Henry Akuete: My Poems and some

The sun rises  from the far ends of the east from tired slumber reaching out outstretched  with golden blades of a zillion photons it blinds fell beasts of nocturnal habit chasing the darkness into the far corners of the cold west the mist rises, the dew falls from the blades of grass the lark is giddy as she sings of time and earth it is a new day for life, love, and hope    -- Henry Akuete        (the Undying Poet)

The iron laws of time and tide Fools learn and kings die birds go south, the seas rise leaves fall and shafts sprout a womb, a heart beat, quiet beside a grave, a black coffin First love's kiss, smiles shared to tears, torn sheets, jagged lips what goes comes back around up is down as the moon rides as the clock turns, metal chimes trust not what you see today all falls to change, being and unbeing here and there, yin and yang  so goes the way of mortal man living and dying, day and night by the iron laws of time and tide    --Henry Akuete      (The Undying Poet) 

I saw a shooting star white, sparkly and fiery burning its way across the night sky I made a silent wish a whisper, a silent prayer I wished I would fly to the ends of what is known  to kiss the moon and touch the stars alas it was just a wish nothing more than a silent prayer Ashen on the cold stone altar of quiet gods, buried temples it was nothing but a silent prayer  for that same shooting star  bright and glorious above came crashing, splintered, broken to the cold cold earth.      --Henry Akuete          (The Undying Poet)

              THE TRUTH IN THE LIE What begot the demon of change? that dost cause man to molt? and shed skin as time does pass Why do we say today "i love" and on tomorrow's day say "i hate" how does it go to become in time that two fall into each other with love so fiery, gods fall to envy to share the passing wisp of a kiss as it does spark between full lips share the warm embrace between two whose souls will not see parting to know the meaning of a clock's tick For in that instance does love share and send words from blinks of the eye Alas, the sun sets and yet does rise with a new day and new hearts what was becomes no more lovers cry, and yell fire and bile those who loved now turn to hate with torn hair and shattered pottery oiling scars of a victim of loyalty drinking tears, confessed by long songs None is fair in love and so is war All that was, was none but lies Lies of hope and lies of love but in the lies reside an aged truth We are not men...

  In past now cloudy to mind's recall ere the swarm of pale faces unbeknownst ere the vile deflowering of alkebulan's rivers ere the rape and pillage of sacred forests children of afruika split four winds with songs storied of a thousand ages maidens of aithiopia undelifed with faces shades akin to tanned ivory would sway to the distant rumblings of ancient drums deep within the stone walls of zimbabwe from the wide shores of the sea of sand to the narrowing of shaka's resting place the sons of nubia would sing from within tales of the hunt; the conjuring of Niger hands of kindred flames, the straight circle of our fathers We were full with veined crimson, in the eyes, soul slept in same womb, same black milk at the pinnacle of the moon's pride did we dance with the cub of the grey lion hayenas laughed, so laughed the children to comic fables from retired breasts In our stomachs, peace; in our hair, pride; the sun crept below to die yet again Lo did they come riding th...

From this silent Symphony of violence to wit the beauty of becoming did sprout this chaos did birth the best of man For life did steady play a two-toned tune In dying do we be born yet again And in bleeding do we let life become We may cry and hate all the hatred But man never was a peaceful critter what else do the drunken gods crave If not the crimson music from war's fields the hail and grinding of chariot wheels breaking of bones and knitting of guts In this symphony of grit and strife Dost man make name and eat bread So cry havoc and open the pits of hell For long live death, long live war. - - Henry Akuete

Through windows glass stained light beams crawl, fighting through to call us back from dreamy shores reminding us it's not yet over Hell be upon and night long still the dark queen lords over day and night with fell crown of a thousand spikes one for each nation, color and tribe We heard she came from farthest east riding the cold grey winter winds born from sin when man played god maybe rumour, maybe true, but here she is conquering tribes on the silken road not color, nor coin, nor creed she cared calling the eldest of man by name making widows and orphans in cold dark night and carrion of many in the daylight time Fear, tears, whispers of death are all we have in sleepy hollow towns earth is dark and soil yet still as earth is sown by her green jade kiss alchemists unlearn all books yet hold the harp is broken, and string is torn songs forgotten of love and light poems and rhyme ashen and lost We look to the stars for sign, f...

Sing me to sleep Oh still gentle serenade A subtle breezy lullaby will do To pull down heavy black drapes over these beleaguered eyeballs these liquid lenses long seen all All the sorry earth let grow Sing me a song to take me away Far from this unreal reality to a land where we walk on clouds and trees grow old in the skies where the wind is happy where the moon is proud at noonday Where be grey Morpheus? To sing me a silver lullaby and ferry me to where angels sleep for mine eyes tire of salt and the clock ticks in vain if this here be wakefulness then I yearn to sleep and dream  © Henry Akuete 2019

Wake up my friend This be no day to slumber this be a day to keep wake and watch for the world we knew has come undone Alas the stars once we knew in innocence And knew still when the tide was high Aye, the stars of yore and then which once sent silver blades of light shining into a world of dark silence to fill the lungs of the nightingale with songs of love and hope and point our way to a place where dreams come alive the stars which once told our stories and kept the demons in gehena's bay the stars that whispered into the night across time's circling silky road to remind the bleeding soldier in war's fields we are not alone even in pain's iron hold the stars we once knew and gazed aloft these stars are falling can't you see? These stars are falling, falling my friend One by one do they fade and fall going out on the beaches of a dying earth. (C) Henry Akuete 2019

All she wanted was to taste love looking into the wide grey heavens she made rain with her warm tears wetting the sour earth from within but nothing grew from it all only for a lonely seed of sorrow sprouting from the barren earth it bore a bitter fruit poison to taste this she got when love she sought she cried thunder loud and long she spat out hail and whirlwinds it quaked when she fell to the ground but she was still alone, all alone nobody heard her song, nobody came all she had was the bitter black fruit cold and lifeless in her pale hands hungry and starving for nought but love she closed her eyes and took a long bite in that moment her heart was frozen and broken to a thousand red pieces this was not suicide, no it wasn't make no mistake, it was murder

Call me, draw me, hold me Make me kneel and bend In the wind and rain whip me Tear my skin away in pain As you forge me with the cane Drain me of joy and light In my own sorrow drown me Call my name in the dark And let the fright chain me I'm a slave to your long will Take my name away from me Let me know only your cold whistle Nail me to an inverted cross For agony is all you give me Drag me through the rough streets Let me know the beauty of shame As they spit on me and mock me While dogs lick my open wounds feed me my own nauseous waste Give me my piss for wine i drink I am no man before your sight Burn me when I'm still alive When to a stake you tie me Let me know no sleep in the night Leave me to the mercy of wolves And the howling hoots of grey owls As i lie on your cold threshold Give me pain and tears all day But all i ask of you till death Dont leave me all alone

Not all poetry is sweet, Not every line is beautiful Life is not a comedy,This poem is not beautiful It is dark and otherworldly, Drawn from dark energy With lines written in black ink Ink made from dark matter and grey ether Im not a living poet, im a dead poet For my poetry is not for the living The living are deaf and blind Call me a dead poet because i die when i write I bleed my very soul onto this papyrus So by the time im done my hand falls Call me accursed because all true poets are cursed Cursed to die and rise again to write To die when we write and write when we die Our souls eternally trapped in limbo Only to be freed by the very truth that haunts us So we write to be free, to tell truth that makes us hated My skin is covered with ancient rune tattoos Every poem i write burned unto my own flesh By seven arch angels with my own blood and tears With my pen i stab my chest everyday Tearing my heart out for immolation on the alter of truth This is not the ...

Its in the flow of the ether in the noise and the crowd where flows truths unknown and lies become upended still in the ether the past is present the present comes to the past what was in the ebbs and waves the tide will bring it to bear in the ether all is still possible so do not say it cannot be make no mistake about reality the unreal is what you once knew in the ether life is a river the river is the ether you see flowing through the senses yet without notice to most tap ye into the silent ether fetch from the ancient fountain fill your cup with this here truth knowledge to quench your thirst

the shadow, the perpetual shadow standing tall above my dome silently creeping behind me walking on my dark foot prints in the dark it only remains darker in the rain it still towers over me it must not be my own shadow my shadow wouldn't be over me but still it persists in the brightest day in my dreams its casts a dark figure tall when all bows to the howling wind i am scared to turn about me now for what i see will tear my soul out so i walk on with my chin to my chest eyes closed to all around me now chastised by the silent sound behind behind and above it is absent ahead anchor to my forward movement if i fail where i now must go then it is for my fright for the shadow the shadow, the shadow, the shadow

I see no meaning in this even harder when i ask i was born and i will die a flame bright to smoulder where is the scale's center the balance we call truth men are not equal in the sun dwarves run among giants the coin chooses who to love what she sees i do not know falling in the arms of ogres better men die alone and cold i wish she will smile at me when we cross paths at the market but i am invisible to her i think she stays faithful to death while i covert another man's wife why won't she love me women can love more than one

Our women are gone we are married to ghosts we stay all night weeping for them weeping for glory days past when our women were dark and proud walking tall in the noonday sun we would beat our chest loudly that is my woman in the marketplace until they sent us a vile disease to wipe out our women and leave us this disease that first made them mad mad so much as to hate their skin this skin which made them envied by white women in the western halls in madness they peeled their skin in pain we watched them turn white poisoned by their own hands we saw now they walk among us pale shadows grey ghosts in our own cold beds our children know them no more for the mothers of black Africa are no longer black.                      

I'm a little man on a little road Against the four elements i battle Earth, wind, water and fire fighting I bleed my own soul from within When i fall from the hatred of gravity Face has seen the farthest reaches And blown about by the four winds In reverse do i see time spinning When the crow went before the hour Truly I'm but an old beast of burden As my sins weigh heavily on me I carry myself like accursed Cronus Through the dunes of the hourglass My eyes spill silver rivers of tears When i cry to curse the lofty gods against supreme and higher forces Alone to lick wounds and count losses Pray me to ride the wings of pegasus Away from these shadow demons Spit from the deepest pits hades To haunt my mind and drive me mad Lookin Into the grey and dim future I see me in me on the highest peak Surrounded my a thousand crows My foes slain around with Excalibur Lo still do i see my father's fathers All those who fell before my birth Then i know the fa...

The thing that dares to be when the world is same to me insane it is when i choose to kneel praying to a god i cannot see my faith is weak my hope is deep deepened by pain my eyes they bleed religion. an ideal i share a refuge for me when life is pain a place i hide when i cant explain religion. my mark my name my curse my bane my gift my jazz my drug my game religion the thing it is that takes me there when i believe that all is well when i am healed and freed from hell life is new and sin is fell religion you bring me God and call me blood creed on creed the sword is law god on god the earth is gore stone a dame she is a whore religion oh damned be thou i wish begone so we could sing a happier song no more deceived when veil is none the bird would sing when shines the sun religion your name is lost, your pride is poor your way unfound when chaos is law God betrayed by what you cause vile, violated, soiled on the floor religion, why religion?