This was a poem I wrote back in 2011 when I first began my career in Education....still rings true today, but I think it's even more pressing now than ever...
To the future of tomorrow...
Reading is Fundamental.
Someone once said, "If you ever want to hide something from a Black person put it in a book."
And it pains me that now, to this day, this is still a prominent hook.
See I know you may not like to read -
However many of the things you seek start in the mind and development, it needs
Don't worry about the divide, you don't gotta have a Kindle or a Nook
Many of the things you seek can be found in a book.
The pages might be tattered. The pages might be torn
but from many a page... far and wide leaders were born.
I know Dad may be MIA, mine wasn't around
Maybe mom works so hard, your soul frowns.
But take heart because the world of books are full of spies, villains, fiends, friends.
Even stories of other kids just like you, or where happy - is not the end.
And I'm not talking about that street Lit-
because that language won't let you make it too far (if at all) past 5th.
I'm not saying that reading is the solution to all your problems.
But picking up a good book or 2 might help escape some.
Because you are not forgotten and long before your trials,
people were writin'
I see so many of you on Facebook and Twitter,
sexting with improper (Insta)gramma'.
I just hope that message reaches the ears of the young,
because too many of you are just too...... far....... gone.
I comes before E except after C,
but they wont teach you kids that in elementary.
Many people write about you - YES about you!
You not knowing that, stuck in the hood, that would make you a fool.
No one accepts people talking behind their backs
if you read you would know these writer's acts.... Talking about YOU, as their facts.
You see I haven't given up on the future and your role in it.
But all I can tell you is reading is fundamental, and I hope you get a taste for a it.
