Rene,
From Mo's memoirs of a childhood, you have brough us to the harsh realities 
of the contemporary Gambia. This poem has it all : the river, the land, the 
environment the people and their activities.It is indeed exhaustive and a 
mouthful! This is like after recounting a long list of items and activities, 
one takes a hard breath. This is the sensation it gives me, and that is what 
I enjoy most about it.
Thanks for sharing.
Omar Joof


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>Subject: Re: A Poem
>Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:24:34 EDT
>
>Like a serpent
>    the river meanders
>    into the many small tributaries
>    it flows with oozing ease
>    the simple and complex matrix
>    the rhythmic chaos of life.
>
>    The hot and humid dry wind
>    and the lip-cracked biting cold
>    in the arid wasteland of thatchy huts
>    the laborious pounding
>    of the thick pestle into the mortar
>    and the chirping of the birds up in the trees
>    the rattling of the empty metal pots
>    in the murky shadows of the creeping dawn
>    brings as in each and everyday
>    like ants crushed in the sand
>    building and rebuilding their trampled palaces
>    the quiet and tumultuous beat of the day's labor.
>
>    The congested and polluted shanty towns
>    and in the dusty and narrow sandy streets
>    the tintinnabulation of bicycle bells
>    the hooting of car horns
>    in the midst of the laughter and bitterness
>    the joy and sadness
>    and in the midst of the singing and wailing
>    the noisy and silent footprints on the trials of  life.
>
>    In their cozy dwelling place
>    the welcoming warmth
>    in the sunshine of their blazing trail
>    and in the clattery corridors of politics
>    they are mute, detached and indifferent.
>
>    The voice of the market hail
>    and like the hub of a wheel
>    it pulls like a magnet strong
>    the flow of life expand
>    our river is flowing too
>    with its ups and with its downs
>    the canoe of life is rowing too
>    through ponderous waves
>    waves of uncertainty and bloom.
>
>    Rene
>
>
>
>
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