Because I Want To (Blackbird, Fly) | Poem
- SoL
- Sep 4, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." - Helen Keller
Backstory Coming Soon....
"Why you wanna fly, blackbird?
You ain't never gonna fly
No place big enough for holding
All the tears you gone cry
'Cause your momma's name is lonely
And your daddy's name's pain
And they call you little sorrow
'Cause you'll never love again
Why you wanna fly, blackbird?
You ain't never gonna fly
You ain't got no one to hold you
You ain't got no one to care
If you'd only understand, dear
Nobody wants you anywhere
So, why you wanna fly, blackbird?
You ain't never gone..."
Because I Want To
Because these arms that's sown with feathers upon conception
swore they would scour the airs, low and high, with rhythm and glide...
like they were supposed to do
Because these feet weren't made for just walking, they were made for jumping,
springing, leaping acts of faith made for what it takes
from the tallest trees with the highest branch to the greatest peaks for me to oversee,
you see...I'm not made for running
Fleeing from the reasoning for my being,
believing that chest's down to the dirt ground,
heights the limit of what blackbirds can achieve,
that level of deceiving I'm not incline to receiving
Because despite who might dispute, my brain's scope is as whole as the night sky,
stunning, with cunning and wit too equipped and acute
to be reduced by the minute quips of who choose to see me as below...
but above them, they will soon see me
High with pride and glory, nearby the tides of glory, a story line of triumph,
when a sable angel was willing and able to be more than just a fable,
throw body to wind for the sake of air, for the right to breeze, climbing over stories of what I was told to be
Because this spirit is flush with a sight for the future,
and to deny what's inside, constantly in a fight with what always
finds time to run flights in my mind is the equivalence of a stupor
Stuck, drunk off of the blundering bliss-ful ignorance
to a sharpened, ill willed, malignant self-imposed tumor,
till I'm dead, red as the rest of the rumors
You ask me why?
Because not to fly is to die.
And by design, I was created to rise.
So, watch me flap and flutter my expanded wings,
watch me hop to brown hands that extend their reach,
watch me perch on their final fingertip
before a deep breath for the final hope-filled lift,
And see the former nesting hands left barren,
leaving all to bear witness this moment in time
when those like I who were starved for a sign,
align their eyes to that bright in the sky,
and raise one voice a resounding cry
Watch That Blackbird Fly
Because I Want To (Blackbird, Fly) by SoL
Performance was STAYonLIT
Lyrics were Composed in SoL
Published via Embold with SoL
Written on Saturday, April 13, 2024
An Interpretation of "Because I Wanna Fly" from the Whitfield Lovell: Passages Exhibit Collection at the Cincinnati Art Museum by Whitfield Lovell in Response to the song "Blackbird by Nina Simone"
*Quoted Lyrics Written by Herbet Sacker & Nina Simone from the song "Blackbird by Nina Simone"
***************************************
MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST:
This Artistic Piece of Literature is the Sole
Intellectual Property of The Original Author &
Copyright Owner by name of Steven O. Lynn
bka SoL aka Mista STAYonLIT; All Rights Reserved.
*Unless Otherwise Indicated, This Creative Portion
Of This Piece Is The Ownership of The Stated Artist.
Live Performance & Interview @ The Cincinnati Art Museum
Nina Simone - Blackbird
Kendrick Lamar - Black Boy Fly
Whitfield Lovell: Passages | Cincinnati Art Museum
Lift Every Voice and Sing | NAACP
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