Thursday, March 22, 2007

Poetic thoughts and songs of the season for Jonathan

AN ELEGY TO A GREAT PLANNER, REFORMIST AND
REVOLUTIONIST OF THE DEAF NIGERIA COMMUNITY.

THE GOOD ONES ARE GOING INTO EXTINCTION

Whither the gold fish so rare to catch
Whither the tall iroko tree standing majestically
Above other trees in the forest?
Whither our great revolutionist - Jonathan Tinat
Why are the good ones rarely last
When the bad and ugly ones bestrode the land
Like a colossus?

Refrain: The good ones rarely last a lifetime
Their stars appeared and shone briefly
And, suddenly extinct from the
firmament
Plunging mankind into darkness
Until another bright star cometh
To uplift mankind again.

Whither the great Dinosaur - that ancient animal
Whither the great whale - that king of ocean
Terror of the acquatic landscape?
Whither our great Generallismo and Marshal of our
fleet?
Who will now lead our foot-soldiers into battle
Why are the Master Strategists an endanger species?

Refrain: The good ones ............

Whither the Lion, King of animals and forest
Whither the great polar bear of the cold
icy habitat, hunter of fishes?
Whither our own great hunter, teacher and orator
Is it not true that what we loves to do
With passions often kill us in the end?
Our hunter, teacher and orator has gone not return
home.

Refrain: The good ones ...........

Whither the great python - that king of snakes
Whither the great dragon- of the family of the
Carnivorous reptiles, which also spits fire!
Here in the deaf Naija community, an icon, a bright star
A great idealist and charismatic leader has just departed
Adieu! Jonathan Tinat, we shall missed you greatly.

Refrain: The good ones rarely ...........


DEMAGOGUE PLANTS.

As I walk beside a riverbed
A riverbed full of lovely plants
Plants well - nurtured and irrigated
With the water from the river
All tenderly lovely plants.

Some of the plants
Long grown into mighty trees
Over the years
I look and behold new fresh and young
plants and trees some in the nursery

Then, I look and saw their name-tags
Each of the lovely plants can be identified
I was amazed to read the names
Of leaders and demagogues world over.

I found the names of Nkrumaism, Awoism, Aminu Kanoism,
Nehruism, Zikism, Maoism, Marxism, Stallinism,
Cabraism, Negritudism, Malcom Xism, Marthin
Lutherism, and so forth
All very beautiful pedagogical names both great and
small.

Then far in a corner I found a young bud
Just sprouted a few days old
I look to find it's name-tag
I was surprised to read the name- TINATISM.

Adieu! Jonathan Tinat, your name has been etched
In evergreen memory in our hearts who loves you.
Bye!

ADEWALE ADEYANJU

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.