Star/Steer poem: This is about a traveler navigating the harsh Free State winter relying on the stars for direction and solace.
The Free State veld a canvas stark and white,
Icy Easterly winds cut through me to the bone.
A lonely traveler in the freezing Tweeling night,
I walk a path to a far away home.
The snow clad earth my bed, the sky my roof,
against the cold my spirit stands as proof.
Above the kapok a brilliant fierce guiding star
Ignites the darkness with its age begrimed flame.
It steers me to my home afar, though
frost bitten I whisper his name
It tells a story of resilience and might,
And guides me safely till morning light.
To All The Girls in Reitz,
Your light makes black holes blink out of
existence and stars kneel in homage.
Sisters.I was born at Reitz.
I am a Free State boy me
I am the Rose of Reitz, the radiance
that rules,a rapturous revolution.
Billions of bright bodies bow before
my blossoming beauty.
A touch totally transforms time through
sheer tenderness.
I shimmer,shushing eternity,stunningly
strong,a supernova.
Flames falter,freeze, flee from my fierce fire.
The worlds wait,witnessing what wonders
will waltz from me next.
The Uba flies,Sani Pass flickers under streetlights,
My chest aches with thought,lungs burn with reminiscence,
Sacrificing pride twists my mind with doubt,she lingers unseen-
I remain still
Mist owns Vrede,a sunless Free State night in autumn,
My pulse revolts,doubt gnaws the edges of determination-
I grip the door handle,heart rebelling,breath caught-
I order the driver back
The grumpy wind cries through bottle glass and bone,
Grain silos whine like widows at the gate,
Each sunrise shows up but exits the dongas alone.
The main street sighs,its colors ages out of date,
A dronkie in overall insults the deserted mine,
His guffaws crack,deranged,underneath the weight.
The spaza still sells nyaope and wine
And phantoms line where concertinas used to play,
Their sounds of tiekie draai to hosannas of turpentine
Youngsters pursue tyres that stagger,then spin away,
Grime hides their glee,fields no longer yield,
Old topies sit like statues at close of day.
You comprehend-beyond the rot,
The shattered shield,
A determined ditty reverberates tenderly through pain
An initiative unforeseen
Supported by the Countess Aberdeen
Motivated several politicians and were
Encouraged to convene
In the year of 1920
When issues were aplenty
Delegates backed the Cork City charter
And elected MacSwiney, our dear martyr
Yet as many were to grieve
Others would also leave
They were faced with a new mandate
Upon founding the Irish Free State
However not everyone was happy
And things got rather scrappy
With views diverging ever-more
Making it hard to keep the score
The dust took a while to settle
And tested our civic institutions’ mettle
Though issues were left unsolved
Causing city councils to be dissolved
New problems were to be addressed
That would get the people rousing
Occupied with public works and housing
Making the managers obsessed.
That’s an oversimplification
For a topic deserving of dilation
An overview of a creation
Being the Municipal Association
free state
need resuscitate
can’t hesitate
to evaluate
then elaborate
specious debate
too late
dare dedicate
stilling hate
egos inflate
do perpetuate
inevitable fate
armageddon date
will not wait
lest we consecrate
civil complaint
with new translate
Messages came thru coded
And the messengers appeared in disguise
Such was their fate as the group of 300
Made Stronghold their place of refuge
Twas all going according to book
But the twisted enemy was all around
One but must pass great hurdles
To attain the prophetic anointing
''Came the Message Thru the prophet gad
Depart ye from the stronghold..
and David's The prophets king salvation
Was to be found in playing lunacy
At them gates of the city..
When his pursuers found him
Angst the Enemy King spoke forth..''
''Did you but call you're Kings counsel
To witness the drooling and doodling of one mad fool
Truly can this idiotic fool writing gibberish upon the city wall
Be the celebrated David, Warrior, anointed of God to be King?''
And in that Biblical Fable I learnt a moral
Don't be judgmental of a book by its cover
Its often gems pass themselves as ordinary stones..
...Roy read me the Ordinance and declaration..
''I assert the declaration of Kirinyaga Free State''
And I believe On matter Europe Catalonia's should be free..
...A KFS PEACE DAY
All Kenyan Forces are Special
We share gifts.. ..JESHI..
On a mild Spring’s night
In the heartlands of Ulster
A prodigious child was born
For Ireland, to save her
A man of modest means
Yet formidable wit
The mystics he joined
A cause to commit
In poems and paintings
He found self expression
Yet through a noble pursuit
Would leave his impression
He traversed the country
On a campaign of recruitment
To free the impoverished through struggle
And the Co-operative movement
With Horace Plunkett and Connolly
He struggled for justice
Yet the Gombeens and the despots
Outweighed Caesar Augustus
Though Russell did not stop
In this quest for social reform
From misery to prosperity
One sought to transform
But the inconsiderate dogma
Of the Irish Free State
Meant to delay his mission
As the ‘Homestead’ must wait
George William Russell grew older
Crippled by usury
To wretched cancer, succumbed
Rest in peace, ‘AE’
Kind people
With good respect
Educated from different universities and Schools
Responsible in their lives and knowing well to
Economize their small or big budgets.
Knowing to speak Kikwerekwere languages from
West , East , South , Central , North Africa
Especially in South African big towns and Some
Rural areas of Free state , Limpompo, Northern cape
Eastern cape , Mpumalanga , and Kwazulu Natal provinces
Written December 19/ 2019
By Alfonso Warally Ngengethe Mussabwa Chris
Do you believe consciousness
a free state
Choice empowering the moment
strong
Neurons firing at your
discretion
Time unencumbered
—reality won
(The New Room: August, 2022)
Peace is a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there's no fighting or war, everything coexisting in perfect harmony and freedom.
In other words, while war destroys and disrupts, peace builds and strengthens as well as restores. Moreover, peace is personal which helps us achieve security and tranquillity and avoid anxiety and chaos to make our lives better.
https://youtu.be/rF2N4Zf8mqs
The Obama presidency
He started out promising but fell at the first hurdle
When he tried to give America a health system
That covered the working classes, what’s left is
An insurance system they can ill afford.
He sent back thousands of illegals back, but since
he was the darling of the liberal press little was said.
Once when he had the chance to become great
By declaring Palestine, a free state, he didn’t quite
Make it, and his speech ended in platitude.
He will be remembered as a suave but weak man
Who baulked at the pressure from Israel?
He was not a great statesman but buckled under
The burden and there are little to remember him
By other than what he could have been.
The Obama presidency
He started out promising but fell at the first hurdle
When he tried to give America a health system
That covered the working classes, what’s left is
An insurance system they can ill afford.
He sent back thousands of illegals back, but since
he was the darling of the liberal press little was said.
Once when he had the chance to become great
By declaring Palestine, a free state, he didn’t quite
Make it, and his speech ended in platitude.
He will be remembered as a suave but weak man
Who baulked at the pressure from Israel?
He was not a great statesman but buckled under
The burden and there are little to remember him
By other than what he could have been.
Across the ocean
Across the sea
I live in Lagos
the city to be
Where business activities has become something of a frenzy
And her economy is a thing of envy
I come from Lagos
The Old slave colony
but now it is a free state because God has destroyed all her enemies
I live in Lagos
Once a real estate of Queen Victoria
But now it is a land of fun and hysteria
With the British Colonial past lingering on
Lagos is the land of coconuts and burning sun
I come from Lagos
with no flowers and trees
and you will be lucky to see a single bumbee bee
But now we have glass houses and many a tower
And hundreds of automobiles that speed of by the hour
And that is the Lagos I see
I live in Lagos
Precious paradise close to the Atlantic
With a view that makes travelers so romantic
But with a teeming population
which seems dramatic
the heat of Lagos is getting traumatic
Bad Years
By: Tom Wright
9-23-04
Twixt hard times, I scarcely remember,
though that's not to say there was no other.
Sleeping nights on a pallet till mid September,
under a willow tree, with Joe, my brother.
The hot July breeze
always brought an onslaught of harvest lice.
Riding the Zephyrs from fields being thrashed.
The nearing days of picking pumpkins would be nice,
scattered among cornstalks, together lashed.
Fall was nice
for that meant the weather would be cool.
But cotton fields begged to be stripped,
for school duds.
Too, that unsaid dread, of going back to school,
in clothes washed with brown lye soap,
that made no suds.
The Muskogee Free State Fair,
was a happening about this time.
The wildlife exhibits and livestock judging and care,
we could browse all day and not spend a dime.
Throughout this barn we would idly roam
securing things for free,
a winter stash of reading, to take back home.
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