Immersion Closing Worship Piece: For the CIty who came together around our mission

I wrote this spoken word piece  for the closing worship of my intercession immersion course this January.  My inspiration comes from Ntozake Shange's Choreopoem quoted in the first section.  The Choreopoem is the foundation for Tyler Perry's movie adaptation For Colored Girls, where he put a plot line onto Shange's  poetry in a really powerful way.  Thanks to all in my class the past two weeks who took a journey together.  

Much love!

Beth

somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff

not my poem or a dance i gave up in the street

but somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff

like a kleptomaniac workin hard & forgettin while stealin

this is mine/ this ain yr stuff/

now why dont you put me back & let me hang out in my own self

somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff

From For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange

we leave today,

a part of something real,

just glimmering in Divine mind.

Hope. Craving for justice.

Bags-packed-next-project-in-mind-always-something   more   to do.

The poet said somebody almost walked off wid alla her stuff.

what i gotta do i gotta have my stuff to do it.

i gotta have me in my pocket like a good woman shd

They can't do nothing with those memories, those pieces of who she is.

But WE are doing something with anothers stuff.  Your memories and stories became part of MY story.

Somebody has given me more of their stuff than they know they did.

I'm walking away with pretty ribbon wrapped boxes stuffed with

your words.

God words

God speak

Theology.

I'm walking away with luggage cards of you back into the world we never left.

Bishop said they were sisters & brothers forever because they displaced water together.

We.

We are sisters-brothers-siblings forever because we have displaced assumption together.

Elders with rock bands & kids with chants and old school hymns.

No longer separate individuals but

a joyful WE.

Jubilee granted,

Hospitality earned just be being we,

The Edges of ourselves Gathered,

Radical responsibility learned,

Hope returned.

I got myself more in my pocket now than I ever knew I could

No one can walk off with my stuff without me giving it

Permission given without asking,

take from me what you need

cause,

I need something from you too,

I need to become WE.

Are you ready to choose the fruit of life and  leave that old fruit of otherness rotting on the ground?

What I gotta do I gotta have you to do it.