For Harry Belafonte (RIP: 3/1/27 - 4/25/23)
by Michael Doyle

Using song as a tool for transformation
His soundtrack helped to change the nation
Now Belafonte has died at the age of ninety-six
His life having affirmed the need of too much to fix

So many, too many, wrongs to truly set a price
For the songs birthed from a Caribbean island paradise
Swirled in with the colors of just affirmation
The calypso beat provided its own sense of confirmation

The tangle of the banana boats provided the joyful ride
Of a Mississippi Goddamn that was taken in its stride
Inclusive in bringing us through injustice and brutality
Ballads and work songs breathed revolutionary banality

Offering the world a twist lost, taken low in limbo
Wondering how low life can go when seen through a window
A musical life lived within its own senseless ransom
A song sung rings the liberty bell that compels freedom

Jumped in the line, it was a joyful mix from another time
That brought the struggles out between a popstar's rhymes
Filling the whole of the bucket in a black man's representation
Belafonte stayed the course from the front of this nation

There was never a hint of any sense of hesitation 
That he would risk it all for a vision without question
To bring about a better world, representative of us all
And a melody's lingering in the winds of a life recalled

(c) April 28, 2023  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved