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<a href="http://proofmagazine.i8.com/about_1.html" eudora="autourl">
http://proofmagazine.i8.com/about_1.html</a><br><br>
</font><h2><b>In no way does Kola Boof agree with writer-activist Ward
Churchill's comments about the 9-11 Victims, she feels he was wrong for
that...but the Egyptian-Sudanese-American novelist was equally appalled
that the University of Colorado fired him, and as a longtime fan of his
work, she penned the following tribute.
</b></h2><a href="http://www.wardchurchill.net/">
<img src="http://proofmagazine.i8.com/images/ward_churchill_250x238.jpg" width=250 height=238 alt="[]">
</a></b></h2><font size=3><br><br>
</font><font size=5>"INDIGENISM"<br>
(White Man/Bare Chest)<br><br>
</font><font size=3>A Poem In Honor of Ward Churchill <br><br>
by Kola Boof<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=2>The God in Man is
<i>birth</i>
.
<br>
<br>
A wind, whistling<br>
A trigger cocking/sweet steel<br>
Walleye cold... <br>
A thought--but not before blinking eyes<br>
Not before recognition of gray haired loss<br>
Not before the utter misery <br>
of courage (that aching tooth)<br>
pound for pound<br>
...and the price
exacted.
<br>
<br>
Walleye cold, White man:<br>
<i>"Hundreds of oil covered penguins surface <br>
in South America"</i> (just as you predicted).<br>
Look there in the corner...<br>
a naked brown seahorse girl/She sings: "<i>tooth rhymes with
truth</i>"<br>
She is both a respected murderous and a whore.<br>
She is silly.<br>
She who cooks the cactus stew and rode the horses bare-breasted <br>
Naming you--<br>
Hero, born Twin of the smoking gun.<br>
Something good (naming
you).
<br>
<br>
Walleye cold, White man.<br>
Barenuckled, and like a penis, unblinking...<br>
Though I know it was you that placed this <br>
Tornado deep inside my thoughts--I will not stop<br>
believing <br>
that your truth is mine, thought first by me, <br>
Indigenous.
<br>
<br>
I will be the heckler of those who dream you silent.<br>
I will be the mother's hand full of rocks<br>
--to Slap/Hard the Two-faced Martin Luther King-quoting White Bitch<br>
and the African Church Rag (at our mercy like a Shadow though they called
her<br>
'Strong black woman')<br>
I will cheerlead the Rebuke/Brown seahorse...voting naked.<br>
But for peace...<br>
Poison that you sucked out of a snake bite<br>
I will be that Tenderness sucking and re-entering/Senate's
legislation<br>
Laughter that you thought had left your belly (by now)<br>
I will be the cheerleader (forgiving)/<br>
The hypocrites who fired
you
<br>
<br>
I will be...America...in all her
Good.
<br>
<br>
I will be Her <br>
(rocking/blowing smoke to dead Indians)<br>
I will be Her<br>
(blue eyed and selfish...rocking)<br>
Blowing smoke up Indian assholes on reservations.<br>
I will be Her<br>
(selfishly
rocking)
<br>
<br>
I will be Her...unable to look the Hero called Twin<br>
in the
eye.
<br>
<br>
My palm freezing against his bare cold chest.<br>
My sorrow wringing what is marrow, what is inate<br>
from all the smelly fishheads--<br>
I will have an "F" on my report card,<br>
sleepwalking and blind as all
power.
<br>
<br>
What was marrow/ what was inate--<br>
I will be the killer/coming <br>
Coming for to
sing:
<br>
<br>
<i>Blood of the tribe.<br>
Obliterated and no more.<br>
Womb of the Red mother.<br>
Obliterated and no
more.
<br>
<br>
</i>
Mixed
<br>
</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2>into
nothingness/bastardized
<br>
<br>
Authenticity--<i>obliterated<br>
</i>What was the truth (It mutated!)<br>
What was the face (It's gone!)<br>
What was the purpose (It
left!)
<br>
<br>
But not you,
Hero.
<br>
<br>
God in man is <i>birth</i>.<br>
Man in God is but a dream.<br>
Walleye cold, White man pray...<br>
Indigenism/Don't leave.<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#339966"><b><u>SAYS KOLA
BOOF:</u></b></font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=2>"<b>It's so obvious that
</font><font size=2 color="#FF0000">Ward Churchill</font><font size=2> is
being
</font><font size=2 color="#CC99FF"><u>persecuted</u></font><font size=2>
by the University<br>
of Colorado for his courage to say what he really thinks--and
unfortunately,<br>
for dramatic effect, he got carried away and made some very stupid
comments<br>
--but there's no denying that he's a very important artist and a great
American." <br><br>
"I don't know the man, but I've read two of his books and I admire
his amazing <br>
belief in JUSTICE and his devoted activism towards many human beings
<br>
who aren't white. I vehemently disagree with his comments about the
9-11<br>
victims, he was wrong for that, but I do recognize
</font><font size=2 color="#CC99FF"><u>persecution</u></font><font size=2>
when I see it. <br><br>
I have been unfairly demonized and criticized for my art and beliefs as
well. People ignore my truths by pretending that I'm anti-social
and backwards. There is a magazine in the Black
community--"</font><font size=2 color="#339966">Black Issues Book
Review</font><font size=2>"--that<br>
has a blanket policy against REVIEWING any book that is written by <br>
Kola Boof. A fellow black woman novelist tried to submit a review
of <br>
my book and was told point blank that the name 'Kola Boof' will
never<br>
appear in their pages. It's fascism based on powerful people
deciding<br>
who can and cannot speak and speak THEIR OWN TRUTH."<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>_______________<br><br>
<b>Kola Boof is the author of the acclaimed African works "Long
Train to the Redeeming<br>
Sin", "Flesh and the Devil"...and the landmark poetry
collection "Nile River Woman".<br>
To read other poems by Kola Boof, click on her photo.<br>
</b><a href="http://poetwomen.50megs.com/">
<img src="http://proofmagazine.i8.com/images/aa-kola_boof_interview_chrisstevenson_2007_328x500.jpg" width=328 height=500 alt="[]">
</a></b><a href="http://poetwomen.50megs.com/"> </a><br><br>
<br><br>
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