YOU ARE PRAYERS ANSWERED (Nigeria)

               –Written By: Kenny Thompson

 

Everyone is born for someone

Not everyone gets to know that someone

As the clock ticks by

Loneliness stares in the face

On my knee I pray

Oh Lord, when that someone comes my way

Give me the strength and courage to accept

That this someone is mine

My prayer Answered.

 

____________________________________________

POOL OF LOVE (Africa)

          -Written By: Lori Petersen

I am your pool of love,

Always ready for you to dive in

And swim with me,

To the deepest, darkest corners of my soul.

 

When I am not with you,

I wait in painful longing,

Hiding my tears in the dew drops

That slowly run down my sides.

 

When you climb in with me,

I bathe your whole body,

My love caressing you gently

With waters clear and warm.

 

I am overflowing with emotions for you,

And when I look up through the waves,

Your sunshine sparkles through me,

Creating colorful rainbows in my heart.

____________________________________________________

BLACK WOMAN (Senegal)

-Written By Leopold Senghor

 

Naked woman, black woman

Clothed with your colour which is life,

with your form which is beauty!

In your shadow I have grown up; the

gentleness of your hands was laid over my eyes.

 

And now, high up on the sun-baked

pass, at the heart of summer, at the heart of noon,

I come upon you, my Promised Land,

And your beauty strikes me to the heart

like the flash of an eagle.

 

Naked woman, dark woman

Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, sombre raptures

of black wine, mouth making lyrical my mouth

Savannah stretching to clear horizons,

savannah shuddering beneath the East Wind’s

eager caresses

 

Carved tom-tom, taut tom-tom, muttering

under the Conqueror’s fingers

Your solemn contralto voice is the

spiritual song of the Beloved.

 

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil that no breath ruffles, calm oil on the

athlete’s flanks, on the flanks of the Princes of Mali

Gazelle limbed in Paradise, pearls are stars on the

night of your skin

 

Delights of the mind, the glinting of red

gold against your watered skin

Under the shadow of your hair, my care

is lightened by the neighbouring suns of your eyes.

 

Naked woman, black woman,

I sing your beauty that passes, the form

that I fix in the Eternal,

Before jealous fate turn you to ashes to

feed the roots of life.

__________________________________________________

OF MEN AND LOVE (Africa/USA)

        -Written by Charles Ayo Dada 

 

Be it not of men to write of love

Then a man I cease to be.

Be it not of men to express their feelings

Then, what’s this thing about me?

But, be it of men

To sternly wield the sword

And then to gently cup the rose;

Be it of men

To brusquely shovel the earth

And yet crave the tender caress;

Be it of men

To set out to battle bravely

And return surging and bubbling with feeling;

Be it of men to be all of these

Then, a man I seek to be!

Be it not of men to shed their tears

Then I wonder what I am.

Be it not of men to reveal their hearts

I must fear for what I’ve become.

And yet I firmly believe:

That a man should be as strong

As he should be meek;

That a man should be as courageous

As he should be true;

That a man should learn from the old

And as well seek the new;

Above all

That a man should seek an experiencing of love

In its pure and truthful

Childlike and simple

Kind and yet severe –

Just and mercifully beautiful form!

Where spirit leads and intellect follows

And soulfulness triumphs valiantly over base and

narrow feelings.

Be it not of men to speak of love

Then a man I cease to be.

 

_________________________________________________

 

 

THE EYE OF SOUL (Africa)

-Written by Oliver O. Mbamara

 

I judge you not by what you wear,

Whether your garment is of rag or riches,

Or your skin is of a color white or black,

Whether you wear some gold or trinkets,

Or decorate yourself with stones and diamonds,

I see you with the eye of Soul.

 

I know you, for who you are inside of you,

Not for your smiles, for smiles could be false,

Not for your looks, for looks could deceive,

Not for your appearance, for that won’t last,

And not for your clothes, for that only covers.

I see you with the eye of Soul.

 

I am a friend to that you inside of you,

Indifferent to your dose of limitations,

Forgiving to your human flaws of character

Unyielding to rumors and gossips about you

For the eye within sees even more,

I see you with the eye of Soul.

 

**Culled from the book, “LOVE POEMS and QUOTES” by Oliver O. Mbamara ©2003

_____________________________________________________________________

MIDNIGHT ENCOUNTER (Africa) 

             ~From the Book: Poetry of Life 2nd Edition

I watched you roll

Roll from one side of the bed

To the other, and still

The clock chimes once.

 

I watch you sit and hum

Hum unintelligible tones

As mountains of tobacco

Disappear into your nostrils.

 

I watch your eyes

Fill with jerking tears

And your ears positioned

Intermittently to earth’s pillars

Trying to place distant voices.

 

I try to cage my curiosity

But your crawling hands tap my chest

Papa, must I play this midnight encounter

To see the god’s piercing eyes

And partake in this ancestral dialogue.