On Friday, December 27, 2024, 12:48 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Googled : the pretentious chimpOn Thursday, 26 December 2024 at 15:45:59 UTC+1 Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:Good Morning Doc !
And cheers to all you just said about Shakespeare !
Cheers - even if according to the fettered, the unlettered, the unlearned, the unmind-full, the unread and underfed, suffering from intellectual malnutrition and illusions of grandeur, it's "subjective" as are indeed those referred to as the silver poets, the various golden ages and categories of poets, not to mention the diverse groups and movements of which the pretentious chimp writing about "the evolution of poetry in Nigeria" is but another roar of waterfall, cloudburst ( and here I'm thinking of these lines from Joshua Idehen's "River Niger to the Coloniser":
"measure me in vengeance
You have never seen my final form
child, I was an ocean
Long before you were born
what are you but another man
claiming what he doesn't understand
a baby trying to name his mother
ask my children for some wisdom"
It's 11.56 am here in Stockholm, six hours ahead of New York
that's the time difference between The Big Apple and the capital
of " Little America"
"The drunken politician leaps
Upon the street where mothers weep
And the saviours who are fast asleep…" ETC
Oohay rhymes with so much - and since you are friend - not foe
the kind of rhymes one can have in mind
are not of the most unkindest cut in kind.
So here's some "Good News Nigeria"
and it's not about a band full of angels
being sent by Jehovah from Jupiter
to set captives and rebel rousers
like Omoyele Sowore
free.
The good news from here for free electrons like Baba Kadiri and me
is that they'll soon be showing two Nollywood films on Swedish TV!
Six days ago Everybody loves Jenifa had its premiere in Stockholm 👍 at the main cinema theatre:
I'm really impressed that you played Macbeth - it definitely shows some early leadership qualities in you that you actually got the part. I was also a member of our drama club at secondary school, and the literary and debating society too, where I fared better ; at the drama club everybody wanted to play the major roles - especially the pushy ones - I played a minor role in Macbeth, a minor role in Eric Linklater's " Crisis in Heaven " where I had only one line : " Look to the lady" ( as she fainted); of course in Julius Caesar, I definitely wanted the part of Mark Antony - unfortunately, so did everyone else ( for the annual Speech Day and Prize-Giving ceremony at which all the big shot parents would be present ) but because I didn't push too hard, had to settle for that of Antony's servant who brought the message to the assassins at the capitol and the lines are still fresh from my fifteen year old's mind, as was the trembling, when I delivered them :
ANTONY'S SERVANT[kneeling]
Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel.
[falls prostrate]
Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down,
And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say:
Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest.
Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving.
Say I love Brutus, and I honour him.
Say I feared Caesar, honoured him, and loved him.
If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony
May safely come to him and be resolved
How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death,
Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead
So well as Brutus living , but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus
Thorough the hazards of this untrod state
With all true faith. So says my master Antony."
However, Dr Oohay, depending on the extent to which you took the part to heart, I trust that you have not since then, imbibed / integrated/ assimilated Macbeth's character or any other Machiavellian tactics which on the other hand could prove useful provided that you don't intend to machine-gun your way to the Naija presidency ,if you don't get the swagger that comes with the sway through the ballot box…
BTW, I think that's what must have happened to some of our leaders , some of them must have played Hitler in some theatre or other, some Saddam Hussein, and got stuck in the role; some others among our Saro Creole leaders are still making speeches in which they try to sound like the late Winston Churchill , even as - politically speaking, they are pulling out our teeth with pliers , you can hear some of my peers, still in the braggadocio mode, boasting "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
On Thursday, 26 December 2024 at 03:03:31 UTC+1 Dr. Oohay wrote:I played Macbeth in high school and many verses and lines in MACBETH still echo or appear around me. I regard "Shakespeare" as (arguably) the greatest/MOST CREATIVE dramatist the world has ever experienced and continues to experience.Oohay"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." (Great lines from the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow"Speech
When the dumb-ass idiot reads this he thinks that Shakespeare is talking about him
On Wednesday, 25 December 2024 at 18:48:49 UTC+1 Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:Important correction:
The very first lines I ever read by him (Itumeleng) accidentally opening the book at page 99 as if I was consulting the I Ching , the lines on page 99 :
She opens up her legs
instead of her heart
and says
"Here, this is all the love I have to give"
only to wash herself up afterwards.
Tell me then,
how could she ever understand
whenever you felt misused?
No, you opened your heart,
cut it deep with a knife.
Bleeding you offered yourself to ask,
"Is this enough?",
just as she turned around to spit
"Tough"
She kisses a like she meant it,
and when she thinks
you're not looking,
she turns around to spit
_____________________________________________
And that was the end of page 99; the rest, that's below, was me musing on Kabir saying that he laughs when he hears that the fish in the water is complaining of thirst:
Well, over here, love, sex etc
is everywhere, no reason for you
to drown in the Mediterranean
for the sake of honey or wanting
to get some of it. Some hussy.
N.B. I know quite a few poets in this countryOn Wednesday, 25 December 2024 at 18:05:51 UTC+1 Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:
HAFIZ !
I'm wondering ,where is Amatoritsero Ede
and what's happening with his Maple Tree Literary Supplement ?
I'm asking this as I leaf through Rainbow People by Itumeleng / The Journey by Lefifi Tladi
and wondering why Ede doesn't rope in these two, albeit Itumeleng ( "Tumi" ) posthumously.
The very first lines I ever read by him (Itumeleng) accidentally opening the book at page 99 as if I was consulting the I Ching , the lines on page 99 :
She opens up her legs
Instead of her heart
and says
"Here, this is all the love I have to give"
Only to wash herself up afterwards.
Tell me then,
How could she ever understand
Whenever you felt misused?
No, you opened your heart,
cut it deep with a knife.
Bleeding you offered yourself to ask,
Is this enough?",
just as she turned around to spit
"Tough"
She kisses a like she meant it,
and when she thinks
you're not looking,
She turns around and spits
Well, over here, love, sex etc
is everywhere, no reason for you
to drown in the Mediterranean
for the sake of honey or wanting
to get some of it. Some hussy.
Kabir says, "I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty"
Well that's Kabir's opinion and I have never known anyone,
not even Robert Bly to argue with him about such a things as
"water is wet"
Over here too, the idiot feels insulted when he's told that he's an idiot
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
"I'm a poet, I know it, hope I don't blow it"
And now he's buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes"
Just like grandpa, the driver of the vehicle had completely lost all control.
This is what happens when under the midday sun you mix the palm wine, the akpeteshie ( ogogoro) with some rum, jump into your jalopy and tell your wife or wives that you're going for a drive, or you're going for a run.
Half a mile down the road he crashed into one of the stalls at Makola Market in Accra.
In no time at all the hungry police were at the scene of the accident.
If you really want to call things by their proper names, it's known as kalabule.
In advance, hoping for some bribe money, they said the accident was a crime,
a crime against humanity.
The driver of the vehicle pleaded his innocence and told the police, pointing at a nearby leper who had witnessed the accident, " Just ask Mr. Leper over there, what happened."
Mr. Leper told the police:
"It was insane!", he said, and pointing at the driver, he continued "He must have been driving at 100 m-p-h , no brakes , no horn, it looked like he didn't know where he was going, crashed into Mama Abie's stall and as you can see, completely mucked up everything!"
The driver stared at the leper and said, " Tell the truth: Is that what happened?"
The leper returned the driver's stare and asked," Is Mr. Leper my name?"
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