Category: From the Soul

by Ernie McCray

Oh, I’m practically overflowing
with joy
having my name
living on in perpetuity
as a
University of Arizona
Basketball Ring of Honor honoree,
mostly for the reason that it highlights
just how far Tucson, my hometown,
has come
since my growing up days,
as I was the second Black basketball player
to perform at the U of A
and now there are

By Ernie McCray

Back when I was playing
in the old Bear Down Gym
doing my “Easy Ernie” thing,
draining 2’s
and what today|
would be 3’s
and snatching rebounds
like I was taking back
something that had been stolen from me,
I couldn’t have dreamed
that all that balling
would someday
result in my name hanging from a rafter
in the University of Arizona’s
Basketball Ring of Honor,

by Ernie McCray

Two people kept Martin Luther King’s
spirit of love
breathing
for me
on MLK Day,
Steve Phillips,”
writer and founder of Democracy in Color,
and Grammy Award winning jazz trumpeter
and film score composer,
Terence Blanchard.

by Ernie McCray

You live long enough
you see a lot of things,
both good and bad
and in-between
in a lifetime
and I find myself
from time to time
remembering things I’ve seen
over my more than
three-quarters of a century
of being alive and breathing,

by Ernie McCray

America today is a bit
whacky
and almost
out of control,
when we should be reaching
down deep in our souls
to make our nation
at least not a country
where one turns on his TV
to CNN or MSBNC
to a scene
where one US Congressman
is being restrained by a fellow Congressman
to prevent him
from going upside the head
of another Congressman

by Ernie McCray

I just put down
a wonderful read
titled
“How We Can Live”
which was written to give
young people,|
our children,
a few loving
principles to abide by
during these times.

The book’s ideas
come from
“Black Lives Matter’s”
efforts to encourage society
to change its ways,

by Ernie McCray

So much is said of Peace and Good-Will
during this time of year
and wouldn’t it be wonderful
if we adhered
to such
in our
everyday lives?

by Ernie McCray

Had so much fun
the other day
with my offspring
at a nice café,
with one brief
moment
when I had to
wipe a couple
of tears away,
as I shared a story
about one of my two
children who passed away

by Ernie McCray

A silly
lie spewing Black man who
would rather be
a werewolf
than a vampire
lost a
|frighteningly and ridiculously
close Senate race
to a dignified Black man
who was born to inspire,

by Ernie McCray

Woke up this morning
after a nice sleep
last night
and turned on the news
to a scene
that had me
brimming with delight,
the incredibly beautiful sight
of Brittney Griner
boarding a flight,

By Ernie McCray

I’ve always taken
Thanksgiving Day
literally
as a time to be thankful,
to be grateful
for just being,
having nothing to do
with colonizing Pilgrims
breaking bread with Indians
or any such thing
and as I look back at my memories
of Thanksgiving
with my family

by Ernie McCray

I was just thinking
about Blair and Kimberly,
two people very dear to me,
thinking how
unbelievable it is
that it’s been
some 50 years
since we met
when I was the principal
at John Muir Alternative School
and they were among a population
of students