Tue, 11 Aug 2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades XVIII

“The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel”
- “Dreams from My Father”

Yes,
a man
takes on
the powers
of whatever
he eats –
rotten food,
the sickness
it begets;
dog meat,
the loud
and strange
snarls
heard through
the thick
bullet-proof walls
of dreams
at night;
the crunchy
tangy taste
of roasted
grasshopper
while reaching out
to ensnare
the praying
mantis…

snake meat
is a rare
delicacy
best savored
with apple juice,
the direct
raw
fury of
God
rumbling
through
Eden's
groves…

the coldly
calibrated
purge of
those whose
flesh and
blood much
mulch
the land;
for guilt,
indeed,
is a luxury
that only
strangers
can afford…

in this land
of legion
mendicants,
kindness
is a drag,
a relapse
into sickness
and pain,
the sort of
peculiar pain
one no longer
feels,
save as one
fathoms
a neighbor
to feel…

Djakarta…

We came
with sacks
full of dreams
and left
with graying
noggins
full of wisdom,
pride and
deep
appreciation
for that which
we owned
before
we left;
the wisdom
of sharp
sullen
mosquito bites,
the need to
doing Dutch
amidst a
bumper
crop…

it was love
and friendship
that brought us
thus far
abroad,
the need
to re-love,
once our
primal love
had spent
itself…

7/27/09
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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The Obama Serenades XVIII

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