Black Prayers

By Elijah Karriem

‘My original thought when writing this book was as a paean to the church – the Black Church – that had sustained me throughout my childhood and boyhood. I wanted to say thank you for all the joy, strength, hope and faith it had given me.
‘I also wanted to celebrate the wider voices of the black diaspora that have added an essence of wisdom to my youth and adulthood: I would not be the person I am today without these voices and influences.
‘I have learned that silence is blessing if you seek the truth, but there comes a time to sing of the truths – so I have now chosen to sing.
‘God works and is manifest through the flesh of people. If we listen to the God Voice within, we can hear the genetically coded source of holy science throughout our brief sojourn on this planet. Read, enjoy, and if it is your wont – get annoyed!
‘All I desire is that these poems move you.’
Elijah Karriem

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781528962292

Elijah Karriem

The author was born in London to Jamaican parents and raised in Leeds, West Yorkshire. After leaving school, he studied graphic design at Jacob Kramer in Leeds and later art at Dewsbury and Batley Art College. He subsequently worked in the IT Industry in and around London for over 30 years. He has three children and now resides in Birmingham. Over the past three years since moving to Birmingham, he has revaluated his life and returned to the creative process that guided his youth. This book of poems displays some of the fruits of these recent years.

Book preview

Opening

In the event of my death

I shall put down my pen

And try to recall myself:

Never marking the day by threats

Never ceasing to close the door

On the temporal journey of tomorrow.

I shall also seek in the darkest moment

The light of eternal truth

To guide me towards a greater understanding

Of love

The New Covenant

KJV. Genesis 2: 1–25

Truth is our first love.

Sing the Vicegerents of the Earth

New hands

New trees

New babies

New leaves

Say the Custodians of life

In a New Era

Anew

And everlasting joy

Peace

harmony and contentment

A world before Semjâzâ

A New Circumcision

Learning the art of compassion

Rejecting the snake pit of self-pity

Bask in a knowledge not seen before

Of no previous example

or precedent

or parallel

without reflection…

A coming into being,

Like fresh fruit

Untouched

No more cycles or beginnings

Perpetual happiness

Cultivating and harvesting

Of a new law

Not known before

Breathing life

Into a new affirmation

A new morality

A blessed change

Reversing the process of personification

Animals are not toys

A life without vice

In a world of virtue

Before Azazel

All rejuvenated

A New Eden

Manifest itself

Bold in thought and language

A divine vision

A New Book

A New Concept

New Art

No more death on the plate

Let’s celebrate!

Strange or unprecedented

Ultramodern

In a pristine land

Something out of season

Opposing the author of death

We are here

To create and not destroy

To heal and not hurt

To love and not hate

Uriel shines

On the neophyte of facts

Those with passion without shame

Forever doing that which they love to do

Out of the womb of temperance

Original in origin

Motivated by faith and deeds

Everything comes from the dark

A New Birth

A New Vision

A New Church

A New Mosque

A New Synagogue

A New Temple

A New light

Of understanding

A New Testament

From stardust to godhood

All Sing

A New hymn:

Our first love is truth.

The God Voice

Listen to

The God Voice within

The wizened old crone

Smiled back at him

He felt conflicted

A lifetime confronting

The Great Isms

And now he felt love

NOT SHAME

Why had they lied to him?

…Love

AGE IS A VIRTUE

She said seductively

He was not convinced

He thought

What do you do

When the most beautiful woman in the world

Is not wife material?

Fuck it!

Let’s get it on

Ageism and racism

Combined in her flesh

She rolled over and went to sleep

Between me and God

He thought

I must be true

As the sun rose

She whispered

"Don’t Wash Me Off

Our LOVE will ENDURE

All the hate of the world"

He gave her his last name

It was all he had

The years have been good to her

Blessed with those genes

Before she passed

He whispered

I’ll meet you at the end of time

Scars Maketh the Man

Why I must live

God deemed it so

Too many mistakes

Too many lies

Too many deceits and deceptions

Too many vile thoughts and actions

Too much negativity

I cannot live with the consequences

Or

Subsist with the ramifications

In this world finding yourself

Is of secondary importance

To selling yourself

If I were an artist,

I could get away with so much more

I could bask in the envy of others

Justifying my behaviour on my temperament

And achievements

If only I were an artist

Scars maketh the man

God deemed it so

Blood of the Lamb

(For Ian Newman)

KJV. John 17:14–15

Storm