(12/12/2013) Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: An Acknowledgment

Today I present an acknowledgement of Nelson Mandela that I have been sharing with U. S. President Obama, the Ambassador of South Africa Rasool (Washington, DC), U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and others, a poem, ALL AFRICA REJOICING.  Just as the power of a single word, so the power of a single association or a single image.  The poem appearing upon the page is always only a fragment of the writers mind, while the other pieces are to be found within the reader.  At best, a poem is a fragment of thought, a phrase, and a small abstract of a great whole in place as the writer’s mind.  Specially for this reason, there should be some order, some direction, some integrity.  I look forward to your comments.  Be encouraged!

ALL AFRICA REJOICING
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela  (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)

All Africa crying
Tears of joy
The cataracts of Tugela cascading
Thunders rainbow laden
Licking her chops as a lioness over prey

Surely, it is an act of GOD
When Methodist schoolboys
Escape Bantu education
To fill their hands with King Protea blooms
Broad fields of destiny and law

The sudden prison bars of island waves
Treacherous currents that torture you
To tell all your truth
Your tribal secrets
Your names, your hearts committed

There will be a future, the defense of peace
We must hide until then by silence
Stone face, arrested smiles
Or weeping gasps and snatches of
Breath in the cosmic egg, infinity

The splendid USA, a shining revolution
A heritage of reconciliation
From a common ground of shame
Nguni and the troublemaker’s rest
Amandla

The soil of the escarpment opens to embrace
Collusion, victory
The covert ancestral home
The rich earth of sky children
And the offspring of the trek, for all are welcome

From Joburg to Harlem
From Niagara to Soweto
Hands should now clap rhythms for dancing feet
Drums should now sound for freedom dreams
Made real

A hero of the Boer Wars released
Home again from Cape Town and Pretoria
The pantheon of ancestors
The power of our believing is now increased
The vision we all bled for still alive: 

Two elephant tusks and ears of wheat
A knobkierie and a spear
The secretary bird with wings expanding
Banded warriors beneath their rising sun
All Africa rejoicing

 


©Michael Andrew Williams, 2013.  All rights reserved.


THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC