Osramambo

Seen from above the sea of trees look like water raised to waves by the wind
the sound of distant surf a savage and tender green
clamshells are trodden in the earth, hillocks of red and yellow clay
roped with wild roots like snakes
dappled with hanging mists
sunclouds are towering cliffs
blushing pink.


Walk seaward stranger
castles and canons are hallowing hymns and everyone's a Prince
sea smooth as oil beyond the artillery of surf
men land here
their lives cupped in their hands like dice
gambling for Gold
Black gold a wealth reserved for kings
Nzima, Abora, Esikuma, Sekondi, Agona, Kromanti.

Asasi Yaa
earthmother I shot here like a bolt
drawn to your force from distant galaxies of stars
a cosmic tramp
use me
a building block of life
or let me rest between your breasts here
enfold me near your heart.


[Remember now that the first experiments in space explorations used Spiders

- before dogs, monkeys and humans!] The Akan traditions claim Ananse - a

spider [weaver of tales] owns all the stories of the world - a genre called Anansesem.

 

Tell us
interrogating strangers press
where did your life begin
tell us of Origins

 

Fingers trace the arc of all creation
The sky?
The Sea?
Uncomprehended gestures are so meaningless
how can we show the uterus of the world
trace the anatomy of being

for those who only seek to know the measure of everything.
We emerged from a Black Hole.
Where
How big?

 
Yaa Anansewaa

The Spider **[is a force field you know - Ananse is metaphor]
is the mother of us all
dancing she copulated with our father
devoured him
when she died the earth did not exist

we buried her
the past
an egg in the middle of our heads
from the fertility of that inner joy
we spin
our own space
extensions of ourselves - this Earth...our world's a Golden Thread

we are...

Impatient
shaking heads the strangers went away no wiser
interrogating primitives.



---

Ananse - the Moral Philosopher

Have always been interested in the wisdom transmitted in oral traditions

distilled and collected as folktales, idioms, proverbs, cliches. If we subject them to

closer investigation we may discover them to be the formulated resultants

of countless typical experiences of our human ancestors - a retrieved awareness or

consciousness of our origins - to probe for deeper layers of meanings and their

genetic origins leads to appreciation of subtleties - they are more than 'Just so'

stories for children.

In the '50's as editor of the first issue of Okyeame - a Journal of Poems from Ghana included

one of my own.  Its inspiration: A sacred Lake in Ghana/Gold Coast - Bosomtwi

was formed by a meteorite (at the Smithsonian there is a map indicating this

event and its trajectory). As it fell small taktites flaked off, called osramambo - or

god's axe heads [metal from heaven] likely radio active, and are worn as talismans

'to cool the heart'.