Ghanatta Ayaric

KEEP THE FAITH

I hear a song, loud and clear

But I feel pain, almost too hard to bear

Things fall apart in disequilibrium

And we hallucinate on Lucifer's opium

The centre cannot hold the imbalance

And limbs break in the middle of the dance

My vocal cords have long been strained

Singing a dirge that is yet to come to an end

My eyes are ablaze, dazed by blood and fire

And my heart weeps, encased in barbed wire

While cold sweat drips from my soul and brain

Wetting me like the drops of tropical rain

But I shall sing my song in silent defiance

In the liberating combustion of herbal sticks

And find peace and hope in the simplest places

The straws that bringeth dynamites to silence!

                                                                Bremen, 1994

MY VIBES

I'm just a common man

Doing what I can

But I know my roots

And won't lick your boots

So don't lead me astray

'Cause I'll feel no way

I want to do my best

So don't put me to the test

I don't want to preach

And I don't want to teach

I never want to fight

I just want to feel all right

Just the other day

I heard a voice say

Open my mind

But don't make me blind

I want to cross borders

Not just climb ladders

I want to walk a path

That brings me strength

And to see the light

Which shines so bright

So if I scorn your games

Don't call me names

                    Bremen, 1994

TEARS OF SORROW AND JOY

We,

who wish

to raise our heads

above the fatal waves

In which

we involuntarily find ourselves

Face an obligatory historic challenge

to posterity

The splashing waves

may wash away the external tears

But they cannot

calm the vibrating sounds of anxiety

Or end the torture

of the stifled volcanoes simmering inside

When can we walk our open country in freedom and laughter?

Nkrumah foretold

the chaos and destruction

Within the framework of our (un)certainties

Should the new wine

remain in old skins

Fanon cautioned

against

the mark

of the beast

While

Gandhi bared his chest

without lifting a fist

But

here we sit today

in shameful wretchedness

Still

dancing

in

the

shadow of the slave-driver's whip

And

content

to peck at

the scanty crumbs

of grain

Under

a table well fed

by the sweat

of our brow, too

            Bremen, 1996

LOVE!

the Echo,

gliding

through

the invisible

mountains

of the

concrete jungle,

like a bird

in rhythmic flight

under

the bountiful sun

which

shines for all!

Love!

Keep on shining,

like

the silver linings

around

the clouds

in the sky!

The silver linings,

which

tell us

the sun shines

for all of us,

for all,

inside

her

rainbow!

Hamburg July 2000