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viee (f)
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ya, beautiful poem by all standard! heard the idea was conceived when Clark had problem with another notable person during the war i think he left the person behind or something like that but he was just telling the person that we are all victims of war. there is this other poem we also read but it is a foreign one talking about a pilot , i think  he was saying that ' the ones i kill i do not hate, the ones i kill for i do not love etc another great poem! |
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Nwoke
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Casualties by J P Clark.
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laudate
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AFRICA MY AFRICA
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river.
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins,
Your beautiful black blood that
irrigates the fields,
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
The slavery of your children
Africa tell me Africa
Is this your back that is bent?
This back that breaks under the
weight of humilation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to whip under the midday sun,
But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree young and strong
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers,
That is your Africa springing up anew
Springing up patiently obstinately
Whose fruits bit by bit acquire
The bitter taste of liberty Learnt this poem in high school. And it is still one of my favourites.  It was written by David Diop. Labyrinths by Chris Okigbo is another favourite. |
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knotty (m)
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laudate
Labyrinths by Chris Okigbo is another favourite.
please, car you jar our memory by reproducing this poem? PLEASE.
i love Africa very much too.
did you know that David Diop, the Senegalese Poet died in 1960, by a plane crash?
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creatorjc (m)
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well,to me,ABIKU by soyinka is nice but something close to incantation in yoruba mythology.have u read HEAVENSGATE by chris okigbo ?the poem is tight,very tight.about nigerian poets,i love clark,okigbo,soyinka and okara in that order.chao
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knotty (m)
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Abiku
In vain your bangles cast
Charmed circles at my feet;
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And the repeated time.
Must I weep for goats and cowries
For palm oil and the sprinkled ash?
Yams do not sprout in amulets
To earth Abiku's limbs.
So when the snail is burnt in his shell
Whet the heated fragments, brand me
Deeply on the breast. You must know him
When Abiku calls again.
I am the squirrel teeth, cracked
The riddle of the palm. Remember
This, and dig me deeper still into
The god's swollen foot.
Once and the repeated time, ageless
Though I puke. And when you pour
Libations, each finger points me near
The way I came, where
The ground is wet with mourning
White dew suckles flesh-birds
Evening befriends the spider, trapping
Flies in wind-froth;
Night, and Abiku sucks the oil
From lamps. Mother! I'll be the
Supplicant snake coiled on the doorstep
Yours the killing cry.
The ripes fruit was saddest;
Where I crept, the warmth was cloying.
In the silence of webs, Abiku moans, shaping
Mounds from the yolk.
By: Wole Soyinka
boastful, mystical, mysterious, diabolical, awe inspiring, this poem is hardly an incantation.
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knotty (m)
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i just stumbled on a couple of poems that were really delighful in those days.
WE HAVE COME HOME by Lenri Peters
SEASONS By Wole Soyinka
THE CALL OF THE RIVER NUN Gabriel Opkara
IBADAN by J P Clark
OLOKUN
STREAMSIDE EXCHANGE all by Prof J.P Clark
Streamside Exchange
Child: River bird, river bird,
Sitting all day long
On hook over grass,
River bird, river bird,
Sing to me a song
Of all that pass
And say,
will mother come back today?
Bird: You cannot know
And should not bother;
Tide and market come and go
And so shall your mother,
By: J.P. Clark
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knotty (m)
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Where is my generation of poets? what is happening? wasted generation are we? i hope not, i believe we are not.
Niyi Oshundare and co., w`sup?
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laudate
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Knotty,
Labyrinths is a collection of Chris okigbo's poems. Which one of those poems would you like me to paste up here?
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