomenal.
Just the knowing
of how you use to be.

I believe the sufferer
to be inherant
of the hu-man breed
and our hubris
innately our own.
but how else would
we get to truth
by failing error after error

It's all just a matter
of perspective
and still the Sun revolves
around me.
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2016
they say poetry is boring
I say poetry is a Goddess
exempting her patrons
from mortal bores and
group thinking legions
she kisses with the
certainty of words
and
manifests the glory
of effervescent moons
If you're bored, you're probably boring. Nothing new, there.
Tanisha Jackland Aug 2017
When I ask too many questions
I see your brow bury into
a frustrated wrinkle
like I caught you in a lie
you don't understand
and you never understood me
I don't give you sassy
I give you questions
I don't give you an apology
I give you an inquisition
like you are in an exam
you just can't fathom
because you don't think deep
enough about the black me...
Tanisha Jackland Sep 2020
I feel my age these days
bones creaking
the need to be well-oiled
like some kind of
tin woman
all rusted
my metal parts
need refurbishing
then I could
have a new body
without dying
Be all bionic
and built like
a brickhouse
again...
Tanisha Jackland Jul 2019
Is to
Show them your pretty mess
those disasters that stir us
in such inappropriate ways

You are
the dispersion of colors
we cannot see with
our own bare eyes

You are in shambles
a wondrous disarray
of sinful parts

falling apart
being true to You
always wild
and unmistakably free
Tanisha Jackland Jan 2019
Tongue is good.
but not so dazzling
when it is trying
to be the truth.
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2016
You could never totally
annihilate yourself

You could never really
destroy the real parts
of you that are unseen

You are
this low hum  
in the fabric of the universe

And if you could be deleted
there'd be this tiny tear
in the continuum
of the cosmos

While the static wind
would howl in place
of your unfathomable
presence
love yoself
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2017
I've always been
a quiet soldier
fighting those
who would be
enemy to my skin

yet it's really all about
the skin we're in
the god awful epiphany
that most can't see past
its randomness

This flesh is but
a vehicle which
moves us

Usually without
nets or an airbag
we come into this
reality already
spoken for

and its the skin
that dictates how
you will be treated

I am the person
you'd least expect
to defend the skin

We are not ugly
nor absent of soul
we are the diamond
to your heaving
pile of coal...
Tanisha Jackland Mar 2020
We were never
in control
just cunning enough
to fool ourselves
While the planet
spins on
nudging us gently
to move mindfully
in this space
no more
cars or stock
portfolios
or brutality  
just the clear air
of kindness and simplicity
the new way of life.
Tanisha Jackland Jul 2019
I have gratitude
for this life
sometimes a
seething mess
of awkward
silences but know
that in the space
between  I am
seeking you out
navigating the
landscapes
of your being

I treasure what
comes from you to me
like a gift unwrapped
blessed by the holy
of holies
You make me thankful
for being me
Tanisha Jackland Mar 2020
The locale of this

body was once worn

It was the crash pad

and the last place

You'd ever look

for me

But

when I am gone

I bet you will

remember that

in some way

I shall live

again...
Tanisha Jackland Feb 2020
The man with the fake tan
is in the house painted
arrogant white
How he fits well sitted
Says he is
the new messiah
Follow him
So into oblivion we go
but the road is out
and we are left in the cold
with no shoes  
no bodies clothed
While the fake tan man
ignores the sweltering
heat about him
pays his buddies voiceless
like all good billionaires do
bad news for all of us
from the man with
the basketball skin
Tanisha Jackland Jan 2019
Be quiet
and let the mind settle
let the real world
slow you down
For
the truth to reveal itself
over and over
again.
I promise.
Tanisha Jackland Jul 2020
You'll know it when
you feel it
right between your
solar plexus and gut
Tune your life by it
for You are the middle man
deciding when to
calibrate your mind
to this higher realm
Once you go there
it's hard to come back
Illusion is the hardest
craving to break
we live there at all times
To be truth one must
find their own vibration
and live from this frequency
of true freedom
Tanisha Jackland Feb 2017
I don't ask for much
a kiss now and then
To be spoken to
with reverence and kindness

My throat is somehow
not speaking its truth
these days
just a succumbing to every
whim but mine

and nothing to show for it
but this lousy t-shirt
that says "life is good"
It can't be that easy
where are the t-shirts
that proclaim the truth

*"Life is good as long as you
don't have a clue about anything.
Life is a conglomerate of
contradictions at which we all should
strive to embody the center of nonduality
for true inner peace."
Tanisha Jackland May 2017
These tears
you cry for me
will unbind me
and you too.
Distill me
until you've
captured the
unholy parts
of me
thru the sieve

For i will be
the meat
for plants
one day...
soul bound
Tanisha Jackland Jul 2017
Whatever has torn up the room
has sat on your mother's
back breaking her

but you look the other way
too painful to see
what's already in your face
a lynching here a shooting there

It's not me you say
and shrug it all away
I didn't steal anybody you said
but tortured bodies wailed
underneath the crack
of your ancestor's whip
and still you reap from
the ghosts of yesterday

don't you hear them
the black lipped rage
that keeps yelling at you

but still you look the other way
and sip your latte
with a deafening smirk upon
your face as if you are not
one of us

human

This is not a plea for reparations
yet it would be a wise gesture
nor a begging for a hand out
yet it would serve you to be kinder

It may be futile to you
to look a black person in the eye
with the truth on your tongue
but if we can't save you
then maybe underneath it all
nobody could
it's never too late to be kind and give back what is due. Peace.
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2017
Drink up
this sacrament

For the mysteries do
not pass
on your tongue

But offered as the
three phases
of woman

And the liars
You'd know them from
how they belittle us
the men with
envious ticks

Divinity ran rancid
in their mouths
Traitors to our souls

Now it's up to you
woman reclaim what
is proper and leave the phallus
where it belongs...
Far away from pedestals
Tanisha Jackland Nov 2016
I f I c o u l d h a n d y o u t h e m o o n w o u l d y o u s t i l l j u d g e m e b y t h e c o l o r o f m y s k i n ?
Tanisha Jackland Nov 2022
Breathe fire
but do not get burnt

She waits to see you
consumed by that

for you will be the ash
and not the wind
blowing away
the
embers of bigotry

She devours those unjust

Will meet them
by the stake of their
own hatred

separating divinity
from the bone with
gavels of fire

particles in the Sun
Dust hanging in the air
Like
blasphemy
US
Tanisha Jackland Jun 2018
US
We let
them induce
trauma to babies and
feed children to cages
mean gestures
felt across the divide
We are the monsters
in Grimm's Fairy Tales
the beasts of nightmares
and bad dreams
deplorable is our apathy
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2015
“Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”* -Margery Williams, Velveteen Rabbit

You aren’t real yet.
You are not alive
Until you’ve felt
Them circling you.

Not until you’ve seen
Them laughing at you
And your shabby facade.

Not until you’ve experienced
The fright of waning.
Of what it
Means to be yourself
and still worthy.

Love is the crucifixion
and the resurrection.

It is the gift from the Cosmos
to pick you back up
despite who you were.

Love is what will
make you real
And alive and forever.
Good luck on that.
Tanisha Jackland Aug 2018
We are in a sad state
no news needed
Just look to the sky
watch the fires burn
that never wane
The smoke left
To choke us in our sleep

We are out of
control burning
Wrestling with karma
The boogie man
is bleeding
He's human, after all
You can tell by
all his ***** vices
while letting the good
go nonchalantly astray...
Tanisha Jackland May 2016
You do not see me
though i could rage the
wind against you
and cast you out

i have no body
but this fury in my blood
could burn you and
choke you with smoke

I am the blackness
you do not want to see
with my everything
bigger than life

It would devour you
when you don't pay attention
and there are all kinds of
monsters you created
set free

*But instead, i send you the
Light that you bend towards
The lit ether will open up and
disspell the sleep from your eyes
Then you will see me…truly
Wahe Guru represents the indescribable ecstasy of going from dark to light. It is an exclamation like wow or oh my god.
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2015
I have not met you
but between the swigs of red wine
I’d give you my lips to savor
And though you’d devour me completely
I’d linger between your thighs
And slowly ride you until we
Meet at our dark release
Yep.
Tanisha Jackland Nov 2021
We are the one s
Who have slept
eyes open
Sleep walking
awake
In daydreams
‘It’s too sad’
We weep
‘too noisy’
we wail
To be without
The bliss
Of not knowing
To exist in the
Reality of a harsh world
but the Earth needs
you awake while you’re here
to tread
gently upon the Earth
To give yourself
Time to unfurl
from the brutality of this
modern world
to stop Her destruction
by being mindful
of everything you do
You have arrived
At your destiny
Awake child
Awake.
Tanisha Jackland Mar 2019
It takes all types
to consume it
as though you
could sip this cold rage
brimming
does it render me to
rise above the madness
their petty little cuts
or do I gently sit
inside the calm and pray
for pragmitism
it has left
their souls willfully
I know the sound of what
wasp music makes
and it comes painted in
fraudulent gold.
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2020
Give them a drink
then watch them cascade
to the sky
they look for the good food
light from the Sun
will pour into your soul
when you remember to
give them a drink
and breathe...
Tanisha Jackland Feb 2018
Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. *

― Quote by Lao Tzu

You touch me
from the depths
of my broken
spirit

You move me
gently to mend

what bold
alchemy is this

Turning my skin into
fine silk

I am renewed
by your fingers that
lightly tickle me into
submission

You are water
I am the stone
Where there is softness you'll find strength.
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2017
Suspended within
the dark womb of space
We are this immortal
expression of one
singular phenomenon
We all began in mystery
We all began as female
The open catalyst for all things
The mysterious dark female...This is the root of Heaven and Earth  -Tao Te Ching
Tanisha Jackland Aug 2020
We are unsung but
natural born
free formed like
Marley does dreads
all in your head
like we be the toast
of humanity
out from calamity
a designed order
from chaos
the dark
matter
that matters
the sentient beings
with celestial wings
bringing galaxies
as cosmic bound
earthlings
we define we
Being black
Tanisha Jackland Jun 2018
I propose a toast
to you
a drink
from the top of your
delicate head
to the base of your
soulful feet

I found you
right in the center of the eye
the deluge of you
carried me higher clear across
the barren sky
as if we were supposed to
crash into each other

But
Only material
things get ugly aging
while we become this strange
phenomena wanton and as wild
as the naked wind upon
the thirst of our eager 
chapped lips
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2015
Maybe I’m a liar.
But here is the truth.
There is no truth
That we could
possibly comprehend.

We couldn’t handle it.
So we chop it
Up into simple little
Pieces we can fathom.
Life is easier that way.
Then we try to impress those
Who haven’t a clue.

Like an unfinished puzzle
we’ve lost the
most important piece
to bringing it all together.

But it’s gotta be
here somewhere
Waiting to be found in order
To complete itself.

Like this poem waiting
To be found for someone
To read it.

I maybe a liar but I think
You’ve found it.
I try to be honest but it's a hard language to learn.
Tanisha Jackland Sep 2019
We are not so fortunate
striving for arrogance
leaving us armor-less

no warning of
our decay
the morals

Are we so hollow
and rotten to the bone

Do we have bones
and is our hatred
fortress enough
Tanisha Jackland Sep 2016
Give me a B

I like to think in alphabet

Give me an R

I am not my chatter

Give me an A

Just waiting for something lucid

Give me a V

To come bubbling out from nothing

Give me an O

Like I am this reluctant superhero
We were intelligent once.
Nothing was artificial about us.
The stars reigned over
our astrology.
we were content.
We read the sky. like
prophets undying.
We listened to the soft
voices of the rain and plants.
We obeyed our station in the world.
to the rhythm of everything.

What happened to us.

we
held
intelligence
once.

and we'll begin again.
releasing what
has to be shed.
keeping the core
of our souls intact
like trees

we will be still
like the wisdom
of trees.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2018
The waters are rising
fish are finless and dying
we have toxic bodies and minds
we are killing off the only
wisdom we have left

the indigenous are endangered
the animals are game
the trees and plants have given up
kind people are kneaded out

All the things that made
us once great
How dare us sulk over
nothing
The audacity of us to bask in
glory of our false privilege
We are our own worst enemies
desperate rabid wolves
the lot of us

What's happening
is that some of us have
forgotten our propensity
for kindness
to be humane
to serve others
to love as we will
and to have mercy on them
the others

but most of all we have
made our Mother mad.
She's a pip.
Tanisha Jackland Jan 2019
Sure. He professes the permanence
of his love for you.  
Drawing honey
from you
then licking the nectar
off your nubile body.

You being
his sustenance.
and will to life.
love and the pursuit of *******.

But you. being in short fore-sight
fall for said proclamations.
And give him your
loyalties. your love.
The sweet source from your being.

Then. Life happens. crap happens.
pregnancy. or not. Big ugly things
are laid upon you. Both. Seemingly
the insurmountable roots up. Then what.

Will he be still and dive deeper into you.
Or will he flee like an ambushed army.
Time will always speak a subtle truth. girl.
Watch for it.

Closely watch.
Tanisha Jackland Apr 2019
It's immaterial
what we give to
each other

It does not come
with a price tag
and cannot be bought

It is soul bound
unseen

it's what is brewing
inside of you that counts
while no one looking
Tanisha Jackland Jan 2017
We have seen
those who have stolen
and like cycles do
pass down their lowly ways

Is there a price
for every gesture?

A karmic bank
of rain checks
for the next debter

Men trying to buy
their way into the
eye of the needle
But we see you

While we make
a pittance
for our graces

But we'll continue to knead
the love in our
bread

And bleed
compassion for
the masses that need it

Don't give in to what
hate brought in

Don't let them breed
you into a vicious sin

know that we are not
tainted from within

We are born
from the Sun
Now let's be one
Tanisha Jackland Feb 2017
Sleep is the last thing
you want to do
You could miss the apocalypse
Miss Florida on fire

You've wasted so much time
trying to belong
to fit in that tiny
pegged square hole

But you are the circumference
Conforming your
way to happiness
indulging in mediocrity

Time is now
for something authentic
something more burning
than the flesh of hades

Seize god by holding her
in silence and hearing
her deep
Tanisha Jackland Oct 2016
You follow me
faded dream after
faded dream

Your face was
not your own
perhaps you keep your
secrets away from me

Perhaps you want some
part of me
the freedom of being alive
hand in hand
lips to lips

Like lovers do
how they feign
the loyalty of dogs

they betray each other
they always do

But in the after life
there is no pretending
just the abyss, god and
the cold living nothing
Tanisha Jackland Jul 2018
When I die
I like to imagine
that I'll become
some sort of brilliant
luminous thing
fluttering my way
thru the ether
like it was my home
My real home that
I've finally reached
after being a black woman
wounded in America
Note to self: Never forget to love yourself first. It's all you got.
Tanisha Jackland Dec 2017
Your body will let you know
there will be a slow treble
in the center of your heart
that will expand out
into your bones
and will run up and
down your spine
letting every cell know that...*
**This person is the one
Please my love, take notes...cuz it happens in the blink of an eye.
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