Sitting near a stage as Obama calls out my name
When The Morning Comes
My momma went to heaven when I was seven
My daddy followed her dutifully when I was thirteen
When those mornings came,
I scarcely understood their meaning
Aunts and cousins stepped in to raise me
And needless to say, I was a turbulent teen
Still, I made it through with a BA and Master’s degree
Then traveled and worked and earned me some change
Sitting near a stage as Obama calls out my name
“Joshua’s story is a story of going through hard times, but overcoming,” he said
Those mornings seemed pleasantly strange
Before the drugs I experimented with
Began to rewire my brain
I came west from the East to purge my ways
To make a change
To redeem the days
And to change the world, if you may
But my ways sadly did not change
And one fateful night I laid my
Burdens down on a man’s frame
’Cause see, touching me without loving me
Would surely cause you some pain
How do we regret the mistakes we’ve made
25 to life I faced and no two mornings
Were the same
By God’s grace, 25 went to 11 and 11 to 9
9 to 4 and then 4 to 2 and I knew then too
The mystery brew of which miracles are made
So when morning comes
When morning comes
I’m battling and overcoming those dread thoughts
Blessed over and under in battles fought
Now I don’t wanna get ahead of myself
Cause this is prison
Prison
Also though, a rehabilitation center
Rehabilitation
Rolling through fears with no expectations
Relying on resuscitations and memories of
The amazing grave that always greets me
When morning comes
When courage rises up and out of blood
Which flows from solid roots of a history
That’s bending and under assault in this
Nation, this nation, where it’s all on
The line, all the time, hearing the
People rising
When the morning comes
We’ve seen this so many times before
In the morning
Hell, to see it I’m good, blessed in it
A holy mystery
Scribbling my plans and hopes and dreams
But always and apparently the morning’s
Got bigger plans for me
Like love your enemy
Stay faithful to your dream
Believe in yourself
Even when and if nobody else believes
From sunset to sunrise, a majestic majesty
In front of me
Is that a mountain I see
Mt. Tamalpais, indeed
When the morning comes
When the morning comes
When the morning comes
Back on my training
Character and consistency
Integrity, truth, patience and positivity
Yet the greatest of these reaching out to
Me here in this place is L O V E
So
Love greets me when the morning comes
So does passion and pain
Hope and gain
And the urge to give, give, give at least some
Some of it away
Even though my cup runneth over in the morning
And I have not room enough to receive
Still all the grace and love that surrounds
Me in this place
In the face of hate
Twisted to be justified to compensate for
Social ways
Making mockery of my social grace
But I’m not going to retreat from remaining
Graciously the same
Greet me, see
Cause when the morning comes
I thank God for sparing me and for eyes
To see the incompleteness he is determined
To complete
Yes, He is He who has begun a good work in me
Is determined to bless this tainted masterpiece
When the morning comes
When the morning comes
When the morning comes
When the morning comes
Yet another chance to yield to the command
To walk in peace
Loving fiercely, through the difficulty
When the morning comes
