For a mother so loves her children
That she gives her very self,
That they, if ever should believe in her,
Shall not perish but inherit perpetual paradise!
Somewhere on the Grain Coast,
The tenderness of affection in a mother’s name–Deepu–
Sinks deeper than the ‘pu’ (as in pool) it purifies.
My leaping bones have tasted the glory
Lustering in her love as the gleam glitters
To worlds afar, surpassing measurable degrees.
She embodies motherhood beyond the ordinary:
Brushing through bushes and feeding flames, simultaneously,
To the belle of a hungry fire hearth – leading a dual role
As the wo and man of our healthy hut.
It’s no secret that her body is unleavened bread;
I’ve noticed, how she bruises and breaks herself daily,
Furnishing homes and mopping floors
With the stings of her flesh
That her children “might have life,
And have it more abundantly.” She reminds me
of the Lord’s Supper;
Redemption is no easy endeavor,
Knowing that a piece of you must die each day
Before the final death. I guess this is what the Messiah meant
When He murmured:
“Greater love hath
no man [woman]
than this…”
That a mother
lays down her life
for her pekins (sons
& daughters).
Her blood must be the fruit of the vine: upon every sundown,
She sprinkles a handsome portion on our doorposts,
Soaking them with heavier chants of amens
As she demands the demons of death
To pass us over – a vesper of power
To which the little devils must flee with fright
At its utterance!
Dear oldma (mother);
Blessed are thou among oldmas!
These are testaments
That the Father
Has bestowed you
with
A name above all other names.
And here, I’ll always stand – confident, doubtless;
With my heart erect, and gaze locked on a tick-tocking clock,
Awaiting the last days when the rapture erupts
That I may root my shadow beneath the skin of your wings
As we transcend above angels
With immortal seeds sowed in the lips of our cells,
Sprouting out as heavenly gems, to be harvested
In a realm where souls never die!
Somewhere on the Grain Coast, Deepu always will be
The name of the Daughter of Man–mama–endowed with such similar love
Which sunk salvation down to earth, the love which spells out
The definition of a divine miracle!
Authored by Arthur Shedrick Davies
It’s amazing how you used “Liberian English” and Scripture to express not just the usually talked about love, but the love of a mother.
“Redemption is no easy endeavor,
Knowing that a piece of you must die each day
Before the final death. I guess this is what the Messiah meant
When He murmured:
“Greater love hath
no man [woman]
than this…”
That a mother
lays down her life
for her pekins (sons
& daughters).”
Bro…this is a master piece. I’m really moved by those lines I copied and pasted. You couldn’t have written this any better. Good job ?. Keep it up.
This poem is really do beautiful