{"id":408,"date":"2014-01-05T10:33:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T10:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=408"},"modified":"2014-01-17T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:17:00","slug":"408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"LOOK THIS WAY- Gina Loring"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a Saturday afternoon in June
\nand the sun shone down on our naked skin
\nas we passionately embraced and met soft lips and gazed into each other\u2019s eyes
\nas we began to make love\u2026\u2026..
\ndoesn’t really happen that way.
\n<\/em>
\nThe real story goes:
\nwe had this deep, we knew each other in another life,
\npowerful, magical thing going on
\nbut between me getting tired of you being high all the time
\nand you getting tired of hearing my mouth
\nwhen you showed up two hours late every time we got together,
\nand then there was that little issue
\nsurrounding you and some girl named Denise in the back room at a house party
\nand well\u2026
\nit just didn’t work out—
\nbut I have faith in love, I do
\nand I’ve learned and I’ve grown and I know what I want.
\nI want to debate political issues
\nlike Israel\/Palestine and how exactly does the Chinese government operate?
\nAnd what\u2019s happened in this country since the civil rights movement?
\nI want to do lap dances on your intellect and wrap my legs around your conscience
\nand do cartwheels and back flips on your inner most self,
\nthat vulnerable side we all have where we hide away things
\nthat never should have happened and pretend that your dad didn\u2019t leave you, leave us–
\nwhy do so many black men abandon their children?
\nI want to discuss this with you and dialogue about how that\u2019s not always true
\nand that some black men hold nothing in higher regard than their families
\nand how when we have children you would fit that description
\nand I want to whisper with Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder in the background
\nand Nina Simone sparking conversation
\nand I could break out my Native American tribal music and you would like it
\nand inquire more knowledge about whatever it is
\nI know that you don\u2019t know
\nand whatever it is you know that I don\u2019t know and
\nI want to relate to you how much Billie Holiday means to me,
\nhow she sings to me and clings to me
\nand I feel like my soul is being rocked lovingly
\nand how I cry sometimes
\ncause Miles Davis hits that note so beautifully on Kind of Blue
\nClarence Thomas is actually allowed to decide that there should be no punishment for a prison
\nguard who beat ten teeth out of the mouth of a young prisoner
\ncause he stepped out of line
\nbut Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier are locked up in cellblocks?!
\nI want to explain to you how happy I am Lenny Kravitz exists
\nand how much I look up to Lonette McKee
\nand then–I\u2019d probably have to remind you who she is,
\nbut that\u2019s okay cause most guys haven\u2019t seen Sparkle, but they have seen The Mack,
\nwhich will then segue us into blaxploitation and Blacula
\nand why that\u2019s significant to me and only me and you will listen and be intrigued
\nand feel for me—but not sorry
\ncause you\u2019ll have your own sad stories to share and you will
\nand we\u2019ll actually look deeply into each other\u2019s eyes but not corny like, but for real
\ncause you are the one that fits and I am the one that matches,
\nand we are vibing and not even trying, but falling and walking
\nwith grown up eyes into love.
\nBut what is love?
\nI want to talk about this with you
\nover herbal tea or martinis or coffee or coronas–
\nwhatever meets your fancy, cause this is about you and this is about me.
\nI want to talk about Greek mythology and African history
\nand why plastic surgery doesn’t become illegal
\nwhen you make yourself look like an alien
\nand why people of color all over the world
\njudge themselves according to a European standard of beauty.
\nI want to tell you all about Saphronia
\nand why she is not tragic and how the story really goes and you\u2019ll care
\nand I want to decide with you who really made earth
\nand if we can remember our births and
\ndo flowers mind when you pick them for me on my birthday?
\nBecause you would.
\nAnd I wouldn\u2019t mind, cause really
\nall I want is somebody to admire the sky with
\nand I think you might really like it too,
\nif you would just
\nlook. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 this. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"art,<\/a><\/p>\n

Gina Loring is an accomplished poet, vocalist, songwriter, and workshop facilitator. She has guest lectured at countless colleges, universities, and high schools nationwide. As guest poet of the American Embassy, she has traveled to Kuwait, Russia, West Africa, Denmark, Turkey, Greece, Ireland, England, and Tunisia. She was featured on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry, as well as on BET’s Lyric Cafe and TVOne\u2019s Verses and Flow. With a B.A. from Spelman College and an M.F.A. from Antioch University, Gina served as poet-in-residence at Culver Academies and writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook. She is a volunteer creative writing teacher with Inside Out Writers, working with incarcerated teens. Her work is featured on De La Soul’s album, \u201cAre you in?\u201d and The Brand New Heavies album, \u201cWe Won’t Stop,\u201dand she was a writer\/performer on Norman Lear\u2019s nationwide “Declare Yourself” poetry tour. She lives in Los Angeles, and she believes in mermaids. Visit her at: www.ginaloring.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a Saturday afternoon in June and the sun shone down on our naked skin as we passionately embraced and met soft lips and gazed into each other\u2019s eyes as we began to make love\u2026\u2026.. doesn’t really happen that way. The real story goes: we had this deep, we knew each other in another [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,39],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-art","tag-lori-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}