Bleeding heart

Her heart bleeds

What my lips shot

March turned June

She still bleeds

Thought long healed

Her scars gone faint.

Unwashed, still remain

Slowly to suffocate 

LET IT BE WELL WITH US

We knew our lot

We had no choice

Many the waters that perforated through our hands

When we went to the water side with a cracked pot

Many the effort of men

Many the spoils of the enemy

When we lost after our fight

We ran to fight again someday
Like today 

… let it be well with us

Through the torrents

Through the remains of the torrents

She went,

Long before I found her

A baby’s eyes shining bright

Covered by a single cloth

That held it across her loins

Full of understanding at its age

Towards the legs

whose feet have been painted in golden mud

18/9/2014

I laugh it away

Even in what I am going through

I laugh hahaha

Even in my predicament

I laugh

Even in this pain

I hahaha

17/9/2014

Blow me a whistle

A strong blow of a whistle

Fell into the mouth of the calm air

And I turned and gazed

To know from whence it came

A woman’s whistle like a man

Cutting deep like a knife

Through the abyss of a tuber of cassava

15/9/2014

Little Fingers

Little fingers break no bone

Little fingers break only shell of snails

How your touch lighted up

A dead nerve brighten up

You throw a wave across the sky

To meet up sometime

How time says it all

How beautiful it renders them

How did you come this way?

All again? 

I never thought.

Onward On

Their feet march on

         their bodies remain not

                         their soul will live on.

Oh Terrible Thou Art

Oh terrible thou art

To pass me by

Thou calabash of old age.

I fear thy terrible waters

Sour on the tongue

And gripping my teeth.

I fear thee terribly

Twisted bones at the hips

Growth of contours at the neck.

Descendants of men will pass by thy feet

To lie on them as thou will.

Thy anger is terrible when they provoke thee at their youth

Unbreakable hard as steel

Cooled from the molten furnace when invoked by thee.

11/9/2014

Sons and daughters of the sun

We are sons and daughters of the sun

Are you the sand on which it falls?

Hot and heavy to make you.

This place is our home

You call it Africa, Ghana.

We dance in the music of the rain

In tenderness our souls are nourished.

On the elephants we ride in glory

With the lions and tigers.

We call it beauty

When they grow green

Adorned by their flowers.

We call it peace

When they fall from their heights

And our mother shines through them.

O Africa, Africa, where art thou?

Virgins and wild of the undying mother

Your sons will flourish like the stars in the dark night

And your daughters like the sands at the beach at day.

Forever bowing to your glorious call, o mother.

Forever proud to be from you.

I guess they call it love

Is it the look on the face

And the smile that receives it

Is it that tap on the shoulders

That warms up the fingers.

I guess they call it love

But is it like a soothing through the whole being

A presence that is longed

That satisfies an unknown thirst

An inexplicable hunger.

Oh she is here…,

He is there…          

Can I tell her?

Should I tell him? 

13/2/2014

Pity be the prey...

On the green hill

Hanged lose their dropping wings

Not for a sip but a pick.

Could it not be a worm like a twig

Whose cover was not so swift

Just after its loose: a sudden fall in flight?

Pity be that prey

When the sky and its host

Moisten up their path to trap

In a sticky juicy gel.

 13/6/13

A search for rescue

A search for rescue   

Sharp was her cry

That passed into the dim distance

Above the red earth, the dry thatch

Back and forth, side to side

As if being tossed by the wind

… disappeared from sight

Came again two voices

Two bodies in definite direction

Passed me by in flight together

14/6/13

Bulls at the water banks

Will I use my strength again?

The bulls must go to the water banks.

Should one watch them

If they decide their feet alone

The cool calm waters to stir.

Well, at sunset, surely

One will drag them home.

Should I mind if they still thirst?

9/1/2014

SHOT WITHOUT A GUN

Bathed with the gel of beauty

Smiling like a sister to the clear sky

When suddenly a burst out from the bloom

The unexpected early morning rays

Oh how she jerks her head in the arena

Only an audience I am

I feel I should do same

The only way to get a clear shot without a gun

Dedicated to Naa Atswei after a view of her photo shot

on the 21st of August, 2014

DOES IT END HERE?

Does it end there?

With falling leaves

And drying greens

And farming soil

Does it end there?

With falling rain

And scorching sun

And dry windy air

Does it end there?

Strong tide lifting

And anchor drifting

And cables straying

When tears get dry

And clouds roll by

With its darkness

Will it end there?

2014 UNESCO POEM OF THE DAY

Tomorrow will hurt me

It hunts me

Like a warrior’s arrow to his enemies

Dipped in fire towards the thatch.

I am the elephant grass consumed by drought

The hope of the famished mind

Who ceased not to graze on my scattered hay.

Oh yesterday the hand that tilled my land

Failed to nourish and nurture me.

 That hand is frail and feeble

Once fierce and bold.

Yesterday is gone

Its fruits still stay on my land

Ever staring, still glaring

What will tomorrow be?

Oh tomorrow that hunts me

I fear you will hurt me

Oh help me today

While you live.

This was the main poem of the day to commemorate the 

UNESCO World Poetry day celebrations organized by the 

Walk The Talk Group at the Maison Francaise, Legon in 

University of Ghana. It was written by Leander David and 

read by the UNESCO Ghana director, Tirso Dos Santos 

on the 21st of March, 2014. 

None like you

Tonight will also by pass

as i walk on that lonely path

without you at my side 

without your quarrel or smile

oh who takes care of me like you?

In the stable the hay goes stale

while grasses green bloom under the open blue

and none still came with a sickle.

I no longer wish for another you

because there will be none like you.

where do we go from here?

The rains fall

And crawl

From its belly

Into the gutters, rivers, lakes or seas

Who said it knows not where to tie its knot

It will enter with all the dirt on its feet

The raging white foamy waves

Against, it will roll again

From side to side till all absorbed by the blue deep.

Where is your home?

Where do we go from here?

Brooms in the fathers room

Oh brooms in the fathers room

Sweep clean your legs on the ground

Sweep clean those tinny legs fall

Tireless wrist breathe in deep

Breathe not their hate to clean

Incense green smoke

As wax light glow

Smiling away

smiling away
a wave from afar
smiling away all to part
not in a haste
so short a wave
for a pain so long
into the dawn
soon to be gone