To Keeping On…Keeping On

    (For Kwame Nyerere Bongodia Lowe)

    Old uncle time has called me

    to the  task; procrastination

    has had its run.

    Now is the time

    and the time is now;

    I must keep on the path

    to the task ahead.

    To stop in the middle

    of present trials 

    and tribulations is to defeat

    self; questioning the promise

     by the God of deliverance

    from all evil and the soaring

    as if on the wings of eagles.

    Let Jacob’s strength

    be the climbing motivation;

    the courage of Job,

    the faithful determination.

    Once more and again,

    let it be realized that the weary

    ancestors did more with less;

    leaving us less to do with more.

    With legacy on our side;

    the pillars of faith and hope 

    in our heart; the hammer of

    persistence in one hand and

    the nail of determination in

    the other, nothing can turn us

    around.

    Just got to keep on talking;

    keep on walking—fighting

    until freedom is won.

    All praises due to the Most High

    for granting another day

    perpendicular to the level plane;

    continuing the labor of love

    to bring closer, the total liberation

    of a once enslaved people 

    who are now rooted and branching

    in the midst of this waste hollowing land.