FAREWELL TO MY KINGDOMorA KING’S LAMENTATION Of once renowned ruling ancestors bornSo early forested great race of Glory to runLate to me revealed by that aging sageSoon born, soon by uncles engageBut enviable crown of Kingship was in latter years to wear Still toilsome now in this crowning yearSo from hand to hand this Kingship […]
EVENING SONG My heart is closest to youin this bright hourof eveningMy heart rememberspulling streamers of laughterthrough sorrowsUntil I know I see youwhirled above hard siltentwining me with God * EDITOR’S NOTE Source: ArchiviNG (Nigeria Magazine, 1 January 1987). The source lists Kwame Dawes and Gwyneth Dawes without assigning individual authorship; this archival presentation retains […]
MORNING SONG (For Aba) My heart is closest to youin this dark hourof morningMy heart rememberspulling threads of memorythrough shadowsUntil I think I see youcurled under soft quiltdreaming of me and God* EDITOR’S NOTE Source: ArchiviNG (Nigeria Magazine, 1 January 1987). The source lists Kwame Dawes and Gwyneth Dawes without assigning individual authorship; this archival […]
DAUGHTER There were no drumsno call upon the spirits,no dance, no adinkras swirledno antiphonal songsno damirifas heardno goat was killed,no libations poured,no celebrations for thepassing of the soul.Away from the village ofher kin,on caribbean shoreswhere two once played the tune,she sang alone. Gwyneth H. C. Dawes EDITOR’S NOTE Source: ArchiviNG (Nigeria Magazine, 1 January 1987). […]
SON (For Kwame) “And she sang mournfullyher voice shaking deeply,regret mixing remorse,sorrow with recollection.She trembled,the whole room trembled,the door criedthe chairs bent slowlylooking for himhoping for himnot seeing him.Then we all went asidesplintered points to a circlelinked by a single cord:sorrow, like the gray cloudsand we wept alonetogether**” Kwame N. Dawes EDITOR’S NOTE Source: ArchiviNG […]
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN “The back is bared!”“Aha!” Then shoot!”“Beat!”“Mock!”“Jeer!”“Destroy and pull the hair!” You wrote the stage directionsin a plot of script;collected royalties;danced its liesacross a dim-litcryptedcyclorama Hungry claws applaudedlaudedcalled for moreencores;manacled leeredyou bowed Did you not read the Scroll?The writing on the wall?Hear the prophet’s call? Ask not for whom the curtains […]
BIRD-WATCHING (For Chochоo) doveswallowweavereaglefalconFivegliding gently in the calm;flapping bravely in the storm;a lark appearsupon the wind.Acceptance.Sixdipping lowsoaring high;fraternity in flight. Gwyneth H. C. Dawes EDITOR’S NOTE First published in Nigeria Magazine on 1 January 1987. This archival presentation preserves the poem and its original attribution for contemporary readers.
INVITATION come into my parlour,said the spiderto the fly;never mind the cobwebs,just come in and don’tbe shy;find a wealth of gourmetto suit your palate’schoice;let not my smile deter youor the silence of the noiseface it —this is heaven,leave the air’s thick fog,and rest;enter my conditioned netto bask indelicatesse come into my parlour,said the spiderto the […]
As a little boy, I was punished endlessly because of my handwriting. I exhausted notebook after notebook, trying to make my letters obey the grids on the page. I could begin neatly, but before long the writing would collapse into hurried marks that looked, to the uninitiated, like another script entirely. What stayed with me […]