FUUO Poet of the Week: Oensimo Silveira from Cape Verde

I haven't had a poet of the week in about two months.  FUUO's Poet of the Week (or month) is Onesimo Silveira from Cape Verde.  He was born in the 1930s and also lived in Angola and Sao Tome.  He was active in liberation movement throughout West Africa.  After much international work from the 1960-80's, he returned to Cape Verde in the 90's when a multi-party system was instituted.  He served a term as the mayor of Mindelo and was elected to the nation's parliament in 2006.



A Different Poem

The people of the islands want a different poem
For the people of the islands;
A poem without exiles complaining
In the calm of their existence;
A poem without children nourished
On the black milk of aborted time
A poem without mothers gazing
At the vision of their sons, motherless.
The people of the islands want a different poem
For the people of the islands:
A poem without arms in need of work
Nor mouths in need of bread
A poem without boasts ballasted with people
On the road to the South
A poem without words choked
By the harrows of silence.
The people of the islands want a different poem
For the people of the islands:
A poem with sap rising in the heart of the BEGINNING
A poem with Batuque and tchabeta and the badias of St Catherine,
A poem with shaking hips and laughing ivory.
The people of the islands want a different poem
For the people of the islands:
A poem without men who lose the seas' grace
and the fantasy of the main compass points.

Past Poets of the Week:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html