'Outsiders Came In' by Ana Hagins

We were once blind to all outsiders, strangers and foreigners

And their teachings.

It was just us.

We thought we possessed a dominating power

That couldn’t be conquered, but then they came,

the others.

They came with their books, different looks

and foreign languages and taught us about the forbidden and the unknown .

They assimilated as we conformed, and then we all transformed

into an intellectual empire. We adopted our neighbors

who we once saw as relatively close aliens, And showed them

a different nation behind these walls, and they immigrated.

We erased the word “unfamiliar”

from our vocabulary, and embraced it.

We identified them as one of us as

different shades began to disrupt the pattern,

checkering the pages of our year books.

We were once blind, in a sense,

to where we could only see ourselves,

but over the years we have only grown

blind to color as we finally let

the outsiders in.

'Rhythmatic Mobility' by Ana Hagins

The rhythmatic mobility

With the spitting of words

Was once an immaculate

Thought, but as the generations

Go by these treasures to society

Begin to lose their worth.

They no longer have meaning.

At a point in time flow was

A gift for the elected

But now in present times

Anything goes. They hardly

Use talent anymore,

But instead they synchronize a

Noise and call it music.

The simple bobbing has now become shaking,

Gyrating and all types of vibrating

As if they have no type of control over

Their body. There is no talent in that.

What happened to the time when

Music was made to help build humanity

But instead it fills the

Ears of the young

With all sorts of vanity

Like money, cars, and clothes.

Music is power.

So what will become of us

If we use it to devour

Those who take heed to

What is said? At a point in

Time people couldn’t live without

It but now it brings no benefit to man.

There have always been rebels to the

Way things use to be, but now they

Run the music community as the artists

From human history begin

To die out. Who will take their place?

For I have yet to see in

This day and age any one capable

Of reaching their standards. But they aren’t

Trying because we live in a time

When people settle for the worse

Even though it use to be better.

So what do we make of it?

What do we make of those few

Who have potential, but let it

sit in vain?

Music is power.

So what will become of us if

Musicians no longer shower our

Ears with words of healing?

Instead they use explicit lyrics

With reveling content,

A talent that’s so far bent

Out of shape that it’s no

Longer recognizable. Beats

Always had the strength

To create images, but now

Their beats are just pornography

Written in words.

Music is powerful

When there is something to sing

About. But cats these days

Are too content.

So they forgot how to use it.

'Imagine' by Ana Hagins

imagine...

imagine that knowledge is power

because it takes us to different heights,

levels of achievement that not even your

1960’s rocket scientist ever dreamed of.

imagine that we could be motivated to do better

because we understand that “good enough”

is never enough to satisfy the world’s hunger for change.

“Too often we underestimate the power...

the smallest acts of caring, all of which have the potential

to turn life around.” (Leo Bucaglia)

imagine that hard work pays off in the end,

that those who labor diligently need never despair.

Good things come to those who wait,

which means there’s nothing so hard that diligence can’t master it.

imagine that honesty, a by-product of integrity,

is telling people the truth without addition or subtraction.

Integrity, a way of life,

is telling yourself the truth

no matter how bad it hurts.

imagine that it’s possible to be more than men of success.

we can be men of value,

regardless of what others may say or think about us.

Sitting and thinking about such possibilities

only shortens the time for progression.

the sky is the limit, which means

we know no limits to what could be.

Anything’s possible, you just have to

make it happen.

'Maybe (Are You Ashamed?)' by Ana Hagins

You’ve condemned the idle minds

that choose to conform.

And you understand that there’s

an emptiness that comes with self denial,

or rather,

self sacrifice. Yet,

you allow others to adjust and readjust your standards.

Is it because you know that you are not like them?

Are you ashamed?

Are you ashamed that there

may only be one person in the world that knows the real you?

But no,

instead of embracing the realest love that’s out there,

let’s substitute your truth for theirs.

That way everybody wins.

Are you ashamed of the differences between you all?

If so, walk like them.

Conform, and be the true leech that you are.

Suck out all the blood that you can from them

so that you can maintain your social life.

Talk like them.

Look me in the eyes and lie.

Speak words that tickle my fancy

and entertain my heart.

Preach a doctrine that you know you won’t follow

since they aren’t really looking for a leader anyways.

Be them,

since being you isn’t good enough.

See them.

Breathe them.

Live them.

But the more like them you become

the more foreign you become to me.

Or maybe that’s just it.

Maybe you aren’t ashamed of the differences.

Maybe there are none.

Maybe you’re just ashamed of me.

'Truth' by Ana Hagins

If actions speak louder than words,

then its not enough to just WANT to be different.

Aligning one’s cognizance to the paradigms

of society only abates the realization of

the contemporary social anarchy.

It’s like accommodating in order to revolutionize.

TRUTH: you’ll stand as a contradiction

amongst others and yourself

if you claim to live above banal standards,

and continue to walk in the ways of the pedestrian.

'What Will Be' by Ana Hagins

Finally the day has come when we have to make a change.

We stand at the door that leads to

alien principals such as autonomy and self-reliance,

slowly stepping out of the realm of dependency

into the world where self-sufficiency is required in order to maintain.

But do we look back to what is familiar because we are scared of what is unknown?

No. For living in the past only pauses the present and stops the future.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make in life

is looking to the past as a source of comfort

for the hardships that lie ahead.

Don’t rest on old things

even though that’s all we know.

We are merely human, and subject to imperfection,

but errors lead to discoveries,

and mistakes make experiences.

So stumbling isn’t the sin,

it’s refusing to get back up after you’ve fallen,

and justifying your faults,

that makes you a failure.

It has been said that

“we are scribes of our own stories,”

so let’s not dwell on what was,

but rather, what will be.

'Adam Lives In Theory' by Ana Hagins

Adam lives in theory

Taking his man made doctrine

and using it to help

uplift his pride to a distant

hierarchy,

creating his own wisdom

and implanting it into the

minds of the eager.

He’s so far gone in a daze

that he begins to

rely only in his self-proclamations

and turns a deaf ear to understanding.

Ranking high in his own social status,

he takes independence to a

whole new dimension

because he’s self-portrayed

and self-proclaimed,

saying to himself, “I AM.”

Since errors are a sinners daily duty

Adam takes his gospel,

a doctrine of dark illusion,

and baptizes with past confusions.

Because he has more degrees than

a thermometer it shows he is

the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.

No one comes unto knowledge except through him.

Adam lives in theory

trying to turn stone into bread,

feeding the hearts of the curious

with his unleavened loaves.

Yet they still hunger.

So he shares his knowledge

and they adhere and believe

that because knowledge is infinite,

it has infinitely fell on him.

But Adam no longer is the only one

to plant deceptive seeds.

For indeed, Eve too

ate the fruit of the tree.

Inspired by Lauryn Hill, Unplugged album