Tuesday, November 17, 2009

WORDS

WORDS
an excerpt from my book SHOUT MAMMY SHOUT!!!: where the thunder hides. I love thunder and a recurring theme in this book which I wrote as a follow up to my book on my experiences as Adomestic violence survivor (WING-PLUCKED BUTTERFLY) is my love of thunder. SHOUT MAMMY SHOUT!!! is my victory voice over victimization.

Words don’t work in a vacuum
Sucked in between two cardboard covers
Words are to be kissed out
They explode on the scene of joy
Vomit in a firework of anger.
The unspoken word is just that--
Unspoken non-speak
Illiterate unreading.
Breeding depressed paranoia
Ungraced esteem
Blinded by silence
Untouched by the complimentary
I LOVE YOU
YOU’RE THE GREATEST
I MISS YOU
COME TO SEE ME AGAIN
CAN I DO ANYTHING FOR YOU
Words aren’t just words
They are power
The Word was with God
From the beginning of time
WHO LOVES YOU BABY
LOVE YOU MADLY
I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH
To speak or not to speak
Whether tis nobler
to shut up
Or to share
It is the best of times
And worst of times
Thunder…
Can you hear me?

Monday, November 16, 2009

THE RIVER WITNESS


I watch the news and it depresses me, I have no one to talk to so I needed to get this off of my chest. Where are the Amber alerts and intense Adam searches for the impoverished children of color and underserved populations?:
The River Witness
(To all of the lost, stolen, murdered and unclaimed children of color)
by Kentucky Yo'
My water churned and lashed
Angrily irritated
Trying not to swallow
The tender morsels of flesh
Trying to toss the dark skin
Back to the river bank
But her humanity was
her enemy
Already marred and scarred
In ways unmentionable
If she would only relax and
Let me gently rock away her pain
But she thrashed around desperately
Not wanting to let go
Twelve years of memory
Swallow-shouted “Mamaaaaaa”
But mama couldn’t hear
Mama was working overtime
Earning the unimportant little extras
She would never see
Rock-a-by river girl, rock-a-bye.
Kerscrunch went the crimson painted screwdriver
Tossed out of the devil red Ford truck
I recoiled just enough to reject the unacceptable refuse
Later found by a young boy gone fishing
Slumber river girl, slumber
I will ever treasure your breath in the secrets of my waterfolds
Rest brown river girl, rest.




















Tuesday, November 3, 2009

REVOLUTION

THE REVOLUTION
I am not a girl
When will we ever grow up?
I am 54 years old
I am a WOMAN.

I was at Applebee’s taking lunch with 2 other women. We were all 50 something in age. The young, bored out of his mind, bad postured, still wet behind his multipierced ears, teenaged waiter appeared from thin air. He clutched his order pad with perfectly manicured black nail polished hands glared at the floor with his perfectly smoky, grey-blue eye shadowed orbs and barked “What can I get you girls to drink?”

My cohorts let out girly giggles, one ordered coffee the other ordered a Pepsi. I said nothing. The waiter puffed out a sigh of intolerant impatience which I easily recognized, being the mother of a 15 year old daughter and having groomed a 24 year old likewise through this same teen phase of life.

Another now harder puff of breath, “And you?” He still had not looked up or met any of us eye to eye. Perhaps he just didn’t recognize who was sitting at his table.
“I would…like…you to not call me a girl. What do I have to do…how much more growing up will I have to experience before you call me a woman or a lady?” He looked up finally and I saw that the dark-sided “emo” revolution in him met the same spirit of revolution in me and he apologized. “I’m sorry, mam, what would you have?”

“Ice tea with lemon.” He vanished as quickly as he had arrived.

Silence…silence…and another dose of silence. I saw immediately that I had ruined our “girlie” outing.

“Honestly, what DO I have to do in order to be considered a woman? What size bra do I have to wear? How many children do I have to have nursed? How many sanitary napkins must I have worn? How many soufflĂ©’s, thanksgiving turkeys, casseroles do I have to have cooked? The minute a boy even sees a hair on his face or his armpit or where the sun doesn’t shine, one hair--real or imagined--people, including himself, start calling him ‘A MAN’. When do I--we--get to stop being girls? When do we get to grow up and be women?
“I like being called a girl. It makes me feel young” the oldest of the three of us said with an unconvincing giggle.

“We always call each other girls. Girls call girls--girls” my other friend whined. At 54 I was even younger than her. I was the baby of the group.

I bristled. “That’s why men don’t take us seriously. All of our lives to them we are just little girls, to be taken care of and carted around like trophies. At the board table with all of the big boy manly CEO’s we are just little girls. And when we command womanly attributes in a manly world we are branded ‘bitches’ not women. But a female dog. Or a ’tough cookie’. A dessert mind you, a dessert!!! You spank, chastise, talk down to girls or you come to their rescue, show them off to your other man friends. A man never treats a GIRL as an equal. We need a revolution, a change of thought about ourselves. Domestic violence will never end until we stand up as well as lay down in the bed as women, not girls. I am the revolution, even if I am a revolution of one.”

POOF, the waiter appeared. He immediately placed my tea before me then served the other two. He turned towards me. “What would you--you…ladies like to order?”

Sunday, October 4, 2009

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Who do you think you are? Oprah Winfrey? Angelina Jolie? Madonna? Mother Teresa? No, no, no and no. I am just an ordinary person who stumbled upon an extraordinary circumstance--76 abandoned children living naked like wild animals in the remote mountain villages of Haiti.
Nine years ago God asked me to “GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAINS”--tell of His Love, Mercy and Grace. But now, today, after encountering the multitudes of abandoned, starving and neglected children, God is asking me to “got tell it FROM the mountains”. This is now my quest, to share my testimony in order to bring aide, relief and hope to the helpless. Relief in terms of food, clean water, clothing, and education.
In Haiti I have seen mothers and children who have not eaten for five day stretches at a time. The leaders of the villages beg for assistance. They ask if only a way could be provided for the children to eat twice a week, it would make a huge difference in the mountains.
Clean water is imperative. Approximately 69 out of 100 babies do not make it to the age of two due to unclean water and a lack of nutrition. Malnourished mothers give birth to undernourished and sick babies. Mothers who drink unclean water, produce unclean milk by which to nurse their newborns. Thus the babies die.
The medical needs are astounding. Something as simple as pink eye, because of a lack of medication will guarantee that a child will go blind. Malaria, yellow fever and tuberculosis are common ailments. A lack of vitamin C causes abundant cases of scurvy. Gross iron deficiencies cause weaknesses and dizzy spells to be common amongst the women.
Children are abandoned due to parents who die from aides. Children are left abandoned due to parents who go to the Dominican Republic and Port-au-Prince in hopes of finding work by which to support their families. Because of the desperation of these parents they are easily scammed and taken advantage of. They are often killed or just seem to vanish when they demand payment for labour rendered.
It is my goal to be the voice of the abandoned children. It is my goal to be a voice that will raise funds to provide not just the immediate needs but a voice that will bring a sense of hope. A hope with a strategy to teach the children to become self sufficient and masters of their own destiny.
One summer as I was leaving the mountains of Haiti a little naked abandoned child begged, “Give me something please, Miss, give me something.” The only thing I had left to give him was my pen. As we drove away in a huge cloud of dust the little boy chased after me in all of his naked glory shouting, “BOBO, AMERICA, BOBO!!!” With tears in my heart I turned to my translator and asked what did the boy say. The translator said the little boy was shouting, “KISS, AMERICA, KISS!!!” So I have returned to America to bring you the kisses of a little abandoned boy with a pen from the mountains of Haiti.

To have Yolantha come and share her testimony contact her at yolanthapace@gmail.com

Saturday, September 12, 2009

B.A.D. Coalition (Bad, Audatious & Divine)--LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN

Let us inspire one another to GIT GOD'S WORK done. Last night God prompted me to start the BAD (Bold, Audatious and Divine) Coalition. Won't you join me? I'm looking for women. Not whiney,sniveling, pms chained girls. Not 50 year old females that prefer to be called girls cause it makes them feel young. But women. When a boy get's his first extracurricular sprig of hair, he embraces his manhood, even makes everybody call him a MAN, cause he is DE MAN. I shut a group of 4 girls down this week cause I knew I was gonna wretch if they called themselves "girls" one more time. We were aged 32 to 65. I said, "What size bra cup do I have to wear? How many children do I have to have nursed? How many tampons must I have changed, before I am a woman? SILENCE. Utter silence. LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN and this time it wil be led by A WOMAN. (yeah lil Wayne, come and git me)

Lil Wayne

If Lil' Wayne and all that he does and doesn't stand for can capture the masses why can't I. I wanna announce myself as DE BES' INSPIRATIONAL WRITER IN DE WORLD!!! Do ya hear me "carter"??? Come git me!!! And I got yo' lollipop scriptured rat cheer!!! And "carter" it ain't all about BLANG-BLANG!!! It's about what you "BRANG-BRANG!!!" AND...Lil Wayne I got a lil. sompin, sompin for our Katrina. It's called ATTIC OF DREAMS. Come git me lil wayne and BRANG BRANG yo Styrofoam cup cause I'm gonna have my communion glass wid me!!! And all yall out there who will read this and know lil mr. carter, tell him I'm bad, real, real BAD (Bold-Audacious & Divine) Tell him I'm old enough to be his mama's mama--and I ain't skeered! All yall out there in the cyber world tell Lil Wayne to come on--BRANG EET--on behalf of New Orleans--COOOOME OOOOON!!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

KISS, AMERICA, KISS!!!

KISS, AMERICA KISS!!! The writin' is done, the prayers are on. Now I need to get this bad boy published. I have spoken the word into existence. Book in hand is just minor "take no calities". My challenges stem around the understanding that I am a trench woman. I am the doer. My forte is on the mission fields, wiping noses, praying over babies being blinded by pink eye, stumbling up mountain paths to bring plates of food to the blind and severely handicapped.
I am being strangled and derailed by the minutia of monies to self publish again. I am couch potatoed by the challenges of having all of the testimonies written but no stage, podium or audience.
I received a call from the supervisor of one of the orphanages I fed this summer. Telling me they were out of food. But worst of all the children are not crying over hunger, they are in tears because there is no money to hire a teacher this year. There will be no school for 2009-2010. Nine year ago, God asked me to "GOT TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAINS" of His, Love, Mercy and Grace. After discovering 76 abandoned children living on the mountains naked like wild animals God has now called me to "go tell it FROM the mountains."
My prayer this morning was Holy Masterful Father, move, move now in a big way on behalf of your angels on the mountains. And I will give you ALLLLLLLL of the Glory. And lookah, lookah, heah. I open my gmail to find out of the Divinely Appointed blue--an invitation to become apart of Premier Writers. How perfect, because my God is THE PREMIER GOD of all gods.
Yolantha Harrison-Pace

Friday, August 28, 2009

Rainless Rainbows/ Jesus Is Coming Back Again

I drove up to the stop light. It was red. The female driver in front of me kept pointing adamantly out of her window at the sky. Suddenly she began pointing harder and harder and with more determination. So I tried to look in her rear view mirror to see if I knew her and try to figure out why she kept pointing out of her window. Was she trying to get my attention? I didn't recognize her, but with all of my travels I never know who really knows me or might recognize me. So I stuck my head out of the window and looked up at the sky. And low and behold there was a RAINBOW. How could that be? It had not even rained here. A rainless rainbow? So I stuck my head out of the window and hollered at the lady, "IT'S BEAUTIFUL" She looked back at me in surprise as two little heads stood up in her back seat. Ah, now I understand. She was trying to get her daughters to see the rainbow in the sky out of her window. The woman grinned back at me, "YES IT'S BEAUTIFUL!" I responded, "AIN'T GOD GRAND?" The light turned green and we instantly disconnected, pigeon holing ourselves back into our separate lives as we then drove on our separate ways. Never before in my 54 years have I seen a rainbow without it first having rained. This morning I awakened to the vision of thousands of people at stop lights pointing at the sky, when Jesus makes his grand entrance, returning on his horse, coming back again.

YOU SHOULD HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE!!!

Missed you madly on yesterday. But was too exhausted to revisit the day before I went to bed. It was such a roller coaster ride. Started the day feeling "FIGHTILICIOUS". Ready to take on the world. But now I know that I wasn't specific in my fight. Was I intriguing the devil to "BRING IT" and I would take anything he had to challenge me with. Or was I imporing God to "BRING IT!" and let's get it on. But I didn't know for what or for why or for when, for where, or for who. I was just riding to work feeling higher than a kite. But I've been living in that high for a while. Sometimes I think I scare folks like Moses must have when he came down from the mountains bathed in God's Glory. I think as the day progressed I got confused on whose battle I was fighting. Some how the skirmishes of the day evolved in to being all about me. WROOOOOOONG!!!

It took me about 45 minutes to realize that the press release that I'd submitted and that was returned to me draped in red with corrections and changes and inserts had nothing to do about me. I hadn't received a paper like that since my first year at Columbia College in 1973. Golleee, it brought back such feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. (devil talk) Me, a world travelled award winning author, news columnist, playwright and poet. My ego was crushed, demolished, weeping like a baby whose hand had been slapped. Of course no one knew this but God and I. Then I get a memo saying that I should have more confidence. Ain't Beelzebub something? I mean first satan makes you cry then in the same breath says "you oughtta smile more" Get back devil, get back. IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I AIN'T HAVIN' IT!!! Whew, I feel better. How about you? God began to work with me. Settled me down and whispered, "Good, Yolantha, stand My Ground"

So this morning after doing a dashboard agenda of my yesterday in order to improve this day I ask myself.
WHOSE GROUND WILL I STAND ON?
WHAT RIGHT DO I HAVE TO BE HERE?
UNDER WHOSE AUTHORITY DID I WAKE UP THIS MORNING?
WHO GAVE ME PERMISSION TO BEGIN THIS BLOG?
WHOSE BREATH AM I BREATHING?
WHOSE HEARTBEAT OF PASSION WILL I SERVE?
WHOSE CONFIDENCE WILL I BATHE IN?
WHOSE PEOPLE AM I FEEDING?
WHO PICKED ME?
Of course the answers are, GOD'S GROUND, GOD'S AUTHORITY, GOD'S PERMISSION, GOD'S BREATH, GOD'S HEARTBEAT, GOD'S CONFIDENCE, GOD'S PEOPLE AND GOD PICKED ME.
How did you answer the questions???

Come on Glory People. Hunt me down. Come join my blogmunity. I will encourage you and you will encourage me. My blog is not for chickens, whiners and complainers. However bring me your challenges and victories and we will engulf God with our praise as we pray without ceasing petitioning Him on behalf of His Glory, Mercy, Forgiveness, Promises and on behalf of the Precious spilled Blood of His Son.
QUOTE FOR THE MOMENTS AHEAD: The devil is busy, but my Jesus is busier, badder, bolder much more empowered.
Love you madly,
Yolantha

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Will the real women please stand up?

Hello. I am just now finding this wonderful project of encouragement. (realwomenrealadvice.com/2009/02/20/learning-to-recognize-psychological-abuse) Hey all you shugahs out there--don't fret, I'm living proof that there is hope. You CAN move on!!! You CAN again rely upon yourself, think for yourself, love your self and love for your self. One thing we have to do as women is stop being "girls". When a man gets his first extracurricular hairs, he and the rest of the world around him, call him a MAN. At what point in a "girls" lifedom, does she cease being a girl and cross over into the title of WOMAN? I am 50 plus now, birth and suckled two children, travelled and fed thousands of people in 3rd world countries, written award winning books, have been penned one of America's Top 100 Literary Divas yet I am still addressed as a "girl" How many breasts and what cup size does it take in order to be treasured as a woman? How many souffles, how many lawns do I have to mow and how may months of breast feeding do I have to log before I am recognized as a woman? How many tampons and diapers must I have changed? How many steaks must I have sauteed? I once challenged another 50 something woman when we were out to lunch and a high school lad came to wait on our table and said, "What would you girls like to drink?" I corrected the lad who turned all shades of purple when I asked him what did I need to do to prove to him that I was a woman. He sniggled uncomfortably and took both of our orders of sweet tea. I asked my friend why did she not speak up in her behalf as being a woman. Her response, "I like being called a girl, it makes me feel young." I guess I'm a one woman revolution. Cause I definitely suggest that if we are gonna win the war on domestic violence. I will need all of the girls to stay home...Yolantha

...that's meeeeeee!!!

Oh my look what I found. Go to (realwomenrealadvice.com/2009/02/20/learning-to-recognize-psychological-abuse) . This is just proof of the pudding that you must always keep your nose clean. Just never know where something you have done or said will show up. This was done way, way, way before youtube was sooooo popular. And way back at the very beginning of my missionary career. Even though it was was posted on youtube February of this year. Hope you can see it, I had to turn my volume up real high. If you want to order my lil' palmette pamplets called HINT, HINT!!! and the other one called GET OUT!!! ( $3.50 a piece or $4.99 for both) email me at yolanthapace@gmail.com I created these to give to friends who are victims and don't even realize or have any HINT that they are in trouble and for my friends that need encouragement and the inspiration to GET OUT of their horrible situations.

I was just doing a random google of my name and clicked on that site. When I opened it I stood straight up and shouted...that's meeeeeeee!!! Alright good night, love you madly, Yolantha

...and God said let there be Yolantha, and there was...Yolantha

If you would have told me that I was gonna one day be a missionary. I would have stood up to you, toe to toe--eye to eye and snarled, "YOU A LIE" and stormed out of the room. But oh my goodness, look at me now. Nine years a missionary to Haiti. One of the first American women and specifically African American women to some of the most remote mountain villages of Ranquitte, Haiti and the surrounding area. If God can use me...then God can certainly use you. And that's definitely "NOT A LIE" So welcome my dear yolanthaiti bloggistas and bloggistos. This blog will consist of the journey, challenges and victories of my life. A life dedicated to serving God. It ain't all purdy, but it ain't all oogly either. Hope to hear from yall. Ask me questions... I don't have all the answers but I'll definitely respond based on the world according to Yolantha. I'll also be sharing some of my award winning writings as one of America's Top 100 Literary Divas in addition to my new works for my up and coming book, KISS AMERICA KISS!!!