በሀገሬ ልኩራ New Poem

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Dazibao

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Poems from Older Generation

Laureate Tsegaye gebre Medhin (1967)

 VOW

 As long as there are morning birds,

To fill the air with songs

As long as there are folk tales

To be told by the fire side

As long as there are offsprings

To kick and riot with joy

I shall bathe in the shimmer of the moon

I shall inherit the sun

I shall follow the rainbow trail.

 Baalu Girma (1959)

CROWS

Crows from the south, west and east

Gather round the kitchen for a morning feast

Nature gave them right to share

the crows considered this unfair.

The dove and the sparrows got their alright,

And went their way, content and quiet.

For the crows nothing is enough

Nothing is fair, all is rough.

Crows must have all things their way,

And leave the rest astray.

Over matters trivial they croak and moan,

And make mountains of a mole.

Contented they need fly up and pray

And keep their tempers and dirty play.

 *************************************************************

Eshetu Chole (1967)

 SILENCE

 Silence

Is like Infinity

Majestic

Its depth unsurpassed

By talk-glib, gossip, proud talk

And other human trash.

 Silence is beauty;

For truth is silent

And truth, they say, is beauty

 Silence is peace--

Peace absolute

Peace consuming.

 Silence is joy

Unparalleled

Undiluted by the cheapness of our lives.

 A tear is silent

A smile is silent

And is too silent.

 And death is silent

Oh! If only life were

As pure as silence.

 *************************************************************

Shiferaw Asfaw (1968)

" "

Yes, between Today's dim light

And Tomorrow's complete darkness

I am.

Rolling naked on a cold wave

Of a vast, indifferent ocean

I live

To observe

My fellow man drown.

 *************************************************************

Tamru Gobena (1960)

THE SUNSHINE

 The sun shines bright , they say

After a rainy day:

Behold the shooting of the bay

As if it came to say.

 O yesterday was grim and cold

Like a rainy day

Yet today is so fresh though old

Older than yesterday.

Yesterday was so dim and dull;

Bleak was life with me:

But yet today I sleep and lull

Though busy as a bee.

 Behold that poor old man:

So cold is life with him

But yesterday the Sun did tan

His skin. His fill was to the brim,

Day doth follow night.

And night doth follow day;

Darkness doth follow light

And so we drift away.

to be continued

  *************************************************************

  FRAGMENTS

On the window sill

The butterfly, colours-ablaze

The dirty glass has no sparkle

Jealous of the dazzling wings

It cracks and breaks up

As the butterfly flies away

Undisturbed.

A soul among thousands,nay,

amidst millions

hovering over crumpled bodies,

High above the vultures

sharp beaks ready to pierce

no evil in their hearts, just

the natural law,

the desire to feed on a victim

ordianed by God.

The decomposing flesh is soft, rotten,

and a treat for the hungry,

as always. The rotten is a feast.

The lonely soul, sad, glides away

from the heat and crimes of today,

of Adwa and her sons.

The song in the air

by autumn leaves tuned

falling softly, sad.

The song on the ground

lying quiet, mute

The sun shines above

the prairie is afire

Times have changed.

 *************************************************************

The empty vase holds my hopes

Brimming, full, overflowing even

The weight breaks the vase

and my hopes mix with the dirt

perhaps, that was when I died

and left the human world.

 *************************************************************

The eyes of my daughter, innocent,

scan my withered face

Maybe the crevices hide the love

and the wrinkles cover it too, for

she looks away abrupt

with confusion in her heart

facing my cold bottomless eyes

 *************************************************************

Over the hills the barren slopes

Up ran the monkey

As the Serpent slithered down

They pass without a greeting

not even a glance

And only the monkey laughs.

 *************************************************************

Eating an apple is easy

we have strong teeth, African,

No fluoride bath, no,

Nature has favoured us

We can bite.

Cut by gossip and hate

into entrails and names

history and dreams,

Into apples and flesh, cutting sharp.

The panga can rest, the machette too,

we are blessed.

Nature has endowed us

with a strong teeth

and we do the rest.

 *************************************************************

Every year singes us with pain

the sorrow soaks our soul

drowning our hopes.

The bile of bitterness

forever on our tongues

Our tomorrows stolen

we are robbed of the past

the change is a mirage

and the future a corpse

we celebrate

Every new year that comes.

*************************

Demons dance in the red night

amid the fire lit

By sinners roasting on the grill

of their crimes

(of their daring to ask?)

frying like pork on Life's barbecue.

The smile on their faces

belying the pain

the opaque faces covering up

the truth

now buried underground.

 *************************************************************

Words fly out, soaring

to touch the clouds, far,

The heavens are unreachable

When legs are chained, by hopes

and visions withered, narrow,

In each kilil/bantustan

prisons line the streets, full,

the sewers are clogged in the Palace

and the whole country stinks.

*************************

The scorching sun has no pity

it has burnt its heart eons ago.

The soft moon has no warmth

fed up of selfish lovers

using it to suck and lick

their pleasure-ways to hell.

Dawn holds no surprises

it had run out of promises ages ago.

Day and night are all the same

the rainbow has aborted in our brain.

 *************************************************************

The naked child

on the hot tarmac

asleep, dazed by the sniffed glue

Forgetting hunger, and

oblivious to pain

The policeman's boot strikes

The blow makes a noise

the naked child whimpers

refusing to wake

and acknowledge the pain,

the Nation's shame.

Th sufi man twirled

a thousand times, nay

a million rounds

the dust covered all

The Sufi man was in a trance,

luckily

he did not see his sins exposed.

 *************************************************************

Decompose,oh yes

Perish.

What thought sublime,

magnanimous,

ever saved a lost black soul.

Wither away, disappear

like prisoners in Africa 's dungeons.

Who needs to know,

to remember

the victims silenced by arrogant power?

*************************

Out out brief candle,

how do you put off the sun

end the Drought,

the Famine,

The Hopelessness in our souls?

 *************************************************************

The dark lonely night

wanted an eternal embrace

I was the only one ready,

And I obliged.

 *************************************************************

Simmer, simmer, simmer low

the bile is gushing forth

Bitter. Life is an elephant

sitting on your face

Crushing, final.

 *************************************************************

The Man, stamped by fate

wears his destiny in his tears

as an albatross.

Forever weighed by sorrow

and travails

By the sins of the dead

Eternally condemned.

 *************************************************************