[Photo via Degilbo on Flickr]

At its heart, this video is about the struggles we deal with daily: hatred, ignorance and oppression. This video also shows that no matter how much we have weighing against us, we still somehow manage to rise.

Voices cry out every day: voices of women calling out for justice. Voices of hope calling out for a better tomorrow. Voices of people like you and me saying we have to find another way, a better way.

Faith cries out every day: saying we must do our best to stay positive when being tested by oppression, personal demolition and spirit submission.

The song of us cries out every day: to sing and dance and to witness the potential brilliance in ourselves.

To help us realize there has to be more to life than just survival.

 

 

Human Condition

This condition, this human condition
Where voices of women cry out for justice
Voices of hope call out for a better tomorrow
Voices of you & me
Saying maybe, just maybe
We can find another way
A better way
To get us through this condition

This human condition
A lunatic prison
Faith in chains
Tested by oppression
Yet still we somehow manage to rise
Realizing

That while we’ve written so many promises
Across thunderous skies
We return to find that the truest of lines
Have always been written deep inside of us
From the very beginning of this condition

This human condition
Fighting personal demolition
Each and every one of us
Coming home from work every day
Weighing out victories and defeats

In the black, in the red
Doing our best to stay positive
While negativity lurks behind smiles
Its black light aura
Leaving even the whitest, purest parts of us
Looking blue in the dark

But in the light of this condition, this human condition
Not some spirit submission
A celebration of us so strong, and true
Brilliant and bright
Steadfast as stars

Oh, grace
There are a thousand beauties and charms
In the instrument that is your body
And oh how they sing
When we are completely tuned to you
While in this condition

This human condition
A living universe of us
Far more mind-expanding
Than the fourth dimension

We don’t need a telescope
Just the naked eye
To witness all the potential brilliance of ourselves
While in this condition, this human condition
All you gotta do is listen

It’s a song we all know the words to
And if we allow ourselves the chance
To sing and dance
Head over heels in love with life
So in love with life

It’s time to revitalize
Send out messages of hope
Far across the brilliant horizon of you and me
Where I’ve seen that sun shine so bright

And at the end of the day
When I walk through the night
Witnessing you more illumined than the moon
And I see written across all your faces
What I tell myself every night before sleep
That there has to be more to life than just survival

So much more to life
Than just survival

While in this condition
Our human condition

 

Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Bob Holman, Ozomotli and other esteemed poets and musicians. He has performed at the NYC Fringe Festival, the Bowery Poetry Club and is a featured performer in the film What About Me? He has been published in the L.A. Times, Opium and has been widely anthologized. Ferguson is a Pushcart-nominated poet and a contributor and poetry editor to The Nervous Breakdown. His poetry collection 8th & Agony is out on Punk Hostage Press.

 

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Assistant Ed: Catherine Monkman