If you promise to be a horse You’ve got to have speed Most importantly, stamina To carry and ride harder Like a true knight Fearless and apt in promises II If you promise to be an eagle You’ve got to have strength Most importantly, fierceness To carry and ride harder Making sure need fears my […]
Tag: #AFRICAN POETS
HIS LETTER
“Give your life to Christ” He writes boldly “For even the love of humans Can’t compete His earthly love” I ponder on the three paged sheet And wonder why I feel I am being coerced, like a little puppy, into a cult I know God creates Who needs what he creates when he continuously creates? […]
BROKEN
They say once one is down A fall is nothing to fear But here, lying flat on my back I feel my pulse racing like a tsunami Who knew falling from the pain tree Breaks no bone But beats your bests And blasts your breast? Interesting, that is where the heart hides II I am […]
LABOURING ME
Some call me a worm Some call me a poor pet Others call me an unbaked yam But I am the bread winner of my home II With opened mouths of 7 Waiting for the manna from my sweat I am like their goddess of harvest I am like the air they breathe I am […]
SOOTHING BALM
Sunshine in a frowning sky Gentle lightening in an angry storm Ice in an unbearable heat You, you II The best song on the biggest stage The best feet in a dancing bout The moon in a rebellious sky You, you III Your fingers hold my soothing balm Your mouth hold my living breath Your […]
Give me magic Magic of thoughts Give me magic To salvage all rots II Give me magic Like a superior angel To know and touch broken angels Called and humiliated, abandoned and garbaged III We call those we need They are called by their own and taunted Give me a magic thought And a magic […]
A SUCCULENT MANGO LIKE ME
Like a succulent mango You bite me deep After washing me in cool waters And chew my flesh Claiming I am fresh I can only scream by sewing my threads In your teeth But you wait after chewing And curse me While you enjoyed me with no blessing I know my juice tasted like heaven […]
A DIFFERENT FEELING
It is a blessing of emotion A different feeling Watching you in sync with her in laughter Like a well rehearsed choreography II It is as though Someone switched on my thinking plug Could this have been a trap? Did he joke over my sincere messages with her? Could I be a fun they are […]
What will it amount? I ask what? What at all will it amount? If we fall only once and get crippled? II If I am a print in book, When crumpled by the ruthless I aim to show and embrace minds III When I get burnt, I pray my shadow moves me from mind to […]
AS IF I’M COOL
I am hoarding a lioness In the cave of my heart Yet smiling like the sun Deceiving the depressed As if I am cool II It can be raining cats and dogs in blood Flooding the cave and killing its space But even in the darkest of times The moon appears on my face […]
CAT BLINKS, DOG BARKS
A master sent a cat on a dangerous mission It went like a wind And came like a breeze All breaths for a minute seized II The dog got jealous and barked for the same mission It went like a wind But never returned All hearts, for it, burned III Then all animals decided to […]
YOUNG INKS
Young inks bleed All digging to plant seeds Seeds for a great tree Which will shelter their future II Some will dig shallow holes Because like the parable of the farmer Weeds grow with plants So winds or birds will destroy some plants III Those prepared like Job in the Bible Will dig and grow […]
Kwaku gave Ama a stone A white nice stone as a gift of love She kept the stone like a saint And worshipped its very grounds II It so happened that a flood came by Stared at the stone and Ama’s family And swept all of them into the belly of death Ama searched and […]
JEHOVAH IS MY WITNESS (CRAZY STANZAS)
Jehovah is my witness He is my witness That I do carry the right messages But many want none of it None, none at all II He is my witness; Jehovah I went to Papa Ofosu’s house Immediately he saw me, He rushed into his neigbour’s bathroom like a lost cat And asked him […]
SPIRITUAL FIRE
A man stood at the podium Calling himself “the fire man” Shouting blessings Shouting cursings Until the trial moment came II A child of eight, run to the temple Panting in a frenzy Shouting in fear Of the unimaginable So the audience asked “What at all is it?” III Like a Satanic messenger He unfolded […]
SKY AND CONCEPTION
The sky must be female Goes through all cycles It can pick a thunder seed And let the world hear of its delivery II It can get pregnant With clouds, the sky, And make sure the earth is soaked like a cotton cloth Sometimes hoarding triplets by adding thunder and lightning III It picks seed […]
RIDE THE DONKEY
Ride in stride The donkey beneath Ride in stride Thinking not of a drop in trot Whip and equip Its ego to grow Like a giant hiding a killer punch It will hide its ears and throw you down You’ll be grateful if you end up down town With broken bones and aches holding a […]
GOD IS MY COACH
I know you are a good enemy football player But trust me, your most skilful dribbling, Make them more than C. Ronaldo’s, Will be my healthy trainings Your trials at long shots Will always go to the corner Or like an overfed eagle’s shot, You will send them flying in the heavenly air Your headings […]
MET YOU LONG BEFORE NOW
What if I told you I met you even before Your head thought of a loving union? II You were like an angel High up in the sky Looking down at me As I looked up adorably III You had many around And were confused for a moment But a second look at me And […]
I NEED
I need I need I need me a one With no hawk’s eye for talent II I need I need I need me that one Who will look into my soul III I need I need I need me a one Who can erase all my sadness IV I need I need I need to […]
LUSCIOUS SONG
Now I can sing my song Because the sky has finished washing its face And sun’s coming footprints Have been licked by time II Now I can sing my song Because the sun sits comfortably On its throne Facing and brightening its lively audience III Now, I can sing my song Decorum has gone to […]
LOVE BLINDS?
“Aaaah! I say he has changed And will always remain so” The elders say Only the child sees the eyes of the crab As a stick, Look at Selina now She too told me She was the wind of change in his life When his pleasures waned She said she was blinded By Cupid’s thick […]
IF YOU ARE MINE
If you are mine The seas of lust Can swallow you Like pythons swallow beings But will vomit you at my doorstep When the time is right II If you are mine Alcohol and dope Can hide your brains And make me a stranger In your high site But will return it and make you […]
“TEHORROR”
It’s sad, those pushed to school Are mostly those who learn to fool Eventually acting as many a stool And being used as many a tool II It’s sad, those who has heads Make the many beds For those who know no sheds To hurt the gentle with many reds III It’s a horror Which […]
TIME’S LONG LEGS
Horror can rain Terror can maim But time’s long legs Never cease to run II Hearts can stop Hurts can harm But time’s long legs Never cease to run III Shame can tame Risks can shatter But time’s long legs Never cease to run IV “Ko ko ko” Oh “ka ka ka” Time’s long legs […]
I WAIT
Pants of can’ts Excuses in rants Even firewood crave fire Wanting to lead in light Wanting to be a star bright Although being in ashes is no delight But you, like a firefly, tease with your faint glow Saying this and saying that On a day when emotions weep For a play in your tower […]
FILTHIES KNOW THEIR PILLS
Throwers of filth In the belly of drains Builders of mansions On the breathes of rains Oh rears whose chamber pots are mouths of seas Fie! Fie! Fie! You live lives of lies When your index fingers find others as offenders Of drowning and ills You need to know your pills II Carers of mandates […]
Me, I can’t share my man o I am no hypocrite so I won’t lie I met a terror called jealousy When I saw a taken-cuddling meant for me I never knew its claws really lived deep down my guts When it decided to show It was like a lioness tearing my soul There I […]
DAWNS AND LAWNS
Dawn can’t begrudge the cock’s crow It is its companion It is its friend It maybe its enemy But it makes it a star As some wake to see it At the sound of a cock’s crow II Lawn cannot begrudge dawn It owes it part of its colour Like the bed of a princess […]
TRAIN OR BURN
Twisted tattered tingly things Taunt in towering tormenting tests Tempers tower in trending taps A tactful treasure is needed to turn II Turn or burn Taint or train Tag or tailor It takes a treasure to be traced in tests Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2015Â Â
HIGHER
Mouths in shouts Releasing arrow words in sharps Aiming at my being Know that I am as swift as an eagle And armoured like God’s soldier So I keep going higher II Tongues like serpents Hissing my biography Wanting a slaughter Of my name and fame to have me tamed Don’t bother My name is […]
A weird thing, in Accra, Â sat Sputtering and mumbling “tar” Until it said it was called day II Day which was new But had many problems dew The first after a terror flood III It is going to be used It won’t get the privilege Of seeing the lazy in action IV It would die […]
Emotions dance in veins of the holies And I am a holy The weather’s fan is fanning vain whims And I have a vain whim The sky’s complexion is dark and light And I am the sky At this point, fans are suicide Air conditioners, murder The air is rudely entering pores without knocking And […]
DRESSED
Oh He dressed sky beings with glow So they will be visible to eyes so low He dressed the man with strength So they could guard protection’s length He dressed the woman with beauty So she could charm in surety He even knows the shy sky Would need privacy for her nudity So dresses her […]
WATER AND FIRE (FOR THE BURNT AND DROWNED)
Roastings and drownings Fire and water Ghana has seen another May nine But tear gas folds its arms in innocence Nature meets artificial Fire holds the hands of water And harvest lives in horrible hunts Leaving us awed II We are crying Because fear stands holding his whip We are mourning our future selves […]
A MESS IN A DRESS
Boy is twisted Ruins his upper Uncaged but demented Chess of a mess stripped into a dress Ending fatherhood borrowing an old womb  II Jesus must be in distress Eating His disgust by looking unto His father Never hoping to use His cane Never wishing to have grown his mother Emancipation damaged him Really, […]
WE ARE TWISTED (CRAZY STANZAS)
We are like varied but same flowers Pretty in different shapes, colours and sizes We are like flowing rivers Bubbly and dense but burning by rocks beneath We are like opposing reflections Speaking in weird deflections Making dumb demi gods weak While stabbing ourselves with our double edged daggers Yes, we are that twisted II […]
MORNING VISITS
Another morning visits Coming with its stomach Its need for clothing Its need for being walked or driven like a dog Its need for dialogue And its many conflicts in diversity  II Abena, like the earth which must hosts it, I succumb to its whims Allowing myself to be played like its guitar For […]
I challenged a student who just completed high school to write a poem on faith. I am actually surprised she did this in a matter of 30 minutes: Many find it difficult holding on to me I am defined as the substance of things hoped for The evidence of things not seen I am […]
DEEP AND SHORT
Pop the hop Crop the top Sing with wings A pin and a spin Are like triumphs with time
RULERS
The cocks have the docks For they hold the waking locks So “kwa kwa kwa kwa” those mocks May end in needing knocks II They have the stocks They’ve the keys to the flocks So elephants’ strength is ad infinitum But common sense makes them kings III So follow the kwa kwa kwa And soar […]
FIX THE NEEDS OF A LADY
Fix the needs Fix the needs of a lady Wrangling of nothings Glitters and twitches are naught Just fix them Fix them needs of the lady II Who are you impressing? The world with jealous eyes? Or the flashes which attract the jealousy of the sun? Fix them needs Just fix them needs of the lady […]
BRUISED AND CRUSHED
Mama you should have magically told Of the possibility that love could have me sold You are the one who carried my mould Are you satisfied that I am broken into many a fold? Â II Papa, you should really have magically warned That love stands a better chance of having me harmed You […]
CARESSING YOU (ADULT POETRY)
The sound of an L The circle in an O The tingly tips of a V I write in your heart climbing the ladder of an E Â II Open your thoughts And let your eyes, be independent And sit behind as I write my words on them like a slate. Â *** Tongues will […]
“Holiness! Unto the Lord” What is that man doing on my porch? After his gossipy wife Acted like a goat in sheep skin Does he still have a face To show up on my porch and pace? II “Holiness! Unto the Lord” Oh! I am glad Sister Akos tripped at the podium What kind of […]
Walking through the doomy path Of jumping in my final bed I stumbled on a being so dirty Resting on earth in clothes of naught II Funny how I saw the face of God And felt what He really has in store No words did come from the mouth so sore But his posture did […]
IN THE WOMB OF THE TOMB
Wise? Nice Price of dice Once, twice, thrice No six? Then lies We cast as many as we should Winning few and always losing more But once, twice, thrice the dice We jump like mice Being chased by cats Until we enter the zone of eternal dark In the womb of the tomb Amoafowaa Sefa […]
Croak, croak croak!!! Instead of cocks crowing, Frogs’ croaking have become the wake call The breezes act with decorum Blowing north, south, east to the west It’s as though they’ve been schooled Schooled for evenness II This day, Beautiful birds glow On centre stages of muscular and firm trees “Pi, pi, pi ri pi Kwi […]
AT THE MERCY OF APIO
It seems like a cloudy morning wearing heat clothes Headache holds a fiesty cane Whipping mercilessly Warning with pain the need for abstainance From the flowing enticement of Apio A little sound is cursed echoes of torture Eyes are like cassava buried in the ground Being uprooted by a hungry angry man The heart cries […]
I dream of food Like earth craves rain And the sky does give In its own time II I dream of school Like vehicle crave fuel The owner does fill At the proper time III I dream of shelter And like the tortoise The earth gods give Until pubics harden IV I’m left to learn […]