What I was told
21 October 2015
POCHON S LILI
An entry in the 2015 Rivers Award
for Writing on Peace & Harmony
We are the Sepiks, Papuans, Highlanders
We are the Gulf, Morobeans, Islanders
Rich people, rich culture
Blessings and curses
Does he who does not act like me
Not deserve my empathy?
Or do I leave the best of me
For those moulded the same?
Pikinini holim stron tumbuna pasin blo u
Harem tok bilong ol lapun
Forgetting the ways of the old
Is the same as losing your soul
In his milky eyes I saw the truth
Through the veil of my youth
That we embrace the ways of the old
Because we fear what we do not know
Different tribes different tongues
The garamut or the kundu drum
We won’t have peace and harmony
Until I know you and you know me
The thing that scares us the most
The thing different from what we hold close
Is what we must overcome
If we are to truly become one.
I like it when I see a Papuan, a Morobean or a Kerema wearing a highlands cap like my own. This is the feeling I get when I read this nationalistic poem Pochon.
Posted by: Daniel Ipan Kumbon | 21 October 2015 at 07:51 PM