by Philo Ikonya
Sitting hand stretched flat on a hot stone
Giving thumbs up to Hazare a subtle flame
I travel the world like rays of unseen,
I beg for green the world is dry.
I will snatch this Hazare glimmer snatch.
I seek cool freshness of justice like water
And it is not here in the psalms that you sing
In your palms reading tablets as in Mosaic dialogue
Your shrines are robbed of the shadow of hope.
Even before Musa in the reeds,
I was waiting in Tahrir for Egypt.
Slavery was not a plan of nature, still we thirst, we still thirst
Afrika do not be left in the mercenary granary there is no air
Thank you Hazare for eating justice, faith will follow if for one day
Our consciences so dull you prick, Gandhi did stop over in Lamu,
How can his footsteps leave despair?
I see the swinging palm trees, that is my sky,
Hazare lies in Gandhi form starving and hungry for justice.
Tell India she is constipated with corruption and needs
With all of us this train corruption free to catch,
to this spirit to be is to be alive, spices replenish new health,
We eat fat faith in deeds today.
Hands blue, orange and pink! hold hands with Hazare,
none is corrupt alone not even a lone wolf,
India feathers her cap as world’s best democracy
Pakistan is not far away and we know of castes and pain.
If you love India be like an ocean, connecting coast to coast
all countries small threads in earth fabric,
pull one and the mesh will show a pattern.
Hazare blow your wind to Harare and to all Afrika
Our breaths monsoons have become Hazare.
Hazare blow, blow from over seventy years of rage
When I catch you in Kitale namaste Hazare, and then,
in Mathare slums in Nairobi I will wake and stare.
Chile found her way to good color even after a dictator,
Perhaps Hazare, you will touch Nazareth in a new way,
Everywhere in the world, Hannah still sorrows to conceive.
- Share this Poem:
ABOUT THE POET ~
Philo Ikonya is a prolific poet and novelist. She has been described as poet who claims history and creates futures passionately. Philo was first a school teacher and later taught Semiotics in Tangaza College and Spanish at the United States International University, (USIU) in Nairobi Kenya., Between 2007 and 2009, Philo Ikonya, PEN Kenya president, was arrested brutally several times for speaking out against corruption and the foiling of freedom of expression in her country. Born in Kenya, Philo lives in Oslo in exile from 2009. She is respected by the people for being vocal and loved, but resisted by those for whom the bitterness of truth is too personal. Within the context of power, human rights and freedom of expression, Philo is in her element. She has been described by poet Shailja Patel as “Rejecting silence and refusing simplification as she battles corruption”. “This author describes what she is heavily involved in, and she manages to portray it so that it concerns us all.” Per Ole Kallestad, Norwegian poet., Philo Ikonya is the author of two novels: Kenya, will you marry me? Langaa, Cameroon, 2011, and Leading the Night, Twaweza Publications, Kenya, 2010. She authored poems translated into German and published in a bilingual edition titled Out of Prison: Love Songs (Aus dem Gefangnis Liebesgesange) published by Loecker Austria, 2010 and This Bread of Peace (Lapwing, Belfast) 2010. She has written three young readers books: We met a Grasshopper and Other Poems, The Lost Gazelle (By East African Educational Publishers) and The Kenyan boy who became President of America translated into Norwegian, Med røtter fra Kenya I det hvite hus published by Libretto, Oslo.
Last updated July 14, 2015