El Hajj Malik Shabazz

El Hajj Malik Shabazz/who went through the changes and
came out Black and Shining and pointed the way

Who became a truth/and a positive action/and more
than a voice in the wind

Who became transformation we could see/and touch
Reality in spite of

Who shouted his truths/whispered his challenges
dared a whole generation to use his Strength

Whose Black-Spirituality was exploded into the air and we
inbreathed him and he became a part of me/and you
carry him in you/and he is restless and demands

Demands an Action past rhetoric/an Action that delivers
itself/a Love past sighing/a Love that creates today
full of the knowledge of Tomorrow and of what it Will/Be
unless we move to change it into what it Must/Be

El Hajj Malik Shabazz/who went through the changes
and became a Truth/and a positive action/and more than
a voice in the wind 

Credit

From Continuum: New and Selected Poems (Just Us Books, Inc., 2007 and 2014) by Mari Evans. Copyright © 2007 and 2014 by Mari Evans. Used with the permission of the Estate of Mari Evans.