SistaHOOD!  

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope!

- Senator Barack Obama



Hope



Hope is contagious

It doesn’t discriminate

Or care about circumstances

Out of control

It spreads

From black to white

To yellow and to brown

Up and downtown

Over rivers and through woods

It transcends and leaps tall buildings

Just to touch you

It is persistent

And relentless in it’s

Pursuit of you



Hope is determined



Hope says

"Yes, we can."

When it seems improbable

Hope says

"Yes, we can."

When worries seem insurmountable

Hope stands in the face

Of adversity and remains poised

Because it knows

The Secret

Hope has made its way into

Broken homes

It's spreading like an epidemic into lost marriages

And moving into lonely hearts

All across America

How dare hope

Penetrate me

Break down my defenses

The very audacity

Of hope to lead me to believe

That there is some pie left for me

Some blue sky left for me

The unmitigated gall of hope

Who does hope think he is

to inspire me to

Move my feet and my heart

And my mind

To a higher place

And a higher state

How dare hope make me

Dream impossible dreams

Of making ways out of no ways

Of an end to suffering and cloudy days



Hope has been gone too long.



You can’t find it like you used to

It used to be in the church

Each and every Sunday morning

Auntie's and grandmas and

Momma's and daddies

Passed hope around at the dinner

Table with mashed potatoes and peas

Hope used to sit in the back of the classroom

And oversee the education of children

But somewhere between Martin and Malcolm

The World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina

George W. Bush and the recession

Hope vanished like a vapor

And now it ain’t just the lowly downtrodden

Who ain’t got no hope and

It’s not just the homeless mother of three

Who’s living in a shelter with no hope

It’s not just that brother who lost his job

And has 5 mouths to feed with no hope

You see

U got people

Making millions of dollars a year

With all the luxuries of the world

Every material gift you could possibly

Think of

But they have no hope

And If hope walked in the door right now

And wanted to reach out and touch me

I would knock Jesus down

To get to him

If hope showed up and said

"Come, on let’s go."

I’d leave without my pocket book

And my keys

cause it's ride or

die

If hope tells me

“Yes, I can.”

Then be it unto me

Just as

hope

has said.