2016 UNESCO POEM OF THE DAY

Away from pride and strife

Take respite

For in war no peace abound.

Little provocations ruin the vine

Brewing in its vault this sour wine

Like a deluge, its ruins

Oh war not their peace.

Their loss of peace

Is a threat to your peace

There is no victor but victim

And a win of his ruin

Of his peace

And your peace.

Oh take respite

And pride not in strife

Embrace peace

Seek peace

And pursue it.

NB.
The poem of the day read by Mr. Carl Ampah on behalf of Tirso Dos Santos.

on the commemoration of UNESCO World Poetry Day, 21/3/2016.

I am disturbed not when you don't understand me but when you fail to ask me why

2015 UNESCO Poem of the day

What have I to say

Thou hope of the rising sun

What have I to show

As I stand before thy boisterous sea.

The sun still covers thy waves

With a peaceful  sleep within its noisy rage;

Oh deserted places of habitation

Enough of the tears trickling down from thy mournful  drums.

I weep for thee because thy hands are tied at thy back;

Indeed by thine very same are they tied

To suffocate at the watch of thy own:

Thy own rude work.

I see thee show thy waist beads to the sky

Men in their youth I see

Without cutlasses in the planting season.

I watched and behold  like an orphan thou arth

When thy parents still liveth.

As the bare earth blows freely thy heirloom´s dust

And suck out thy bequitted nectar,

Thy gathering shall be like clouds without rain

And oh wobbling  feet, into shame

Thy gray hair´s crown will be brought down;

But when thou leapeth  thy best foot forward to embrace  

May it not reap the whirlwind.

shameful it is to let go of her gaze in her presence than her presence in her gaze

HBD FINA

I see day when I see you

Thy light shining on the meadow

In vast expanse thy glory beneath the heavens

Butterfly kisses the petals and carries away all

But peace and joy abundant I leave from my heart all

To you my most cherished love…

HBD

NB.

Dedicated to Fina on her 20^th birthday, 3/2/2016

  

Lost And Shaken

Shaken lost

But in thought

I struggle to keep

Yes it’s me

Yes it happened

Alive am I

Human like I

Sometimes lost

Suffered on top

Shook to bear

What they heard

The New Song

They brought them

into the home to protect us

they passed away

for the home to consume us

Hold my hands

all ye in flight

and will be liberated

from their trap

You will only spend a while

in confusion

you will settle

and be the monarch of all

From an intonation

which breeds the curse

of bad behaviour and happenings

would be buried behind

You will enter the new world

with a new look

in a new clothing

singing a new song

23*6*2010

When I awake

When my eyes open each morning

To realize am still with the living

My thanks to the one who has raised me up again

In strength to have another chance to worship him in gay

To see you 
If not to be near or possess you.

Worms under my skin

Oh worm my skin finds

Irresistible its penetration

Like the awakening sun

On a glacier surface

My icy waters outpour

At your presence the more

From nowhere you appeared

Why this feeling

This feeling to possess you

Ideas and ideals are in the hands of a dreamer.

The Stars and Moon

Where have all the stars gone

I asked the fading moon

Alone he lay on a bed of silent expanse

And a sleeping glowing pillow

Alone he shined for all

And none showed him even a smile

Of gratitude nor belonging

Alone the scary nights

The catcalls of the bats

Filled his memory all night

And raging waves his ears

Breathe thou continuously this freshness

While the hands stayed at my side

With this gaze into perpetual endlessness

Legon, The Pride Of The Stars

Here we are

the pride of the stars

here we are

the black star hanging in the gold

between the flora and the blood

            we call thee to arise

            arise oh Legon arise!

Thou tongue that spits in the heart

thou hand that holds high the sceptre

thou who blazes the trail

thou on whose shoulders we stand

thou who has reached the highest

            to thee we say ayekoo

            to thee our remembrance even from the grave

The old mother of the feeding hills

the hope of the coast of gold

the cloth that covers our nakedness

the silence is deafening

the shining light we await

            we’ve called thee to arise

            fill us full thy enlightened breadth!

When we see the dew fall on our lawn

from thy bountiful sky in the morn

when the tower light at the great hall

has shown the only way through the dawn

surely we shall see thee

            arisen oh Legon arisen

            shining brightest above, among the stars

After I bubble 'I do'

She wore her cowries

I wore my colours

Shooting star? Changing clouds?

Before I bubble I do

Promise fulfilled held up

Divinely designed dots

Ready to swear into time

On tip-toe not from thick lips

But on her lipstick

After I bubble I do

I will wear her cowries

She will wear my colours 

Throw me no corn

You throw me corn

My feathers to tie

So that in your time

You pass me water

My throat to slash

With subtleness you sing my praise

How glorious my feathers are

You chant my admiration

Only for my beak to open

Its booty at thy feet to fall

Middle Of Nowhere

In the middle of no where

I am

Not knowing if I should go on

I wonder

In the middle of nowhere

I find nothing

Nothing I am searching

But hay and dry grass

One laughing at the other

One crying after laughing

Terrible things I cannot say

Horrible, better than all I have seen

I don’t know.

Who am I?

Of course I am not a beast

I know

I chew grass

Unlike the ground underneath my feet

I throw away the water that seeps not through my pores

Dullness Like Darkness

I watched the sky all night

And not a single star fell off

On my eye’s radar

I watched the day stay

Full of brightness

I, full of dullness like darkness

Oh,

Voices ordered me to stop

Infront , 

A deep gully

Big, 

A story building to hide

And will yet go on

Not minding the thoughts

Piercing sparks on the mind

Oh going on is going back

A loss of your life may be

A loss from your life can be

I will not count the numbers

Down and down deep I breathe

Breath bringing death I see

I struggle to hold on even to straw

Then the calm and no more I saw

But fire,

Fire burning

Burning running

Running coming

It’s gone I saw it

It’s gone I saw them

Hard, motionless, dark ash,

Metal standing frame

Of a car

Of a petrol filling station

It’s gone I heard it

It’s gone I heard them

Passing through

Descending down the bridge

The heavens heavy grew

Hard wholly on us had emptied

Their cries call in the echo

Trace our bleeding broken hearts

I will not count the numbers

What the gutters have gathered

Thunder bolts raged, rains opened wide to swallow

When for hours we received and wished they seized

I will not count the numbers

At Avenor, Alajo, Adabraka, Caprice, Odornaa, Faanofaa, Kaneshie

How have your homes turn rivers

Fathers cry, sons lay dead in arms

Mothers refuse to be comforted

The cock crowed at noon

And none did hear

The night sky revealed

And our minds noisy to keep

Call me the rain maker

The clouds have gathered

He passed on into time

And left us with none

We boil in silence

We struggle in this dumbness

The rivers danced this double tune

They played a tune so strange

The rivers danced the dance of drunkards

That they drank and got drunk

They danced and danced

They lost their courses into rooms

Away from home they are

Now who will carry them home?

Oh their distant voices carried away

Their bodies desecrated by strange hands

While behind the veil

At their love ones they wave

Ye who live in Alajo I call thee

But will not count the numbers

I call thee who lie in front of shops

In kiosks on pavements

In and in front of shops

In caprice and Avenor who stood on beds

And left love ones up

On high places in rooms

I call thee who had sleepless nights

On the eve of June 4, 2015

Standing till day break at Faanofaa

While lorry stations turned lakes

And streams over night

I call thee whose merchandize obeyed the flood water’s charm 

I call thee to stop the blames and relieve the pain

To form pacts and swiftly act

Ghanaians, strangers, neighbours and friends

From afar and beyond I call thee

To join and share resources

To save our sinking ship

Have the peace that surpasses understanding

Hold on while day break is nigh

The sun sleeps not forever

With dryness in its wings

It will wipe our tears

It will carry away our fears

Support the weak and help the afflicted

Demrifa due, Kpo afee nook

Their numbers blowing in the wind

But will never count them

All what the flood water has stollen

Indecision

A lovely girl on a lonely highway

A broken heart mended more than twice

A gaze of two unknown waters

Splashing out not a tear 

But Indecision, all
If I may call

Will dark clouds roll again?

I met you after a downpour

held up at the lids of my eyes

and caused the contours of my face

not only to appear but deepen

the sun-rays pierce through the darkness

soon the sky its shadows lose

and the sun at its peak be

someday when away
in my thatch hut when in gay 

will these dark clouds roll again?