THE 12 COMMANDMENTS

Do not mock the scars of he who has braved much conquest

Do not fester the wounds of the man of the forests

Do not crack your nuts on the hunchback

Do not destroy the wheat of another’s winepress

Do not eat your enemy’s dog

Do not kill the flame that gives light to all

Do not spark fires over the heroes’ fears

Do not bypass the signs of danger

Do not mock the hope of a thousand households

Do not fret when your friends desert your presence

Do not sit idly in wait for the sun

Do not curtail the smiles of the faintly

LETTER TO AYORINDE

O, Ayorinde, why have you deserted me like the Libyan desert?
To a life bereft of what we once shared
The sun rises daily, so are my hopes of seeing you
Recollect the days we ate from the same plastic bowl and took turns to lap the other in the bus
Now, you have left me dazed
No, I left you dazed.

O, Ayorinde, did we part ways or fate is to blame?
For what now seems to me is a blame game
Who is to blame? Not me, neither you
I pray the winds to bring my words to you
To blow them in your direction and sweep you in my direction
As a reminder of our filial connection.

O, Ayorinde, do you still exist or charm has lef you elsewhere?
To marriage? Peacekeeping? Music? Politics? Fashion design? Images of you, I have embossed
With your name on my mind's emblem.

O, Ayorinde, Facebook is littered with my name, pick one.
Or
If you wish, come to the Gold Coast, I shall be waiting.

Ayorinde, my joy will return to me.

MUSTARD SEEDS

Talk less, speak more

Talk more, never

Eat more, more fruits

Fail more-

In doing evil

See more, look less

Sight is free

Learn more, outside school walls

Sow always, Reap always

You are a seed, sow yourself

Ask those who know, be an Oliver

Be yourself

Sing more, sink less

Connect always, never condemn

Connect with the right people

Never write; remain writhed

Write more, of your revolving life

Never hate, haters abound

Save more, spend less

Stay close, remain open

Better late than never

Start small, small is relative

Still, start small

Speak truly; truth is truth

Be a happy fellow

Live freely, die a freer man. 

ABRONOMA

On that blissful night

Of retire from the Folks Place

Where our feet first converged at Nana's call

I, the bee

Blown by the wind into your path

Words exchanged one or two, or three

'You look familiar’, I have seen you before'

Then, you entered my soul, there

Embossed, not ephemeral, your fragrance

I inhaled deeply

Morning blossoms

Blossoming spring

Clothed in heaven's mind

The window of my heart flung opened

To catch your aroma and morning breathe

Afternoon sun

Baths you to beauty

Your attitude

Your sweetness

Your care

My heart whispered me calm

Spoke to me and sang a ballad

My heart knew it had found a treasure

A place, a home

A woman to love, a companion

Slowly

I loosened to trust like Bonwire’s loom

You are the weaver’s hand

Whose tears wiped away my tears

Love is no more a stranger

Abronoma

Dainty dove

I till the earth and sow

A handful of gratitude

For you, the august gift of August.

Copyright (C) 2015


Abronoma (Akan Twi) = Dove

THE BEGGAR

This is to the beggar whose lineage are kingsmen

Death, they thought, must be a better choice

Than slanderous fingers should point at the royal palace

And gossips should find their voices again

What happened passed from one lip to the other?

Candlelight

Snuffed out softly, slowly

In the company of bootlickers and wild at hearts

Lured onto a slippery stage

Dreams fester

Merriment becomes a curse

Wait!

Not the dancers are to blame, not the singers but

The audience, among whom the beggar is numbered

The kingsmen could no longer remain dumb

They forbade the prophet to prophesy

And the soothsayer they charged to remain at arm’s length

That for the sake of their prodigal son, they should be poorer by some bread and butter

They reasoned among themselves, that,

Someday, the Pig’s feed should run out while their son’s hunger hurt him more

They knew the Pig would snort louder

Till their son heard the voice of wisdom calling in the Pig's snort

And return home

Copyright (C) 2015

PRICELESS

Fragile

Precious

Ripe egg

Bearer of gold eggs

Your wings spread beautifully abroad

Peacock in flight

You swallow the pebbles of my despair

Your love reminds me of old God

You mean so much

Words are prisoners of your love

Your smile spreads across  

Your voice is a tale on noble tongues

I will tell my mother about you

And remind your mother of her beautiful tree

Planted in the heart of a young lover

Priceless

Copyright (C) 2015

MY BLACK SUN, LORLORNYO

Mother told me about the shapely sun

That appears once in a blue moon

Carrying thoughts of the unborn

So I waited for her august arrival

I waited where the dusty roads kissed and broke

Where the roads embraced our town

It blossoms in the king’s forest

In all tranquility

I stood on restless dust

She eats me; the dust, I eat her

I eat the dust

Till my skin dries

Blurs!!

I stood amidst the unwelcome of crippled branches

Darkness rushed by, across my shoulder

Fear mounted upon our soul's silhouette, unyielding

Our earnest plea was lost in the wind’s sail.

Many nights passed

The royal gongs were agog

They came, love birds

They came to where they had began

Perched on the tree’s waiting arms

Ohene wraps himself in her sunken breast

Sprinkling each other with sweet melodies of delightful memories

My admiration for the old lovers soared

Then, you showed up

My dearest!

Colorful bird among birds!!

More beautiful than a Goldian Finch

My thoughts flew out of my chest into hers

I wept and she knew why

She wept also, her love pierced my heart to glee

My armour-bearer; my kings guard

Stay here, my dome, my Lorlornyo

For, you are the black sun that should rise daily atop my roof

On ethereal eternal nights

Copyright (C) 2015

MEN OR GOATS?

A voice draws near,
Singing heavenly of hell
We cup our hungry ears to hear the murderous melody, which cut into our bones
And sinews
And flesh
And throws us into a frenzy
We are told of certain men
Men like us, men unlike us
Men like goats

They are men of honour, yet, they seek the illumination of fools and the possession of robbers
Their stubbornness stink like a goat's anus
The candor of courageous forefathers have departed them
No, they have departed the candor of courageous fathers

For, only a cup of wine
a pottage and a coin will save them
but for a moment,  just this moment
Pathetic!

They trap themselves!
Endanger themselves and freeze others to danger, even owls flee
They are like darkness.
They are darkness of sorts.

But,

May the wind of life blow treachery away, and send them our warm songs of hope.
Till our hearts lead them back to us.

Copyright (C)  2015

THE MAD MAN AND OUR STORY

We
have
abandoned
our
story
to
the
mad
man's
script

He sieves our fate...

Into
a
sack
of
polluted
stories

Our slave masters infuse their choice words...

Into
our
history
books
and
afterwards
call
us
liars

And we call ourselves liars...

till
the
lights
from
the
songs
of
hope and love and faith
dimmed.

Who will, though weary lift up our sinking voices again?

Copyright (C)  2015

SWEAT IS GOLD

Sweat and gold
Sweat on gold
Sweat is sweat
Gold is gold
Sweat is gold

Copyright (C) 2015

EKURASE

The night always young
peasants resuming from labor
Noise of children so real and loud

Igniting a chorus through every deafening silence
¹Ekurase

Each day too young to die
Footprints denting sand dunes
All are busy, none will dare sleep
Every man at his best
Ekurase

Household sits around the illuminating fire
Listening to the sage as he unties wisdom knot
Gray hairs nods in agreement amidst the lads
And in a mellow mood they enjoy every word

Tell us legends which preceded our birth,
and why death has no cure, they seem to ask
But night has journeyed far and old folks are weary,
They wait for a fortnight

Ekurase!
Forever my love at first sight.

¹Ekurase: Akan name for village

First published at http://poetryfoundationghana.org/index.php/traditional-poems/item/303-ekurase
Copyright (C) 2013

A CALL TO ORDER!

I choose to write what they will ignore.
What they will not write in their stack of sheets-
Those reports of how they manipulated the sphere.

And influenced the courts of justice.

Yes, I know, 
they'll pick with me a fight
For I shed light on our plights. 
Our rights to enjoy the taxes we work so hard to pay. 
Not to pay bribe again before we get our monthly pay.

Now, be alert and tell them not to pervert. 
We've seen all the fake certs they use- We are Africans, not jerrycans  
Or T-rolls to be used and dumped.

Our schools shelf our knowledge in papers they call thesis. 
Our labour sits as white elephant waiting rot, when it could bring redemption to our homes.
These notes only sell ¹abele na nketie 
Therefore, In sobriety I ask of our nation-
Of our leaders to take second thoughts-

To think or we sink.

¹abele na nketie: roasted maize and groundnut sold in Ghana and served in brown papers or used newspapers.


First published at http://poetryfoundationghana.org/index.php/theme/social-poems/item/66-a-call-to-order

Copyright (C) 2013

SWAYED BY RUTHLESS WINDS?

The wind blows over all

The fool and the wise

The rich and the wealthy

The mighty and the not-so mighty

So who can avert the wind's course, except to position himself?

Copyright (C) 2013

FIGHT NOT THE WIND O'GOOD FELLOW

www.artnectar.com

We fight our enemies over a grain yet

The greenery stare us in the face and

In silence we chant

‘We shall destroy you at the ripening of dawn,

Crackling of noon and rotting away of dusk’.

We drown our enemies over a drop yet

The vast waters flow seamlessly in our presence and

In silence we chant

‘We shall bury your strength in the heart 

Of this earth,

Of waves roaring and breeze twirling’.

We covet our enemies over a crumb yet

Our table is filled with meat and more meat and

In silence we chant

‘We shall starve your desires from the music of hope,

Illumination of their sun and the dance of progress’.

Alas, why fight our own?

Mimicking the jealousy of crabs;

Of selfish men

Of wolves in sheep’s clothing

So we prowl and stagger strenuously in strange shoes; in search of another dream

Forgetting that wind like death knows all, the grain and the green

The crumb and the fill, the drop and the stream

Blowing all into one chaff

Only to notice we have been naked while the real enemy mocked us akimbo

But

We

Have

Another

Chance

Today

To

Shun Hatred.

Copyright (C) 2013

4th June 2013

YUSUF AND ABIBA

(Yusuf tickles Abiba..they smile..She tickles him)
.
.
.
.
.
You sparkle like the sun in its prime
and like the moon in full bloom
so stick with me like dust to earth, that
just like Romeo and Juliet
we remain, Yusuf and Abiba.


Copyright (C) 2013

THE SUN AND THE MOON

The Sun stays awake while the Moon sleeps.

The Moon stays awake while the Sun sleeps.

If only we would in this manner live,

Being each other’s keeper; watching each other’s back,

The world will always see light, day or night.



Copyright (C) 2013

THERE IS THIS MAN I KNOW

There is this man I know

Who once dined with kings but now begs at the entry

He crippled the legs of his Cause and

tainted the legacy of his forebears and

His descendants painfully suckle the breasts of his truncated dreams.

There is this man I know

Who once dined with kings but now begs at the entry

He removed the bridge after his crossing to one end and

destroyed the last wick of the lantern when the sun shone at full strength and

His armour was useless at the heart of night.

There is this man I know

Who once dined with kings but now begs at the entry

He lifted his voice against the prince of the palace and

defied the kings’ order and

His place among royals is no more.

There is this man I know

Who once dined with kings but now begs at the entry

He tasted from the sweet puddings of life and

hoarded the waste from the lowly and

His glory now hangs in the past.

There is this man I know

Who once dined with kings but now begs at the entry

He danced himself lame before the main dance began and

Thrust his future in the midriff to death and

His pride caught up and overtook him in the race of life.

Therefore,

My Lord!

My Lord!!

My Lord!!!

Save us from ourselves and the fangs of pride and complacency

That I rip not my labour in twain, with they like me.

Copyright (C) 2013

SAIL TO SALE

Nii. you do not see my tears whenever they drop?

You ask where I got this scar from and I always knew!

That one bright morning, you will find an answer that will outshine...

the dark evil days when daybreak seemed much more than a miracle

Now I know I cannot cover this wound, this scar

Or can any man survive without breadth? No.

Nii, today, I will reveal the secret of yesterday

Of that day when we and them at bay,

When our skin eaten by disease turned white and red,

In a wooden Ark unlike that of legendary Noah, death stared us in the face.

It meant nothing!

Negroes flung into the jaws of the ocean, we saw no more,
Only the spatter of their bodies rumbled by the raging waves we heard.

Only in our memories your fathers remain, this picture remains

As they sailed our heroes(us) for sale, of the tribe of Da-Nii.

Son, yesterday is history

Today, it’s a story-

The story of a living picture of a dead people.

Copyrights (C) 2012

Performed on the POETS Facebook Page in contest with Daniel Kojo Appiah and Ganyobi Nii Sackey on the 4th February, 2012