Amatoritsero Ede,
I'm much relieved
because I had thought
of the distinct possibility
that in this troubled &
turbulent vale of tears
in this Kali Yuga
screaming like Allen Ginsberg
you, as a former Hare Krishna Sadhu
had retired to the forest or one of the
Himalayan caves in answer to the call
of Lord Krishna's flute to retire to a life
of profound contemplation, once again
a sacred calling to renunciation.
Unlike the pretentious chimpanzee,
(and the chimp always knows where is he )
for some of us,
real connoisseurs
Kudos !
Your poetry anthology
Globetrotter & Hitler's Children
set the pace
Mazel Tov and Mighty Congratulations
that through hard work and commendable
patience you are vibrantly in circulation
going from strength to strength and stronger
than Johnnie Walker, still going strong
"Walkin' to and fro beneath the moon
out to where the trucks are rolling' slow
May the Holy Spirit fire your imagination
anoint you with more of the holy midnight
Oil. I sincerely wish more grease and unction
to your elbows, more fluid ink to your pen
"Walkin' to and fro beneath the moon
out to where the trucks are rolling slow
I have forwarded your kind thoughts to
Lefifi Tladi , (https://www.facebook.com/lefifi.tladi.7)
I last saw him here and another poet friend that was
present to also pay his tribute to Harvey, was
the prolific Bengt O Björklund -
hopefully
to be roped in
to the Maple Tree Literary Supplement corral
although I'd better be careful about the word "corral "
since it might be his won't to joke that he
is not a horse that has to be "roped " - I almost
wrote "raped", or broken in, maybe in the same
sense as Joseph Brodsky when asked about his roots
said, " I am not a tree " -
and among the tens of thousands.
there's Eugene Skeef
We have so many poets over here in Sweden -
a veritable land of poetry -the very first one I met
back in 1972 was Per Eric Söder
Here's a very partial list,
some of them writing
in their mother tongue and
in English, some of them, of course,
you have never
heard of before
for example I'm thinking of Kiluanji Kush,
our brother from Angola whose swinging poems in pidgin
were published by Författares Bokmaskin
Apart from the big shot power poets ( for some reason
unknown to my mind, why am I just at this very moment
thinking of George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin ?)
Well, thankfully,
your literary journal which is
one of the best in existence
is also fulfilling another purpose
which only God knows
providing a venue
featuring such extra-
ordinary talents, among whom
previously, perhaps were those
sung about, mournfully :
"Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations"
For you Amatoritsero Ede,
the generous facilitator,
hopefully,
there's many a Swedish Poetry Festival ahead
Hello Cornelius,I am well and thriving. Just have been busy with academic work. Maple Tree Literary Supplement is an ongoing obsession. It is now at issue 26 Issue 27 is forthcoming. The two poets you mention are new to me but the quoted poems is very imagistic and suggestive. Simple diction but powerful signification. I refer to Rainbow People by Itumeleng / The Journey by Lefifi TladiHere is MTLS issue 26: Maple Tree Literary Supplement, issue 26:RegardsAmatoritseroOn Wednesday, 25 December 2024 at 13:05:51 UTC-4 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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