Mandela

A giant tree has fallen to the ground,
Falls with a crash that shakes the forest floor.
Listen to the echo of the sound

Those chains with which our limbs and souls were bound
He shattered; offered healing without war.
A giant tree has fallen to the ground

Senzeni Na, the people’s songs surround,
Let Africa return they all implore.
Listen to the echo of the sound

Hate, and in your bitterness be drowned;
The heart was made to love, not to abhor.
A giant tree has fallen to the ground

That power to unite and to astound,
Still emanating, ringing, from his core:
Listen to the echo of the sound

May freedom love and dignity abound
For black and white, for Bantu and for Boer.
A giant tree has fallen to the ground
Listen to the echo of the sound

New Poems

• "Battle Hymn of the Republic, Indeed"
• "Ode to a Banana"
• "Moving on After 1/6"
• "Hug"
• "Map-less Monarchs"
• "I am Such a Rich Man"
• "Beatitude with Attitude"
• "The Cross and the Lynching Tree Rap"
• "The Nudist Nun"
• "Sonnet 19"
• "Reparations Now"
• "Hoping I'm Wrong"
• "Bird Feeder"
• "Pete and Henry"
• "Nero: A Rap for Republicans"
• "Croissant"
• "Mandela"
• "The New Jim Crow"
• "The Wire"
• "Why Socialism?"

From By Heart

• "Ahiti"
• "As Some Fertile Seed"
• "Greed Screed"
• "I Sing the Ass"
• "Lying Lost Among Your Arms"
• "Now Thou Art Two and Twenty"
• "Sweet Smellin Woman"
• "This World"
• "Train Wreck"
• "Truth and Parable"
• "Why This Itch This Yen"
• "You"

Some Earlier Poems

• "Al and Bob"
• "The Lonely Puddle"
• "Ode to a Bagel"
• "The Rose"
• "Sardinia"
• "When Love's Liqueur"

Audio Recordings

• "Abu Ghraib"
• "Things About Kings"