![\"\"](\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kofiawoonortribute_2680998b.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n{{OF HOME AND SEA I ALREADY SANG}}<\/p>\n
A calm settles<\/p>\n
at the beckon of sweet age\u2026<\/p>\n
Joy and hope soar<\/p>\n
for the ultimate task<\/p>\n
ahead written about, already<\/p>\n
promised in the trajectories of jail,<\/p>\n
in absence and exile\u2026<\/p>\n
That we will perform our duty by the people<\/p>\n
depose the recalcitrant brutes<\/p>\n
and march ahead of our beloved masses<\/p>\n
to a coming kingdom\u2026<\/p>\n
Let the dream not die, master;<\/p>\n
Let the dove coo at dawn again,<\/p>\n
Let the masthead rear its head<\/p>\n
out of the storm<\/p>\n
and share the night with me on this sea.<\/p>\n
Let me sing the song you gave me.<\/p>\n
Before death comes, master,<\/p>\n
Let me dance to the drums you gave me.<\/p>\n
Let me sit in the warmth of the fire<\/p>\n
Of the only native land you gave me.<\/p>\n
{{A DEATH FORETOLD}}<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the pain and the sorrow return<\/p>\n
particularly at night.<\/p>\n
I will grieve again and again tomorrow<\/p>\n
for the memory of a death foretold\u2026.<\/p>\n
I believe in hope and the future<\/p>\n
of hope, in victory before death<\/p>\n
collective, inexorable, obligatory;<\/p>\n
in the enduring prospect of love<\/p>\n
though the bed is empty,<\/p>\n
in the child\u2019s happiness<\/p>\n
though the meal is meagre.<\/p>\n
I believe in light and day<\/p>\n
beyond the tomb far from the solitude<\/p>\n
of the womb, and the mystical night,<\/p>\n
in the coming of fruits<\/p>\n
the striped salmon and the crooked crab;<\/p>\n
I believe in men and the gods<\/p>\n
in the spirit and the substance,<\/p>\n
in death and the reawakening<\/p>\n
in the promised festival and denial<\/p>\n
in our heroes and the nation<\/p>\n
in the wisdom of the people<\/p>\n
the certainty of victory<\/p>\n
the validity of struggle\u2026.<\/p>\n
I will not grieve again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
I will not grieve again.<\/p>\n
{{GRAINS AND TEARS}}<\/p>\n
…. Go and tell them I paid the price<\/p>\n
I stood by the truth<\/p>\n
I fought anger and hatred<\/p>\n
on behalf of the people.<\/p>\n
I ate their meagre meals in the barracks<\/p>\n
shared their footsteps and tears<\/p>\n
in freedom\u2019s name<\/p>\n
I promised once in a slave house in Ussher<\/p>\n
to postpone dying until<\/p>\n
the morning after freedom.<\/p>\n
I promise.<\/p>\n
{{SONGS OF SORROW}}<\/p>\n
I.<\/p>\n
Dzogbese Lisa has treated me thus<\/p>\n
It has led me among the sharps of the forest<\/p>\n
Returning is not possible<\/p>\n
And going forward is a great difficulty<\/p>\n
The affairs of this world are like the chameleon faeces<\/p>\n
Into which I have stepped<\/p>\n
When I clean it cannot go.<\/p>\n
I am on the world\u2019s extreme corner,<\/p>\n
I am not sitting in the row with the eminent<\/p>\n
But those who are lucky<\/p>\n
Sit in the middle and forget<\/p>\n
I am on the world\u2019s extreme corner<\/p>\n
I can only go beyond and forget.<\/p>\n
My people, I have been somewhere<\/p>\n
If I turn here, the rain beats me<\/p>\n
If I turn there the sun burns me<\/p>\n
The firewood of this world<\/p>\n
Is for only those who can take heart<\/p>\n
That is why not all can gather it.<\/p>\n
The world is not good for anybody<\/p>\n
But you are so happy with your fate;<\/p>\n
Alas! The travelers are back<\/p>\n
All covered with debt.<\/p>\n
II.<\/p>\n
Something has happened to me<\/p>\n
The things so great that I cannot weep;<\/p>\n
I have no sons to fire the gun when I die<\/p>\n
And no daughters to wail when I close my mouth<\/p>\n
I have wandered on the wilderness<\/p>\n
The great wilderness men call life<\/p>\n
The rain has beaten me,<\/p>\n
And the sharp stumps cut as keen as knives<\/p>\n
I shall go beyond and rest.<\/p>\n
I have no kin and no brother,<\/p>\n
Death has made war upon our house;<\/p>\n
And Kpeti\u2019s great household is no more,<\/p>\n
Only the broken fence stands;<\/p>\n
And those who dared not look us in his face<\/p>\n
Have come out as men.<\/p>\n
How well their pride is with them.<\/p>\n
Let those gone before take note<\/p>\n
They have treated their offspring badly.<\/p>\n
What is the wailing for?<\/p>\n
Somebody is dead. Agosu himself<\/p>\n
Alas! A snake has bitten me<\/p>\n
My right arm is broken,<\/p>\n
And the tree on which I lean is fallen.<\/p>\n
Agosi if you go tell them,<\/p>\n
Tell Nyidevu, Kpeti, and Kove<\/p>\n
That they have done us evil;<\/p>\n
Tell them their house is falling<\/p>\n
And the trees in the fence<\/p>\n
Have been eaten by termites;<\/p>\n
That the martels curse them.<\/p>\n
Ask them why they idle there<\/p>\n
While we suffer, and eat sand.<\/p>\n
And the crow and the vulture<\/p>\n
Hover always above our broken fences<\/p>\n
And strangers walk over our portion.<\/p>\n
{{THE WEAVER BIRD}}<\/p>\n
The weaver bird built in our house<\/p>\n
And laid its eggs on our only tree.<\/p>\n
We did not send it away.<\/p>\n
We watched the building of the nest<\/p>\n
And supervised the egg-laying.<\/p>\n
And the weaver returned in the guise of the owner.<\/p>\n
Preaching salvation to us that owned the house.<\/p>\n
They say it came from the west<\/p>\n
Where the storms at sea had felled the gulls<\/p>\n
And the fishers dried their nets by lantern light.<\/p>\n
Its sermon is the divination of ourselves<\/p>\n
And our new horizon limits at its nest.<\/p>\n
But we cannot join the prayers and answers of the<\/p>\n
communicants.<\/p>\n
We look for new homes every day.<\/p>\n
For new altars we strive to re-build<\/p>\n
The old shrines defiled by the weaver\u2019s excrement.<\/p>\n
{{REDISCOVERY}}<\/p>\n
When our tears are dry on the shore<\/p>\n
and the fishermen carry their nets home<\/p>\n
and the seagulls return to bird island<\/p>\n
and the laughter of the children recedes at night,<\/p>\n
there shall still linger here the communion we forged,<\/p>\n
the feast of oneness which we partook of.<\/p>\n
There shall still be the eternal gateman<\/p>\n
Who will close the cemetery doors<\/p>\n
And send the late mourners away.<\/p>\n
It cannot be the music we heard that night<\/p>\n
That still lingers in the chambers of memory.<\/p>\n
It is the new chorus of our forgotten comrades<\/p>\n
And the halleluyahs of our second selves.<\/p>\n
{{THE CATHEDRAL}}<\/p>\n
On this dirty patch<\/p>\n
a tree once stood<\/p>\n
shedding incense on the infant corn;<\/p>\n
its boughs stretched across a heaven<\/p>\n
brightened by the last fires of a tribe.<\/p>\n
They sent surveyors and builders<\/p>\n
who cut that tree<\/p>\n
planting in its place<\/p>\n
a huge senseless cathedral of doom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today marks the UN World Poetry Day. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO says: {{“As a deep expression of the human mind and as a universal art, poetry is a tool for dialogue and rapprochement. The dissemination of poetry helps to promote dialogue among cultures and understanding between peoples because it gives access to the authentic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051084,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13289.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}