Samples of Poems Extracted from "Nelson Mandela’s Poetic Biography: How to Live Before You Die - Experience Leadership Academy, Best Business Quotes and Freedom Struggle"

Robben Island: Invictus / Unconquered

I am Rolihlahla Mandela
I am Nelson Mandela
I am the First Accused
I am ready to die for my people’s freedom and rights
Though my body may be locked in this cell, by these walls,
My mind roams free all over South Africa
These walls and this prison cannot contain the people’s ideas
Freedom beckons them.
I am Rolihlahla Mandela
I am Nelson Mandela
I told P.W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk that my people yearned to be free
I negotiated with them behind the walls of Robben Island
Even though I had my hands tied behind my back, even though the arduous work load would become unbearable, I did not lose hope
Breaking rocks days in and days out was not a picnic


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Book Review



Tables of Content
1, Purest Form of Gold: A Long Journey to Freedom Day
2. What is like to be Free? Nelson Mandela’s Freedom
3, Awupatha: We Shall Not Be Dominated
4. Robben Island
5. Life Celebration
6. Tribute to all the Comrades:
Mandela Pays Tribute to the Martyrs of the Struggle
7. Rolihlahla, the “Troublemaker” for the Right Cause
8. Robben Island: Thrown into the Heart of Darkness
9. Robben Island: From Darkness to Light
10. Men Made of Gold: My Respect and Tribute
11. God Bless Africa!
12. Apartheid: The Idiocy of It All
13. Bullies’ Indignities: Down with all Bullies
14. Time to Breathe Fresh

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Bullies’ Indignities: Down with all Bullies

Think again if you thought bullies had a tough skin. They are paper mache
Like cheetahs that stalk their prey, soon they give up the chase
And when confronted by alpha lions or even hyenas, they leave their kill or target
Like hyenas and vultures, bullies are opportunistic scavengers
Bullies do not have the stomach to fight a protracted fight because they know they are wrong. Sooner or later, they will crack under the pressure and spotlight
Bullies have a brittle but fragile exterior. They lack the moral standards
They are show horses. Clydesdale horses they are not!
Bullies are boys or girls in transition. They are spoiled brats who need discipline and guidance
Put them in front of natural hardships. They’ll crumble like sheets of paper
The natural men live in harmony with their surroundings. They share, support, mentor, and nurture the young minds
True men have natural obligations and bring honor to their birthplace
They build stuff with their hands and mind. They hunt, build a fire, roast a pig or a goat, eat the ears of corns from their garden
True men sit around under the stars to tell tales, boast about their conquests and prowess. Long live the natural men and women among us!

Two New Books of Poetry for your Kindle: "California Blooms, Blossoms, and Harvest Delights" and "The Long Lost Garden of Eden"

The re-release of two new books of poetry for your Kindle:

Description:

"California Blooms, Blossoms, and Harvest Delights: Golden Vignettes From Big Sur, Pacific Coast Highway, California Scenic Highway 1 to Yosemite and Highway 99" is a book of poetry that focuses on the diversity of the people, the beauty of the land, bounty of agricultural products, entertainment industry, Pacific Coast beaches, and natural infrastructures and resources such as Big Sur, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Scenic Highway 1, San Francisco Bridge etc. These poems compel you to meditate on all the common things that tend to show our interdependence and sameness. Poems such as 'Abrahamic Promise,' 'Bridges of California,' 'Autumn's Bare Limbs,' 'Cry Over Manzanar,' 'Pastoral Delights,' 'Freeway and Highway Crosses,' 'Harvesting Delights and Fall Transition,' 'Open Range...,' 'Roosting Marvels, Roosting Headache,' 'Tamales for the Holidays' are among those that will strike a personal chord with most of you.

California Blooms, Blossoms, and Harvest Delights: Golden Vignettes From Big Sur, Pacific Coast Highway, California Scenic Highway 1 to Yosemite and Highway 99

Purchase a PDF Copy of the whole book right here:

You can also purchase this ebook at Amazon.com. Download it to your kindle or your computer!

This book is an eclectic collection of poems and short essays on California's people and landscape, wine, beach and car culture. Wordsworth summarizes my poetic affinity, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." California Blooms, Blossoms, and Harvest Delights deals with this expansive, rich and fertile landscape in a way that readers will quickly recognize the important landmarks, features and attributes of the Golden state. It pinpoints areas of appreciation and highlights important cultural contributions and activities of the various ethnic and minority groups forming this new frontier, Central California. "Our hills and farmland are blooming with new houses and commercial buildings bordering fields of grazing cows." This is an uplifting and thought-provoking work.

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Purchase a copy of the new edition of "California Blooms, Blossoms, and Harvest Delights" from Amazon Kindle now

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Description:

The Long Lost Garden of Eden is a tribute to the fruit growers of the Central Valley of California and all other agriculture-derived industries. Mr. Charles remains true to his upbringing deeply rooted in agribusiness. This book is the result of his keen observations and 12-year research into what makes the San Joaquin Valley one of the most fertile lands in the country. His poems will give you a glimpse of the Central Valley's diversity. His research has culminated into the realization that the Central Valley of California, locked between Southern and Northern California, is the fruit basket of the world. This collection will engage your mind and soul. It will provoke deep reflection that will lead to enlightenment, positive attitude and spiritual renewal. The themes of these poems are universal. Artistic appreciation, hope, beauty, love, loss, hard work, self-improvement, despair, migration, and drought are all themes anybody can relate to, irrelevant of their origins and taste.

Buy this book now: Buy a copy of the new edition of "The Long Lost Garden of Eden" from Kindle now.

Buy this new, updated edition of the book now: Buy a copy of the new edition of "The Long Lost Garden of Eden" from Kindle now.

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The Long Lost Garden of Eden:

Email Delivery of PDF copy of "The Long Lost Garden of Eden."

A Great eBook about Sixto Rodriguez's Comeback: The Sugar Man's Philosophy, Music, and Delayed Rise to Rock and Roll Fame and Glory

Answering a question asked by a journalist over the lack of royalties Rodriguez has not received for over 40 years, he replied, "“Hate is too strong an emotion to waste on somebody you don’t like..."

You can purchase a copy of this ebook right here: Sixto Diaz Rodriguez's Philosophy: Rodriguez's eBook Guide to Happiness

Rodriguez writes and sings about some universal themes. Most importantly, he writes about the subjects any Detroiter or any resident of Michigan can relate to. He writes about the people who inhabit his surroundings. Just like Philip Levine's body of works, Rodriguez writes about the working-class Detroit and the motif of the heartland. Rodriguez's songs are timeless and insightful. They are about drugs, love, lust, power, human frailty, greed, the rich and poor, the cry of children, the oppressed and the oppressor. No wonder that his music made him as popular if not more popular than Elvis, Dylan, and the Beatles put together in places such as South Africa and Australia. Rodriguez is the true example of the man who is not recognized by his own people but is made hero in another culture or beyond his own borders. He is a genius. A giant. A superhero anywhere else but his own country.

Thanks to Steven Segerman (sugarman pronounced by some) and the South African fans!

Thanks to Malik Bendjelloul for Searching for Sugar Man!

The PDF copy of this ebook is available below:

Book Review

"Sixto Diaz Rodriguez’s Philosophy: Rodriguez’s eBook Guide to Happiness" is about the man, the legend, and the genius who was not aware of his Rock and Roll fame in other parts of the world. It is about Jesus Rodriguez. Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, the folk musician from Detroit, Michigan who has been given a rebirth thanks to the efforts of two South Africans who launched a search party to find out what happened to their favorite singer and song-writer. Rodriguez, as he prefers to be called now, produced two albums, Cold Fact and Coming From Reality, respectively in 1971 and 1972. They received rave reviews, but they did not sell enough copies. Bootleggers managed to take copies to South Africa and Australia where Rodriguez has had a huge following. He did not know about his popularity on those shores. He was busy demolishing and remodeling homes in the United States to make a living. Music was not paying his bills. The release of this movie/documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" was going to change things. As they say, the rest is just history.

Listening to the poetic tunes and great music of Rodriguez, one cannot help but make the comparison between Dylan, Donovan, Phil Ochs and Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, James Taylor, Nick Drake or Elvis. It may be time for the man to receive his public accolades and due! Rodriguez is the true legend!

For most white South Africans (Afrikaners) and black South Africans, Rodriguez was both a prophet and a messiah thanks to his music. Rodriguez's powerful lyrics of repression and protest caught up among the youth of South Africa which was under the apartheid regime.

Sample his music!

Happy Birthday to Madiba!

Happy birthday to Nelson Mandela known as Madiba, his clan name! South Africa and the rest of the world salute this aging hero for all the great things he represents. He gave us 67 years of political engagement. All over South Africa, people are doing community service to celebrate his birthday. The aging former leader of South Africa decided to have a quiet celebration. Many dignitaries including President Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, visited him in his birth village, Qunu. He planted an avocado pear tree there.

A Witness to History: 2011 Poet Laureate and University of Kentucky Professor Nikky Finney Talks about Indian Pencils and Blackboards

"Head Off and Split" is the book that won Nikky Finney the most prestigious prize. It is also the book that shows her great artistic skills. The poet laureate uses ordinary objects to bring out the subliminal and eternal. Jericho Brown captures the essence of her book of poetry this way, ""Again, Nikky Finney manipulates into music the words readers use to see, hear, and understand a soul's history. Head Off & Split is as Southern as it is American, as feminist as it is human, as black as it is a tide of colors knowing no bounds..."

Here is what others are saying about her and her new book. Kwame Dawes wrote, "With Head Off & Split, Nikky Finney establishes herself as one of the most eloquent, urgent, fearless and necessary poets writing in America today. What makes this book as important as anything published in the last decade is the irresistible music, the formal dexterity and the imaginative leaps she makes with metaphor and language in these simply stunning poems. This is a very, very important achievement."

Readers will be attracted by the beauty of language and the mastery with which the author treats each one of her subjects. Meena Alexander summs it up this way, "In Nikky Finney's Head Off & Split the beauty of language soars and saves us even as we skirt the raw edge of terror. And something rare and precious is restored, a light, circling movement of the spirit. This is poetry to give thanks for."

At the opening of Nikky Finney's National Book Award Acceptance speech, she says, "We beging with history..." In a historic and literal way, the poet laureate was right in acknowledging history, the most recent and past history, the history of those who had fought in the past, those whose body was abused and mistreated for the gains of men who thought they could own other men. Indeed, "We begin with history..." brings back the sacrifices of men and women like the author's parents who had to decide to invest in education, in the literary things that were forbidden to black slaves and could have them killed. "We begin with history..." was and is for ever present when her father, retired chief justice Earnest A Finney had to decide difficult cases in an era when Jim Crow and discrimination were running rampant in the country. The retired Chief Justice knew that he had to bring his contribution to pillar of civil rights movement, a potent sign of history.

History is ongoing.
Nikky likes history and anything about history..."I am incredibly drawn to history; personal history, American history, Southern history, family history,
the history of a community, the history of secrets, the history that has gone missing, the history that has
been told by the lion hunter but not the lion, the history of pencils, of loss, of tenderness, the history of
what the future just might be if we would only..."

It is that sense of history that led Nikky to pen a poem about Strom Thurmond titled "Dancing with Strom..." She prefaced the poem with this quote from Thurmond, Thurmond's quote was spoken in 1948: “I want to
tell you, ladies and gentleman, there’s not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break
down segregation and accept the Negro into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and
into our churches.”

"Black people were the only people in the United States who were ever officially forbidden to be literate..." said Nikky Finney in her acceptance speech...." said Nikky Finney in her speech. "

"I am now officially speechless," concluded Nikky.


Where can you find Nikky's books: www.nikkyfinney.net and on Amazon.com

President Zuma Said Madiba (Nelson Mandela) is Fine After Checkups for Abdominal Ailment

Everyone is praying for Madiba's prompt recovery from abdominal ailments. Earlier today, he was taken to Pretoria's "1 Military" hospital for investigation of the abdominal woes of which he had been complaining. The former South African President, an icon of the Struggle, has not been seen in the speaking circuit after his recent hospitalization. He has been staying at home mostly these days.

Well wishers from all over the world want to know how he is doing. They are praying for his good health. They want him to be painless.

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Top Black Women in American History and Culture: From Harriet Tubman, Oprah Winfrey to Rosa Parks and Michelle Obama...

Black Women in American History and Culture

MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE - Educator and activist mobilized thousands of black women as leader and founder of the National Association of Colored Women and National Council of Negro Women. She helped establish Bethune-Cookman College.
DR. MAE JEMISON – NASA astronaut and the first black woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.
ROSA PARKS – African American Civil Rights activist called the mother of the modern day civil rights movement.
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM – In 1968 she became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress representing New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.
HARRIET TUBMAN - Escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hun-dreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad, and was known as the Moses of her people.
WILMA RUDOLPH – The first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the 1960 Olympic games. Named Associated Press Woman Athlete of the year twice.
ALTHEA GIBSON – Tennis champion and the first African-American invited to play at Wimbledon and the first to win a Grand Slam title in 1957 and again in 1958.
OPRAH WINFREY – Businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthro-pist, hailed by Life Magazine as the most influential woman of her generation. In 2005 Business Week named her the greatest black philanthropist in American history.
ELLA FITZGERALD - "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time having sold over 40 million albums and winning 13 Grammy awards.
MAYA ANGELOU – Civil rights activist, poet, teacher and prize winning autobiograph-ical novelist. One of only two poets asked to read at a Presidential inauguration
Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers, Civil Rights Leader and Icon, shot almost 5 decades ago in Mississippi. She wants us not to forget Medgar Evers who paved the way for Martin Luther King and others to fight for equal rights
Michelle Obama, Wife of President Barack Obama, The First African-American First Lady

Inspired by Rosa Parks's Courage and Sitting on the Bus: How to Find Inspiration For Our Hard Times

Purchase this book for far less, $9.99 at Amazon /Kindle Direct Publishing

Inspired by Rosa Parks's Courage and Sitting on the Bus (v.4) is an inspirational book of poetry that compels us to look back and forward to find signs of inspiration in our lives and current difficult times. This book of poetry has 100 new and selected poems published solely for your edification and uplifting. Find more at http://poetrybusinessblog.blogspot.com