Poem Of The Week

Title: Africa by Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe

Dedicated to; Mme. Leony Armattoe

I once saw a maiden dark and comely,

Sitting by the wayside, sad and lonely.

Oh! Pretty maiden, so dark and comely,

Why sit by the wayside, sad and lonely?

‘I am neither sad nor lonely,’ she said,

‘But living, sir, among the deaf and dumb;

Relentlessly watching these shameless dead,

Makes my warm heart grow very cold and numb.’

Title: The Stars Have Departed by Christopher Okigbo

The Stars have departed,

the sky in monocle

surveys the world under

The stars have departed

and I – where am I?

Stretch, stretch, O antennae,

to clutch at this hour,

Fulfilling each moment in a

broken monody

Title: Ibadan by John Pepper Clark

Ibadan,

running splash of rust

and gold – flung and scattered

amoung seven hills like broken

china in the sun