Ben Heine Art and Music Blog: Birth

Showing posts with label Birth. Show all posts

A picture I took near Warsaw in Poland some weeks ago.
(The above photo has been shot with the Samsung NX10,
provided by Samsung Electronics. Co., Ltd)

Enjoying Life
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I took this photo in Katowice, Poland

© 2010 - Ben Heine

Africa Africa!
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Africa, My Africa

By Ola Joseph Kolawole

Back in the years of the b.c.
When I was but a spirit in the heavenlies
Spying over the happenings on this miraculous planet,
I majored on the study of continents…

I had special interest in this spectacular one
Traced back to Cush, a man of colour
Blessed by Eledua – the Creator of creation
Obviously vast, leading her equals

Her land expanded by the hours –
They called it Ethiopia and the Egyptian empire
She was first in making wonderful inventions
And not lagging behind in linguistics and education

Her map became a riddle for the WISE:

Looking at the map from the west,
I see a gun.
Firing out intellects and academics
Imparting the whole wide world with wisdom.

Looking from the east,
I see a big foot,
Walking around the world
Preaching her precious cultural heritages

>>> read the full poem
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My Mother's
Womb
.

.
Before I Knocked
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By Dylan Thomas (*)

Before I knocked and flesh let enter,
With liquid hands tapped on the womb,
I who was as shapeless as the water
That shaped the Jordan near my home
Was brother to Mnetha's daughter
And sister to the fathering worm.

I who was deaf to spring and summer,
Who knew not sun nor moon by name,
Felt thud beneath my flesh's armour,
As yet was in a molten form
The leaden stars, the rainy hammer
Swung by my father from his dome.

I knew the message of the winter,
The darted hail, the childish snow,
And the wind was my sister suitor;
Wind in me leaped, the hellborn dew;
My veins flowed with the Eastern weather;
Ungotten I knew night and day.

As yet ungotten, I did suffer;
The rack of dreams my lily bones
Did twist into a living cipher,
And flesh was snipped to cross the lines
Of gallow crosses on the liver
And brambles in the wringing brains.

My throat knew thirst before the structure
Of skin and vein around the well
Where words and water make a mixture
Unfailing till the blood runs foul;
My heart knew love, my belly hunger;
I smelt the maggot in my stool.

And time cast forth my mortal creature
To drift or drown upon the seas
Acquainted with the salt adventure
Of tides that never touch the shores.
I who was rich was made the richer
By sipping at the vine of days.

I, born of flesh and ghost, was neither
A ghost nor man, but mortal ghost.
And I was struck down by death's feather.
I was a mortal to the last
Long breath that carried to my father
The message of his dying christ.

You who bow down at cross and altar,
Remember me and pity Him
Who took my flesh and bone for armour
And doublecrossed my mother's womb.

(*) Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914 - 1953) was a Welsh poet. He is regarded by many as one of the 20th century's most influential poets. In addition to poetry, Thomas also wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, with the latter frequently performed by Thomas himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his booming, at times ostentatious, voice with a subtle Welsh lilt, became almost as famous as his works. Read more.

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--> The poem appeared on bryantmcgill.com

PS : This is a watercolour study (life drawing) made at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles.

Child Of The Universe

I dedicate this drawing to my
good friend Marcin Bondarowicz

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Child Of The Universe

By L. C. Brown

The universe exploded,
A piece became the earth.
I rode in on a meteor,
Its crash was my birth.
Lava took me for a ride,
To cool in the sea.
I waited for millions of years,
For nature to use me.
I became a child of the universe,
With no place to go.
Then God gave life a meaning,
That's how I got my soul.
.
(The poem appeared on poemhunter.com)