Two great Jimmy Drekore poems
23 May 2011
Entries in The Crocodile Prize
JIMMY DREKORE, 35, is from the Sinasina area of Simbu Province. He works on Lihir Island as an analytical chemist and, during field breaks at home, he spends time helping sick and disadvantaged children through the Simbu Children Foundation (www.simbuchildrenfoundation.org). He says "during quiet moments I like to paint using words”. Here are some of those words....
Follow your heart
You see the rugged mountains
Your head down
You see the kunai roof
Your eyes drown
You see the bumpy roads
You look away
You see the sloppy gardens
You turn away
I climbed those rugged mountains
I grew up in that kunai roof
I walked those bumpy roads
I was fed from those sloppy gardens
Those mountains gave me strength
That roof gave me warmth
Those roads gave me hope
Those gardens gave me confidence
When you’re weak,
I’ll give you strength
When you’re cold,
I’ll give you warmth
When you’re lost,
I’ll come looking for you
When you fall,
I’ll reach my hands for you
Where there is love
There is no rugged mountain
Where there is love
There is no kunai roof
Where is love
There is no bumpy road
Where there is love
There is no sloppy garden
See with your heart
Paint with your heart
Talk with heart
Listen with heart
Follow your heart
You’ll find love
Cast the rain down in Africa
Sierra Leone’s precious diamonds
RUF and the war lords
Forced children to take guns
Free Town had no free sons
Spilling Blood on diamonds
White minority ruled Zimbabwe
Black majority boosted Mugabe
Western sanctions
Mugabe’s actions
Resilient, why?
Mohamed Farah Aidid and the skins
Mogadishu had no other kings
Somalia was crying
RPG’s were flying
Black Hawk went down
Dictatorship and brutality
Leads to anarchy & poverty
Once was Uganda
With Idi Amin Dada
Who had no respect for law
The law of separation
Divided a nation
Whites and Bantus
Oppressing Zulus
Pierced by apartheid
Freedom paid
With his life in prison
Accused of treason
But freed South Africa
Africa’s greatest man – Mandela
Cast the rain down in Africa
Quench the thirst of Sahara
A land of many species
Stacked with histories
God bless Africa
My countryman Dreks - I must admit as soft as I am, couldn't hold back!
I am following that heart now, four decades back to Deri village where I grew up in those smoke filled kunai huts.
Where during the day we looked for rodents, insects and birds along my Nil Nera and collected dried twigs for the night fire in the haus man.
We eat kaukau, yamtaro and kumu cooked from the earth ovens. And drink water to wash it down.
In the evenings sitting around the fire we listen to our fathers talk of their deeds in their former lives. It was truly a beautiful life. My heart longs for those days.
Posted by: Mathias Kin | 16 July 2011 at 01:27 PM
'Pick up your gun and follow me' doesn't necessarily mean to pick up a gun and fight; it means to stand up for and fight for what is right.
The themes of revolution and patriotism are new concepts and wrting in PNG literature.
In a kind of way, they portray the current situation and mental development of the country, and one day may be regarded as the starting point of something new in PNG literature and poetry.
They also mark this current time and trends in PNG's history.
Posted by: Gelab Piak | 24 May 2011 at 08:06 AM
For a few days I couldn't access the site after my internet quota was exceeded. But now I'm back.
It's very interesting to read articles by great contributors to PNG Attitude. It's great reading great thoughts by great people. Thanks for the efforts and time.
Posted by: Joe Wasia | 23 May 2011 at 06:39 PM
Comments on the two poems by Drekore and Gelab.
Two great poems. All in different continents but the essence is: asking all good men to come to the aid of their country.
I think we have to start at grade school level to stimulate the brain cells of the kids to put their heads (logic & common good) before their wallets (kleptocracy)to achieve Vision 2050.
I tend to think that the current formal education system is all focused on telling people to put personal advancement (greed) over communal advancement.
That is where we breed a lot of kleptomaniacs that freely roam the corridors of Waigani with their chest up.
Posted by: Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin | 23 May 2011 at 12:30 PM
Here's a poem. In a way I feel it matches 'Cast the rains down in Africa'.
COME DOWN TO WAIGANI
Are you ready,
I ask you,
To come down with me to Waigani,
and lay your life down with me,
For our beloved Country,
Are you ready?
I ask you now,
Come follow me,
To Port Moresby,
To set ourselves free,
Are you Ready?
I ask you now,
Pick up your gun and follow me,
Come lay down beside me,
For our Mothers and Country,
Are you Ready?
Now I ask you,
Are you patriotic too?
Will you come with me?
Come down to Waigani.
- Gelab Piak
Posted by: Gelab Piak | 23 May 2011 at 09:18 AM