Water and Sun, Prayer or Something Towards It.

A Plant

I only noticed, after

the flowerless, the fruitless meeting:
beside the office door sat a pot
in which lived a plant that has
contorted itself long and odd,

On the Smooth and Silk of White Sand – Earth.
– somewhere beyond the Achimota of Ga, Accra – Monday, June 16, 2022

so to
eke a speck,
catch a scratch,
of sun and shine –

of life or something like it.

Thursday, May 5, 2022: IAS Library, University of Ghana, Legon.

.

.

.

A(nother) Prayer for Water

– with *Adane Best

I
Bo Tsɛ Ofe Lɛ,
Bo Ataa Kpakpa…

II
before You shine strong
and mighty for me,
before You blaze bright
and fierce for my life-path,

On the Grit and Ground of Granite – and Black Tar.
– somewhere within the Legon of Ga, Accra – Friday, July 29, 2022.

Water, first, Ataa:
to heal the parch and tear
in my throat,
to help the many pits and fears
in my soul.

Water, I plead, Ataa:
to salve and save,
to fill and firm.

III
Eba mli
aha mi.

Thursday, August 11, 2022: University of Ghana, Legon.

*

Love,
AishaWrites.

.

.
.

*Also known as Joseph Amoah, Adane Best is a Ga highlife musician with several hit albums since the 1990s. The first verse of the second section of this poem references Rabbi, one of his titles. Adesa (Human Being) and Ayitey are some of his popular titles.

Without Leash.

when the rain falls thick
go partying in its heart, dance
to the tune of petrichor
with no cares for ready puddles and a-waiting colds

Picture mine: Wine and Soul Muse – North Kaneshie: Sunday, 31st May, 2020

when the sun smiles large
go savour its gold, drink
to the easy jade-s and edgy joys of wilt-s and
whorls

while the wind heaves past
go prise open its pouch, peer
to learn the places and people-s it’s laden
with

Picture mine: Wine and Wind Muse – North Kaneshie: Sunday, 31st May, 2020

then

when the darkness descends hard
(you’d have had stores of life and light
to) go prancing and drinking in and prying into all
its quiet-udes and myth-stries, its

what-if-s

— A version of this poem was first published in an issue of Illinois State University’s Obsidian, A Journal of Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora.

*   *   *

Love,

AishaWrites.

– first hours of Saturday, 12th February, 2022: Legon, Accra, Ghana.

CloudYOU! – #TheFruition (Part 8)

This poem is the seventh in my CloudYOU! series. Learn more about the series in the Introduction. Read the first, second, third, fourth , fifth and sixth poems. 

You
know I did
not, could not
have forgotten to write
the day before today.

You
know that too well, I
know.

Life – corn and fish
and, and well, and
You – happened.

Picture mine: A heart-tied stick I chanced on, while on a trip to selected locations in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The specific location here is a footpath to one newly discovered waterfall – Akaa Falls – which is still being developed as a tourist site. –– Thursday, 14th June, 2018.

Yes, Life happened again
with the character that salt is
with the personality that is pepper’s
with the quiet confidence of sun
with the simple immensity of water

and

with You
with You
with You
with You
with You…

*

Love,

AishaLovesToo.

– Tuesday, 3rd July 2018; North Kaneshie, Accra.

*An earlier version of this poem first appeared on my Facebook page.

CloudYOU! – #TheBlossom (Part 7)

This poem is the sixth in my CloudYOU! series. Learn more about the series in the Introduction. Read the first, second, third, fourth and fifth poems from the previous posts.

 

The day before today, the day

I made
talk of the cream and soft crack of corn
with old okra and fine fish,
talk of the grit of grain in the thick of milk,

I slipped
in and out of sleep,
with thoughts of You,
with reads of Lahiri – but mostly
with of thoughts and loves of You –
wafting in and around my head.

I don’t
know why I write today but

I do
know You should know
nothing much has changed,

Picture mine: The sky with a coconut tree close by, a roof and a mango tree behind it, a telecommunication ‘plant’ standing farther and too tall and straight, and iron rods jutting out of a building-in-progress.  –– Wednesday, 11th April, 2018.

nothing that
You or a Cloud
with the scent of water, if not
a cup pouring over with same

nothing that
You or a Cloud
with the break of sun, if not
the shine and gold of same

nothing that
You or a Cloud
with a hue that is blue and
true and just You

nothing that
these three or two
cannot easily solve,
cannot freely give.

 

*

Love,

AishaLovesToo.

– Tuesday, 29 May 2018; North Kaneshie, Accra.

*An earlier version of this poem first appeared on Facebook page.

CloudYOU! – #TheBud (Part 6)

This poem is the fifth in my CloudYOU! series. Learn more about the series in the Introduction. Read the first, second, third, and fourth poems from the previous posts. 

 

the day before this new one was long and soft with
Water. corn and fish happened, in parts. long and
soft with soup with okra – yes, with okra in the mix.
soft and long with grains – in granules, in milk. soft
and long with greens with flesh, texture and
character thick with salt and age and better

but
I digress: I write today to say
that the long and soft of yesterday
was well met with the plenty of Sun
and enough – just enough, no more
than enough

Blue. this new
day is not spent –
not fully spent –
yet, but

 

Picture mine. I, overlooking the part of Assokoro (Abuja, Nigeria) where I was, from my hotel room, during my participation in the West Africa Story Making Workshop, hosted by the British Council and facilitated by African Story Book, an initiative of Saide. – Sunday, 11th March 2018.

I am here, wondering
why the sun is playing
shy with its shine,
wondering when,
wondering whether

You
will come, whether Cloud and Blue
will come colour things up – everything.
Every. Thing. up – today. meanwhile, and

while Sun still lasts, I go
out to drink Its fluid gold
and round warmth – for as for
Water, It always finds Its way…

 

 

*

Love,

AishaLovesToo.

– Thursday, 26 April 2018; North Kaneshie, Accra.

*An earlier version of this poem first appeared on Facebook page.

 

CloudYOU! – #TheSeedling (Part 4)

This poem is the third in my CloudYOU! series. Learn more about the series in the Introduction. Read the first and second poems from the previous posts. 

water
has curious personality

sun
is filtered-fine goodness

corn
needs no kneading

fish
sates at mere sight

Photo mine. A scene at the London Market, around the Korle Lagoon, Bukom and James Town, all of Ga Mashi or British Accra.                            Circa May 2017.

and
you should have been

the fun, the
blue hue
in that cloud

the one right
there, yes

the One…

 

*

Love,

AishaLovesToo.

– Monday, 16 April 2018; North Kaneshie, Accra.

*An earlier version of this poem first appeared on my Facebook page.

Aisha Nelson: Prayer, Again or Something Like It.

 

For the first time, I bring you, Reader Dear, three of my poems – raw, without any prose pieces and not as complements to anything prosaic. Three poems which explore not only (the physical tokens and contexts of) Prayer and its impact on the human psyche and spirit and perhaps worldview, but also on the place of Prayer in the grande scheme of things, and its role as a bridge, the communion between one side of the world or reality and another…

Happy reading.

Kindly leave a thought or two. Spread the Love.

 

1. The Enquiry

 I

sweat and rain mingle in the solid downpour

 

II

it pounds on parched scalps

feet break stones                  rocks crack

toes squirt mud                    water gush

wind beats frayed faces

with pins                      with cold

world is white              bleak

shriveled remains trudge on to give flesh to The

Enquiry                        at                               The

 

Oracle. searching souls decay

gnaw away with waiting at The

Oracle. souls gnarled with the labyrinth of dilemmas and dreams

souls negotiating a handshake from a desperate distance

navigating, measuring their lot of thought and depth

while the backs of disinterested spirits look on

spirits scratching serious sores with rocks

spirits cracking kernels with swollen paws

 

III

Tswa. Omanye aba.

let the moon no more swallow the sun at dusk

let not the fingerlings gulp down the crab a-whole

let the shell not shell another shell…

let not the kite suffocate the sky’s nostril

let the paths not turn rock with hoes

let not the footprints stray ahead of the wayfarer

 

Tswa. Tswa. Omanye aba.

let dew be found to show for the morning

let the spirit and soul reconcile

To share their unique, singular home.

 

Tswa. Tswa. Tswa. Omanye aba.

 

Thursday, 23rd April, 2009

 

2. …at the scent of water.

not water
not dew
at the scent of water

let the frayed stump spew green
let the foul egg vomit a being

let that which was birthed to die
find life
let that which died before birth
know life

at the scent of water
not dew
not water

Friday, 19th June, 2009

 

 

3. Rain Again

…again,

 

rickety priest leant on lithe walking stick and prophesied:

“I hear the sound of rain

her footsteps thundering behind

her billowy rolling children.

I smell the scent of rain

in the gritty swirl of sweat and

heat and dust and green!”

 

Our lips simply, limply, repeated the refrain:

“Oh let the rains come

Let the rains come quick for us

Lest we perish…”

 

(For we cannot afford the argument of our minds:)

“Let the rains come spoil our dire rituals     for

we have long been actively lazing            for

far too long in quarter-hearted supplications for it

Let the rains come beat us so hard that

we throw the hands lifted in prayer

higher

in despair

of rains and gods and fields and all and we rush

 

home…Oh, that it rains so hard (so) we sleep so tight

and we forget our hunger and we rush

to tend the dying tendrils the ‘morrow

with emptier stomachs for both faith and

 

hope…Let it rain so hard for so long                      so we

forget to come back to give thanks and                we

remember – only too late- we don’t need rain for that long so we

go praying the gods for draught-of-sorts

 

again!”

 

Monday, 30th May, 2011

Love,

AishaWrites.

Wednesday, 27th January, 2016

Dansoman, Accra.

 

 

*                   *                  *

1.

In its September 2014, libation-themed online anthology, University of London’s Prairie Schooner featured The Enquiry, together with other poems by young, contemporary Ghanaian writers and selected same-themed poems from its archives. You may see the publication here.

2.

Together with two other poems, …at the scent of water first appeared in the October-November 2013 (online) editions of Kalahari Review. You may see the publication here.

3.

 After adapting it for theatre, Rain Again featured in Accra Theatre Workshop’s  maiden short drama production, An African Walks into a Psychiatrist’s Office and   Other Short Plays. This was on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd November, 2013. Learn more here.