Four Letter Magic

by Hakim Bellamy

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

Purchasable with gift card

name your price

about

This poem "Four Letter Magic" was commissioned for the Healing Words 2016 fundraiser for New Day Youth & Family Services (an Immastar Production). The poem was originally written on the theme "healing words" for the youth who live at the New Day Youth Shelter. The poem was then written on a wooden canvas to be painted by a local visual artist. My poem was paired with my comrade Patrick "Cloudface" Burnham (FOF). The resultant work of art sold for $460.00, all the proceeds went to New Day.

lyrics

Four Letter Magic by hakim bellamy

His favorite four letter word
is love.

Perhaps, because
he only knows how to SPELL it
with three.

L - U - V or
I - o - U or

Y - O - U…

but never two.
Never M-E.

He knows hurt, but doesn’t know help,
unaware that the four finger width
of the word “fist”

fits his heart like a bloody glove.

Unaware that “life”
is as big or as small
as his hand.

But that is no help,
when fear is his second language,
and “body” is his first.

When L - O - V - E is one syllable too long,
I will ask him to stop talking.
I will teach him songs.

Teach him what to do with his hands.
How to hold them.
Press his palms together like maps.

Gently place them on shoulders
and lower backs, teach him how to dance
by the numbers
when any combination of eviction letters
never adds up to “Rent.”

When math is the language of the streets,
and violence is the only thing that makes “cents,”
I will explain that a kind word
has a guaranteed return, but hate spent
is impossible to divest.

There’s a no refund policy
on the things we wish we never said.

Instead, I will give him a hand.
In it, this wheel of fortune
with enough letters to build a wall
or a bridge.

Remind him,
that the right combination of words
could make him prosper.

Begin
with words like “heal” or “home.”

Teach him that words are magic,
and that a spell

is just that.

© Hakim Bellamy April 1st, 2016

credits

released April 16, 2016
Hakim Bellamy

license

about

Hakim Be Albuquerque, New Mexico

contact / help

Contact Hakim Be

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Four Letter Magic, you may also like:

Winter Of Discontent
by Knomad Spock

The British-Somali poet draws upon everything from leftfield folk to minimalist spoken-word, bound together by simple-yet-cutting wordplay. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 28, 2021
go to album
Body Of Work
by Tenesha The WordSmith

featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 7, 2018
go to album
Playing with Esu / Where will Ogun Live
by Neo Griot & The Afrocentric Prince

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jan 25, 2022
go to album
Fodder
by Douglas Kearney & Val Jeanty

Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021
go to album
The Japanese Rimbaud
by Mikado Koko * o g i v e

Mikado Koko blends glitchy ambient with excerpts of poems from the late Japanese experimental poet Chuya Nakahara. Bandcamp New & Notable May 27, 2020
go to album
We Must Be Sacred
by The Last Poets

featured on Bandcamp Radio Oct 23, 2018
go to album
Jujus/Alchemy of the Blues: Poems by Sarah Webster Fabio
by Sarah Webster Fabio

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jul 24, 2018
go to album