In memory of poet Kofi Awoonor

On Saturday, a well-known poet and diplomat from Ghana was killed in a terrorist attack in a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. To honor his memory, we are going to read one of his poems:

"Harlem on a Winter Night"

Huddled pavements, dark,

the lonely wail of a police-siren

moving stealthily across

grey alleys of anonymity

asking for food either

as plasma in hospital jars,

escaping fires in tenements

grown cold and bitter,

or seeking food in community garbage cans

to escape its eternal nightmare.

Harlem, the dark dirge of America 

heard at evening 

mean alleyways of poverty,

dispossession, early death

in jammed doorways and creaking elevators,

glaring defeat in the morning

of this beautiful beautiful America.

* What does this poem make you think, feel, or know?
* Write your own poem, paragraph, drawing, etc. about something that this inspires in you. You might write about similar themes or use a phrase or line from the poem to write off of.

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/10326144/Nairobi-shopping-mall-attacks-Kofi-Awoonor-Ghanaian-poet-killed-in-Westgate-Attack.html

http://www.poetryfoundationghana.org/index.php/theme/social-poems/item/75-harlem-on-a-winter-night


My writing:

To Kofi Awoonor

I look for meaning in your verse
new to me as Westgate
where your body was littered 
among fast food trays 

grenade shells

lives uncertain.

Hostages held 

criminals with no motive.

Your life among 39

so far. These are dark days

in Nairobi.