Survival in life

Your survival in life

is never in looking out for yourself

but in the many lives 

you help to preserve

Painful Ordeal

The wait was forever

in the resistance endless

of that ordeal painful  

Waiting for a come back

The parting was unbearable:
they looked on and watched each other
You lost your smile
I lost my speech
Although our eyes met 
it signified nothing:
it didn't stop you from driving into the endless thick darkness of the night
I am at the same place where you left me that night
with your faintest memory
I can't bear losing all of you
come back quickly!

Who will believe my story

Who will believe my story?
Just as some are born great
some have greatness bestowed on them
and some work to attain it,
there are others born to meet others
to prepare the way of others
and to join others for a worthy cause.
Oh roses among your daddy's daughters
tell him who quickly wants you in holy matrimony
that the prince is born
and he is ready to comb your yellow hair

Our Gallant Soldiers

sons of the golden soil

sons of the men

sons with our name

we sing your praise

on our shoulders we lay

your solemn remains 

broad chested men

whose guns still sound

on the way beyond

you we mourn

our dear loss:

you are gone

we share 

and 

we bear 

what we split: 

your grief

not alone to lift

to share 

is to care

to care 

is to be there

to be there 

 

in person 

in thoughts

in deeds

in words

in prayer

best at rest

beyond the worst

be at rest

 

* In honour of the 5 Ghanaian soldiers 

who lost their lives last year in peacekeeping

and the many others all over the world.

He bids you come

Tell them  

there is no hiding under my sun  

there is no need coming if it is only a favour  

if you cannot bear my shame and reproach  

that mark that I now bear.  

 

Come now if you want me too  

the night is young before sunrise  

When you come it's forever  

Because you are worth more than what you have   

When you come we'll be together  

never again to leave my sight 

 

He bids you come  

He bids you light   

He bids you fair speed  

 

Do not tarry 

 

 

Words can't say it all

 
I said it all to you, oh wind
“That this is not the place”
And left a part concealed
But I will say these few words

Going is like broken mirrors patched with glue when told
Like white linen soiled with palm oil
Going is like the lonely silence
The hands which yearn a touch
The cries which pour out on hearing a loss

Gone with the truth
Firmness, politeness, fairness
With her smile, patience
Her repetition and understanding
When will there be another like you
I can’t stop asking even when I know there is no answer
I am glad I was in your final class

Those who enjoyed your best the last 

Indeed
some things are best not said
Some things
words cannot say them all

Like today, 

like yesterday
Like the last day of class
 
What I will say
It might be long
Don’t be gone for long
Let the contact be long

Prof. Garabano

At her last class meeting

You are the one

 

Out of the dark corner that hides me
The shame that shadows my crown
I stand in the middle of the journey
Waiting to continue with you
We spoke of my crown and my search
It was that night we first exchanged words
That night you saw me take my bow before the crowd
That die is already cast
I have found her at last
And you are the one

THEIR HOME

Crowded for food in lost hope
in a hunt the axe destroyed their own.

Leaf picking with beaks alone
in feeding and building their home.

Where the roaring winds blow
close to a hanging nest on a pole.




Officially published by Rio Grande Review, 2024. SCI-FI ISSUE. SOLASTALGIA.
Click url below for audio of the poem 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LnwU25OwEnpZDpiQzmYJl6D2ES9W5zjI/view?usp=drivesdk

Look beautiful

 

Look beautiful!
You are old!
I am young!
This is age, it is a number
which counts only upwards
and means nothing if you don’t count at all
 
A veces sale el sol
con su brillo brillante
A veces sale el sol
sin su brillo, claro solo.
Ayer miré tu cara
y ella era bonita
Hoy me encanta tu cara
La bonitísima de los rostros.
Y eso es lo que es
para crecer en belleza
lo importante en lo que pensar
Solo un número es la edad
Nunca lo cuentes
Look beautiful!

Wishing You Well

Like the desert accompanying a hearty meal

I came late but to linger on
little but sweetest
To wish you well
Not like the others...
Not to say farewell
 
Moments well spent
are purposes well served
Forever in bold memories
I shall them carry on
Though short the moments
Still best the effect
 
You’ll miss and will be missed
Your place they will take
but never you replace
If not in this exiting space
 
Ahead lies many more
Only the legs that fit into the shoes
Can say it well how it has been
How dark how hot how soft
 
Like a fragrance tossed in the open air
Many felt your sweetest savour
And in the heart of the silent many
Your flowers bloom even on desert dunes
 
I shall not say farewell
but wish you well
today if it is you
tomorrow will be who? 

I shall never say farewell

but always wish you well

Specially for Ms. Davis

Read on her last day at work:

1/25/2024

Death is Life

We live in spaces

We leave one space into another

When it ends in one space

It begins in another space

Life never ends, always in motion

And there is no death, but life

Life in another form, in another space

Life is coming

Life is going

Life is meeting

Just as we met them when we came

Others will meet us when they come

And so shall it be when we go

 

Smile Of Hope

Smiles like whispers thin

beam on a radiant face

Clouds like mountains 

slowly they penetrate

Words like fertile tiny seeds 

sprout out great oaks of hope

Assurance like indelible signs

the dark clouds soon to roll 

kokrokoo kokrokoo

Kokrokoo Kokrokoo

Waring men in a chase fright 

Poor cockrel in a hasty flight

Sacred abode of the visible noon 

Desecrated below the unseen moon 

Short the sleep of the elders lived

Gone the peace of the green land out

The feathery throat when slashed cried out loud 

A wholesome meal prepared to appease

The raging elders provoked to awake

A restoration of exceeding peace

Kokrokoo Kokrokoo

Three parts the virgin night is divided

The fragile silence soon to be broken

The tired ancient ones to begin

The steps towards their home way

The strong bones of the happy tribe arrayed

Their huts and shelters awake

Three times their unblemished praise

Three times ascend to their mighty maker

Giving way for his sun's rays

Driving away the feared dark

Home is where Mama lives!

 
Away from home
With thoughts at home

Away from home
With this yearn for home
Come home she said, come home!
Home is where mama lives
 
She lives there who greets with a smile
Old she is who needs my stronger hold
Gave for nothing in return
Her need for your want
There she looked at you 

Like one from a faraway journey
And lips blessed deeds
Come home she said, Come home!
 
It was heard through the window 

Her voice from another continent
In winter night an angry wind 

Pierces through an icy hand
Unheard cries, borrowed friends, 

On your own and far away from home.
Come home she said, come home!
She never knew he came 

The moment she bid him come
 
Yesterday he was at home
Because he met her first hug
She is calling him home, calling him
But she doesn’t know he is not home
She is calling me home, calling me
Louder than before the cry that was heard 

In the mind in an enclosed door  
Where letters and calls him carried 

But not to lie at her side
 
Yesterday he was at home
You treated him like one of your own
He longed for home away from home
Come home she said, come home
Home is where mama lives…

She is at home: you are home.

The Ground Will Rejoice In Our Sorrow

 

So feared, awesome and mighty

You keep coming and coming

And never tired

Never to spare any for a penny

 

Death, yes it was you

You took away the dear loss

Not that accident or that illness

 

You come to take that tired part of us

From where it was placed

Because earth, its owner still cried for it

Earth will rejoice in our sorrow

When eyes wet with cries

 

The smell of flesh

Fresh

Covered in casket

In suit

I know not if I will carry

Or once more let it tarry

 

I will never say good bye

Because you still live

Even in my dreams

Where I always pass you by

 

© Leander David (5/2/2022)

Pending funeral of my Dad

Bitter buds sweeter when it flowers

All gaily the sparrows on the tall tree high

train not to sing their choruses in the morn

An ensemble which only surges ahead by day

not knowing where their prey may be

will harvest where they have not tilled

Like flower lilies bereft of cozy costumes

pretty appears when always in bloom

In splendor, magnificence and grandeur

be wields the eye leaving it in esthetic glory

with buds bitter to taste, sweeter when it flowers    

Dedicated to TA Deborah

Time To Pause And Reflect

Yet another time to pause

and enter into reflections

How it has all happened

Following your thoughts not on him

as if all that matters was Him;

And Him who allows all things

will allow what you don’t think.

IT WILL PASS YOU BY

Round and round the circus goes

Laden with a composite spill: innocent blood

He is not death

But the trumpet that precedes it

From Asia and Europe

Among the sons and daughters of the sun at last

Like rumors now reality

Legs and hearts breathe their last

And can save no vaccine no cure

The brave men hide

The wise men run

The weak wonders how to survive

Just a cough, a handshake

Just a sneeze, a spit

That contact, that fluid exchange

Prices high, schools close down

Everything moving to a stand still

… The circus still goes

Innocent blood falling down

Stay calm

And do the right

You’ll finally find

It passing you by

Leander David ©2020

Onions close to the eyes

Burning desires which left painful ashes

Have been sprinkled on my tongue to lick

Bitter than gall what appealed to the nose

Which in a sneeze was forced out

And filled full the wind pipe

Oh now what winds followed these painful actions

Opened eyes which will acclaim others and not me

Goodbye said and well said

Should not be like onions close to the eye