Poet Mayra Angelew writes a Poem about the Zimmerman Trial

Mayra Angelew, a distant cousin of poet Maya Angelou and a poet in her own right,  is calling for calm and peace in the event that a racial anger shuld flare up in the wake of a possible George Zimmermann acquittal.

Angelew, 88, is a quiet African-American poet who now lives off the beaten path in southern Cameroon, Africa.  She has shunned the spotlight for years and even had her name removed from the credits of the film “The Colour Purple” for which she wrote the South African screenplay version. 

“Calm and quiet and love of man is all we need to know,” said Mayra Angelew from her modest home not far from a nature preserve where she lives with her 93 year old husband Cary Lookinland and their six cats. 

“America is great and the colors that make up the complexion of that great nation are far too rich and majestic to be tainted by the trivialities of a jury’s verdict.  Yes, a boy is dead and another young man is facing a life behind iron bars, but shall we take that event and turn it into a reason to bait race riots?  The American media is manipulating man — both black and white — and inciting racial hatred.  This is not about race in the grand scheme.  It is about the possibiilty of racism on the part of one man.  WE shall never know what really happened that night and the fact this will always be a universal mystery is enough proof that life will move on and it should move on — and it should move on without violence and anger and hatred between the white man and the black man.  Those days must end and they can end now and forever.”

Mayra Angelew has written a special poem to try to ease the pain for all of those who are the most deeply affected by this.  She says the poem can help a lot of America’s wounds because the wounds were brought down upon the Americans by a television media that “seeks only violence and acrimony to make money.”  She thinks her poem will not let that happen.   Angelew is not a stranger to American culture since she herself is an American — born and raised in Alabama — and then moved to Africa only 6 years ago.

“I left the USA because the news media controla racial hatred and I simply could not let my eyes and my ears and my art suffer, but my cousin Maya Angelou seems to have a mind clear of that anxiety.  I am an old soul and old souls see things very differently.  I have recently installed a dish on our roof and sadly I am again exposed to the American media machine.  Please accept my poem and hope that it will bring peace between the races of The United States of America.

DON’T LET THE NEWS MILDEW GROW YOU DOWN

BY:  Mayra Angelew

We sit in before a glowing square and watch in wonder

And our despair for that moment for whatever reason

But then some man with a machine makes us hate somebody

It doesn’t matter who the dehumanized person might be

The man with the machine makes us hate and he is very good at what he does

Why do we hate?  Who do we hate? 

But mother dear, hatred is only a word.

But no, my child. 

Hatred is a cowardly word covered in mildew and dirty money and false fear

Never let the mildew of fetid gossip and greed grow you down.

Flash! Blame the white man and blame the black man and fear the brown man

But no, my children.  We must ignore the glowing box forever until it brings beauty

The box of Maddow and Hannity and Whoopie and Sawyer and Maher and so many

They are decayed by the mildew of money like the tree near the old swamp bench

Do you remember the bench, my dear?

My grandmother sat on the bench before she had a penny and when she got a penny

She shined the bench but soon the luster was gone and the hatred was sitting there.

So now we see two men sitting in a sanitary courtroom with all heads turned

The nations waits in an anticipation that would not have been there

Were it not for the man with the machine and the glowing box and the mildew and decay

Before which we sit and wait and wait and wait for……..hate.

Hatred is only word, my dear.