Madam Speaker,
Honourables, and Fellow Citizens,
The President of the Republic has left the Castle
He has gone to the village
He left around Two Fifteen Post Meridiem
It is sad to know that he will not return
Madam Speaker,
We wish he had not gone
But he went in good spirit,
Leaving behind; a clean seat,
A sharp sword and a high-raised flag
Madam Speaker,
Tears stream down our eyes
The coastal towns are gravely silent
The forest regions are cloudy
And the savanna homeland is windswept
Because the great oak has fallen
Madam Speaker,
We wish it had not fallen
But it did so with grace, and in dignity.
In fond memory of its shade,
And the evergreen foliage, we salute!
Darko Antwi is a regular contributor to One Ghana, One Voice.
If you have a poem in memory of President Mills, please send it to us at oneghanaonevoice(at)gmail(dot)com.
2 comments:
Well done, Snr. Poet Darko Antwi. I know I will definitely come back here on OGOV to add my comments on The last words of Aunt Araba - Darko Antwi, since he has really impressed me with his flair for postmortem poetry ranging from The Burial of Saint Domeabra - Darko Antwi etc… but little did I know that we shall all hearken to the clarion call from OGOV and be singing the same elegiac songs for our late president John Atta Mills.
With this latest one, State of the Nation's Loss - Darko Antwi , SP Darko has proven himself worthy of a serious second look as he has continued to capture all the intricacies and attributes of elegiac poetry something akin to the dirge poetry of Kofi Awoonor. He does this in a subtle panoramic way, an objective stance - perhaps a new dimension to the elegy which is the traditional poem for mourning. He creates a distinction between a proper elegy-- which expresses sorrow and a search for consolation--and "elegiac" poetry that meditates on loss, grief, death, and mortality in a variety of verse forms, such as the ode, epitaph, and eulogy.
The idea behind the first stanza tells it all. The introduction is outstanding. A very good piece.
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