E. Stanley Richardson
E. Stanley Richardson is an American Poet, Actor, Playwright and Producer. He is the Founder and Director of ARTSPEAKSgnv Inc., the North Central Florida Youth Poet Laureate Program, and the Bard & Broadside North Central Florida Poetry Festival. He is the author of the 2017 award-winning book of poetry, "Hip Hop is Dead - Long Live Hip Hop. The Birth, Death and Resurrection of Hip Hop Activism". Mr. Richardson is the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Alachua County, Florida (2020 - present)
Poet laureate and citizen scientist combines art and health
Poetry Readings
Poem Reading at Lake Forest Elementary School Playground Dedication
Reading of "EDEN"
Readings of "Century Oak" and "An Elegy for Black Bodies"
Reading of "Make Me Wanna Holla"
Poems
Your favorite pastime
Bonfires and
backwood
family gatherings
beneath
the live oak canopy
sprawling confederate ivy
the smell of sweet magnolia
and
burning flesh
permeate
our history
die hard
die hard your heroes
the old southern
maestros
who strummed
the swinging rope
emittiing
the strange
familiar sounds
of the peculiar
instruments
played down south
in dixie
killing us
but i wasn't
there!
we were all
there!
just as we are all
here
bound by our
systemic
assembled together
not by happenstance or
accident
but by a divine
power
much greater than ourselves
urging spirits
ghosts of
bystanders
terrified,
afraid, quiet, complicit, loud , boastful
howling
innocent
taken
dazzled by strangness
enthralled by the spectacle of
dangling black bodies
suspended in
atrocity
blowing in the breeze of
white supremacy
you
revelled in our terror
our inherited
horror
trauma passed down as gifts
carved into us
you
took
pieces of us
souvenirs
you
took
pieces of us
heirlooms
relics of our
comingled existence
but i wasn't
there!
we were all
there!
just as we are all
here
today
in this place
at this hour
we confess
we seek
a collective
mending
we seek
to heal
historical wounds
we seek
atonement
recompense through our reconning
forgiveness through our efforts
we grapple with
deeds
we struggle with
words
inadequate language
with each utterance of your name
victims of sanctioned violence
we
acknowledge your humanity
taken
given
we
honor you with hymns
lifted
up from the backbone of our
blues
we
celebrate you in our mourning
we
give reverence to your eternal spirits
we vow
never
to repeat such atrocities again
you
who have waited too long for
us
we
bid you
your
descendants
solace
may your souls rest
in everlasting
peace
- E Stanley Richardson
As I walked by
The Tree
…. Cried out
Why don't you hold me anymore
Sit beneath my shade
We barely ever talk
Like we once did
100 years ago
I know
You blame me
For being
Deep inside
Us
Hidden
In the blind spot of memory
All of
Our
Pent up
Pain
We
Must Feel
I know
You blame me
Because,
If I
Had not been
They
Would not have
Dangled
Your Brother
Your Sister
Your Father
Your Mother
.... From my limbs
There would be
No blood
On my branches
I would
Be
Only brown
... Like you
With green hair
Without tinge
With
No hint of red
On
My wood
Please forgive me
Had I known
If I could
... I would have
Plucked myself
Up
By
The Root!
- E Stanley Richardson
A long way
from Mohawk Valley
A young spirit going back
to the natural world
To nest in a wetland
A creek between
two lakes
A home
to create
To trace human figures on canvas
Capture complex ___ shadows
The Light
Pouring like
Gold over nature's
Green
A symphony of hues
In
Open
Air
What it feels like
To be here
In this
Place
To witness
The angle of
Sunset
Like no other
To discover
Friends worth fighting for
Seventeen Sisters
__ Sampson Point
Cypress Island
__ Little Hammock
Burnt Island
__Grassy Point
and
Twenty Brothers
To be
Gifted a glimpse of the coming
Nightmare and
Trauma
What the land must feel when dug into by the uncaring
Claws of
Commerce
To wonder
What will the shoreline look like in
one hundred
Years
To see
The big picture
When reminded
Just how much a dollar costs
A mother
Lion
In her
Den
To defend
A creek between
Two lakes
To be
Or not to be
To be
Or not to be
To Hutch
Or not to. Hutch
To Byerly
Or not to. Byerly
These have been
Our questions
For
Many many many many many many many
Years
Tis true
_ Some
A few
Have wondered
Painstakingly pondered
Just what to do
With these
Two
Commissioners
__ Our elected
Petitioners
Of our
Legislative
Good will
Until
Such a day as
Today
Bitter sweet
Shall I
Repeat
Bitter sweet
Bitter bitter bitter
Sweet
To friend and foe
Alike
__ Though
The latter
Bid you
Take
A hike
much sooner
___ I suppose
But
Make no mistake
Be assured
There are
Those
Who
Enthusiastically commend
You
So
__ Commissioners
Fare Thee Well
And
As far as I can tell
The only question
That remains
Is
Now
Who
Will provide
You
Your
Backup
Material?
Before sixteen nineteen
Before sixteen nineteen
Seventeen
Seventy
Six
What if
This thing that ails us
We cannot fix
Though I fear
We may not survive
Another
Near death experience
How denial grows
Reluctant
To
swallow
A fishbone caught
in
history's throat
We need bread
__ We need bread
We need bread and
A
Song
Glory Glory Hallelujah
__ Glory Glory Hallelujah
Since
I laid my burden
Down
____
Before _sixteen nineteen
Before
Sixteen
Nineteen
Seventeen
Seventy
Six
What if
This thing that ails us
We cannot
Fix.
__ On this side of
Creativity
What if__
The theory of
Relativity
Resides in the weary words of a sharecropper's Sanctified
Song
Sincerely
Sung
Glory Glory Hallelujah
__ Glory Glory Hallelujah
Since I laid my burden
Down
Plays on the radio
inside the cockpit of a deuce and a quarter
__ Trues and Vogues traveling
North on
Interstate seventy five
Toward the Florida Georgia
Line
In search of the
Einstein
Rosen
Bridge
Take exit
E
Equals
M
C
Square
There
__ Keep right
Follow that glorious beam of light
And proceed through the wondrous
Wormhole
Another dusty road to
Damascus
To be ministered by fire
Kneel
__ Kneel at the feet of the beautiful
Magician
And
Collectively we all
Petition
For a
Divine
__ Do-Over
Moreover
__ A Radical Love
A radical
Love
That cannot be tricket by
Hate
At the count of three
Open the
Floodgate
One
Two
Three
.
Snap out of it!
.
.
Meanwhile
__ Back on
Earth
If only
_ Love
If only love
Smiled
Lifted a finger
Held a homeless hand
Helped a
Neighbor
Plant a frozen heart
In the warm soil of an
Organic
Community
Garden
To grow flowers again
To push
Upward
__ Anything but
Daisies
Why not
Daisies
Yes
Daisies or
Daffodils
Because
__ To love
To love is to truly
Live
Love is
Why
We're
Here
Glory Glory Hallelujah
__ Glory Glory Hallelujah
If
We
Lay
Our
Burden
Down
_____________________________
©E. Stanley Richardson 02/2021
Oh Sankofa__
"Oh Sankofa High on the heavens
You soar My soul is soon
To follow you
Back to yesterday's moon
Will it remember me?
Back to yesterday's sun!
It will rekindle me!
Rekindle the spirit
Into tomorrow and high on the wind.
Sankofa flies Again and Again"
This is not the end
Amen
But
An
Ever
Learning
Constant
Beginning
Of
Excavation__ Of
Uncovering
Of Truth
and
Reconciliation
A reconnecting with our past Altered
Distorted
And Forgotten Selvesa
A gathering of songs
A hymnal of collected voices Whispered in the wind
A gift given
Amen
Of history's telling
A treasure to be shared amongst us
Amen
She
__ Who sifted
Througyh recollection
Lifted
Memory's
Hushed and
Heavy
Stones
Unrolled our
Hidden
Scrolls
And Read
Our
Words
Aloud.
Amen
She
__ Who encouraged us
To listen
To honor each note Of
History's
Howling Symphonies
Dared us to dance The Ancestors'
Sacred
Dance.
Amen
She
__ Who showered us with her radiance
Shined a joyous glow
She
who empowered us
Helped us to know
The Way Back is
The Way Forward
Amen
This is not the end
Amen
But An
Ever
Learning
Constant
Beginning.
Amen
Sankofa Sister
Flies
Again
And
Again
Sankofa Sister
Flies
Again
And
Again
_____________________ Ase'
And the truth
And the truth shall make us
Free
Tell the truth
Tell the truth shame the devil
But
What is truth ?
The question The question
Pontius
Pilate
Posed
Quid Est Veritas ?
There are
No
Alternative truths
But only Truth
Truth
Reconciled here
By a house
How candle light leans
Into History
What has entered and
What exits
Doorways
How the floor
Creaks
is how an old house
Speaks
The wood
The windows
Wind and
Sorrow
how the joists beam hope and promise
Of what awaits
Tomorrow
The thoughts and prayers
Of what
A
Mantle holds
Above
What wishes
Danced in the fireplace
The children's laughter
Still lingers
in the
Loft
The toil and
Timber
Does the tin roof
Remember
Each season's
Sound of rain
The living
The striving
The surviving
The joy and the pain
Of
Something
Built in bondage and
Emancipated
Fashioned into
A
Family's
Home
Here and now
Memories
History yet still
The Perkins' House
Stands
__
E Stanley Richardson
05/04/2024
Oh Shield of Valor
No Greater Love
Than To Lay Down Your Life For A Friend
A Country
________
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh Somber Rose
In Honor of Those.
Heroes
Patriots
Sons and Daughters
Rest Here
For
A While
Lie Down
In Green Pastures
Beneath
The
Firmament's
Blue
Skies
As We Are Left To Ponder
The Reasons And
The Why's
Of
War
To Comfort
The Parts Of Us
That Remember
A Soldier's Touch
To Mourn
The Martyred
Our Sacred Thoughts
Golden
Glistening
In This
May
Morning
Sun
A Holy Affection
Though Even
The Weather
At Times
Is Weary
The Summer Breeze
Feels
Jagged
Our Heads
Heavy
With
Mountains Of
Memories
So
We Stand
We Stand
Upon The Rock
Of Ages
Told
And We
Hold
We Hold
OnTo
One Another
And
The
Promised
Dawn Of
Joy
To Soothe
The Sorrows Of
Sacrifice
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh Shield Of Valor
Oh Somber Rose
In honor Of Those
Heroes
Forever In Our
Hearts
Are Those Who Served As
Ramparts
Against The Bane
And
Peril
Who Kept The Foe
At Bay
Who Helped Preserve.
Our Way
Of Life
We Honor You.
This Day
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh Shield Of Valor
Oh Somber Rose
In honor Of Those
Heroes
For Whom The Trumpet Sounds
The Bugle Blows
And
The
Bells Of
Freedom
Toll
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh Shield Of Valor
Oh Somber Rose
In honor Of Those
Heroes
Gone On
To Glory
Who Now
Reside
In Heaven's Realm
Beyond The
Tide
Of
Time And
Space
In
The
Eternal
Halls Of Grace
Oh Shield of Valor
Oh
Shield
Of
Valor
Oh
Somber
Rose
E Stanley Richardson
Memorial Day Ceremony 2024
Alachua County, Florida
