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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Jun 2008 : 12:33:02
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Sanguine Crystals
The mountain lion
Sat on its perch
Watching over the hills and dales
Hidden in soil lay crystals
Gifts for the sons of the soil
Equal shares they all gained
Greedy plots won the day
As the senile lion went to sleep
The land of common talk
And no fighting brethren
Changed over night
Hands and legs chopped to bits
Little children totting guns
As crystals; shiny before
Now hide their face in sanguine baths
The killing fields of
Salone,Congo and Angola
Littered with bones of the innocent
The crystal crazed Antwerps feat
Hoists of sanguine crystals
Shiny and glorious before
Stained with the pain of the dead
Adorning the dress of the
Shameless rich
Is the pain of the dead
Gifts that should have given joy
Gave pain ,
Callous peddlers of death
Supply the whips
Used in hurting the weak
Courting the powerful
To gain the sanguine crystals
Care thrown to dogs of war
Ravaging the poor sons of the soil
These crystals are forever the
Scourge of our land
Taken so that we may suffer
Rather than live as rich as those
Without them
A curse then !
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jun 2008 : 15:57:30
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Great poem. I feel the main theme of this poem is about diamonds fuelling wars on african soil. Many innocent people are killed. These blood daimonds find their way to the insatiable greed of the Swiss market.
Kaanibaa once again thanks for a powerful and relevant poem. Think of compiling a collection of poems. |
madiss |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jun 2008 : 21:14:59
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| I am getting this feeling more and more , perhaps it will become a dream realized thanks to Bantaba. Madiba thanks for your comments. |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jun 2008 : 23:08:48
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| This poem is attractive Kaanibaa, thanks for providing it. I will come back to this with a detailed analysis. "Sanguine Crystals" instantly reminds me of similar dictum if not theme, once explored by Milton, Shakespeare, Keppler, and Plato. Thanks man... |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jun 2008 : 12:16:39
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| Oh right! Please do and Thanks again brother.That would be nice you know. |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2008 : 09:53:12
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In "Sanguine Crystals" the author could have been talking about the "Blood Diamonds" of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Angola, and elsewhere in Africa. Afterall the word 'sanguine' itself means reddish, rubby, or bloody color.
The "mountain lion sat on its perch" as the overseer of the under-world of gems (crystals), "hidden in the soil...". These hidden treaures of the world below are like the stars of the world above that Keppler, Milton, Shakespeare, and others dearly wrote about in various ways. Listen to this piece by Milton:
Ring out ye crystal sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time...
While Milton's crystal sphears may have the power to touch our senses, certainly the sanguine crystals of Africa take away our senses. Hence,
"The killing fields of Salone, Congo and Angola
Littered with bones of the innocent..."
Antwerp is perhaps the gem center of the world, and is certainly drenched in the blood of the dead .In the fourth stanza, the author seems to talk about the gems that others are killed over to fulfill the personal aggrandisement of another, as in:
"Adorning the dress of the
Shameless rich
Is the pain of the dead..."
What the author depicts here is far from the harmony that shakespeare refers to in these lines from the 'Merchant of Venice':
"Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.
There is not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims,
Such harmony is in mortal souls..."
Who are the " callous peddlers of death"? The Taylors, Sankos, the multi-million dollar diamond companies who also supply weapons to the war lords, "...Used in hurting the weak"?
The poem's last stanza laid out a huge irony in that these gems are supposed to make us rich and happy, instead by taking them we unleash suffering on ourselves to the extent that those without are better off than we are. Therefore, "A curse then!".
These poem, atleast in my perspective, also has some semblance to the moral lesson in Peter's Katchikali in that there is that sensitivity to the "demon of gain", the destruction of the environment. Thanks.
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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
Posted - 06 Jun 2008 : 00:04:54
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Nice one bro kanibaa, & good stanza props by Bro Kay.
At some point, we will petition the forum admins here for a 'poetry'/literature column. (just kidding!!)
Sanguine crystals' poem is trailblazer 4-stanza one.
Regards,
Dalton |
"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 06 Jun 2008 : 15:38:24
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| Thanks Kay for that analysis of my poem.Dalton thanks too for the addendum. Kayjatta I salute your genius , you did not fail me at all i appreciate your insightful comments and I take this as encouragement for me a rambler on the poetic plane so help me god!abaraka boye baaba! |
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