John Trudell
I think it's the responsibility of every human being, not just those who wear the identity of poet, activist, voter, religious person... it's the responsibility of every person. Our responsibility is to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can.Collection: Religious
Everything that has ever happened to us is there to make us stronger.Collection: Stronger
Our bones, flesh and blood are made up of the metals, liquids and minerals of the earth and everything on this planet is made up of the same things. As humans we have being, so everything on the earth does too in our culture, because we are made of the same thing.Collection: Blood
I think we live in an industrial dimensional reality where we're programmed to believe what we're told. We're programmed to believe them. We're programmed to believe what that ruling class wants us to believe.Collection: Believe
Believing isn't thinking, but we've been programmed to believe that believing is thinking. To use our intelligence to think means we're keeping the energy active, we're thinking, we're really using the power of our intelligence in a thinking way. But when we've been programmed to believe, we're no longer thinking, because energy flows.Collection: Believe
We're all human beings and we all have feelings. And we all live in this industrial meat grinder where we don't really understand love anymore.Collection: Feelings
It’s like there is this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds on the essence of the spirit.Collection: Essence
The thing is, it has to do with heart - we have to understand what hearts are for before we can get back to heaven or paradise or the power in our minds.Collection: Heart
I've gone through most of my life not believing anything. Either I know or I don't know, or I think.Collection: Believe
Sometimes when it rains, it's not that simple, when the sky has reasons to cry.Collection: Rain
The past is more than a memory.Collection: Memories
Because you look at it, you know, and there's basically one set of rules that protect that industrial ruling class. That's what the governments do, that's what the religions do. They protect the interests of that industrial ruling class.Collection: Government
I think that if the political and social movement groups and organizations that operate in this country today had the same kind of energetic commitment that the medical marijuana people have, many things could change in this country.Collection: Country
As human beings we're living in a reality of industrial madness.Collection: Reality
The strength of the poetry as we enter into whatever it is we are entering into, will be determined by the clarity of the thinking we put into it.Collection: Thinking
There are always very angry or very cruel people that attach to movements.Collection: People
There are a lot of people who want to give orders and be bossy that don't deserve respect.Collection: Order
As human beings, we're given intelligence. This is how we make our way through this reality, how we manifest our reality clearly and coherently.Collection: Reality
They’re called poems but in reality they’re lines given to me to hang on toCollection: Reality
We use our intelligence, our creative intelligence, because we create with intelligence.Collection: Creative
I've never not been pleased with one of my albums. I figure because it's spoken word, there will be people who relate to it, and people who don't, so I don't worry about any of that. I've been doing it for over twenty years. I've always written because it was something I had to do, never for the glory.Collection: Years
A lot of my writing is basically about observation, and things that I've seen, either through personal experiences or the experiences of people around me, or society at large.Collection: Writing
In the society of illusion, reality must manifest itself. The story songs of Joel Rafael are that manifestation... the essence of minstrel.Collection: Song
Class is material consumed.Collection: Class
I don't write as much now as I used to, but I write. The lines still come, maybe periodically, and I'll go through these little bursts of time where I write a lot of things then a long period of time where maybe I don't write anything. Or these lines will come into my head and I'll write 'em down in a little book, just little sets of lines, but I won't try to make stories or poems out of them. I'm doing a lot of that now, just the lines.Collection: Book