Ghana @53 The Poem

Written By: Barima Adu-Asamoa

Recitation: Israel Larye

The Present

Nanina

The present could not be the barn

Of our harvested visions

So we must not light a thought

To open this barn of our harvest

It may not yet be a thoughtful dawn

Warm enough to keep-gate

Crushing ghost away

When the whiskered ones

Have bleated all nights the remains

Of their sad compelling voices

And spiteful beings in lustful colours

Have strained away

The begetters of our sundew

Across the fore-court of

Our harvested visions

Do not

Do not light a thought to see

These weeviled grains

Of our harvested visions

For our beloved country

Ghana

Is

Still

Forever

We patterned our destiny

In colourful strands like Kente

Red, gold, green and the star

Black and defiant

As if the great ones

Have declared us

True of word

Maheru

We dipped our fore fingers

In naked haste, forgetting ourselves

Deep into the still waters of our destiny

And tasted the future

Without the songs of triumph

Nor the ease of knowing

A solemn sigh then fell

On the lips of the great ones

As if the beautiful ones

Have not yet been born

Five time five we yearned

And held a multitude of emotions to our chest

And gathered husk without the burden of proof

Trusting instead the dance of the mask raiders

And

Still

Our

Beloved country

Ghana

Is

Still

Forever

The Past

We witnessed the past in anger

Fear, once dripped from the crevices of our well-being

And sorrow like tears of joy from our very eyes

We carried the spirit-pot

Filled and unfilled at once!

And tasted four recalcitrant whirlwinds

With our naked tongues

Which swirled around our destiny

But never sprouted into the glorious

Morning rise of the African star

Red, gold, green

Black and defiant

And

Still

Our

Beloved country

Ghana

Is

Forever

We poured libation at midnight

At half moon, we bowed in penance

And fasted for forty days and forty nights

Then a solemn sigh fell

On the lips of the Great ones

As if we were to live by bread alone

Seven times seven we waited with zeal

And heard echoes of the rain-thunder

That should have preceded us

But the rain never came

And our beloved country

Ghana

Is

Still

Forever

The Future

We parade the future now

In primary desires

Along the desolate path

And there is nothing to say or prophesise

The sooth Sayers have all gone home

Discarding their ware for a percentage

The divine drummers and the beautiful ones

They too have left

Surrounding their will

Desiring instead the facade beat of the divine drum

As if to hush the memory of their rebirth

And

Still

Our beloved country

Ghana

Is

Forever

The Star, once up above so high

Like a diamond in our hearts

Now twinkles with a stammering hope

We heard distant laughters

And felt a ray of sundew

On our foreheads

So we crossed the crossed-roads

And joined the enchanted ones

Singing along the path of hope

(Song)

We paused diligently

And scanned through

The remaining chapters of our destiny

Possessed by love, we wept

Sweetly and gently

As

If

We

Knew.

The poem was originally written for the Ghana @50 celebrations and was launched under the chairmanship of Prof. Atokwei Okai and Prof. Kofi Anyidoho in Accra. BARIMA ADU-ASAMOA, is a communication consultant, lecturer and cultural entrepreneur. A former lecturer at Ghana Institute of Journalism, he is currently a researcher (doctoral) at University of London, Goldsmiths College.