The Gambia My Motherland

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
these tears are not of joy,
for you have let the enemy in,
they brought disaster to your shores.

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
The pain you must endure.
For all those dead have,
come to you under burdening
skies.

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
Who has put you through this Hell?
It has no face,
I cannot tell,
It's here in space,
the Dawning was its place.

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
Your skies have turn to Black
The Peace and Security you seek,
has now suddenly turned its back.

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
My tears are not of joy
I pray for you,
my heart opens too.
You may find Peace within.
When your dead are buried and
your revenge has its reward
Come together
Powers of Faith
Come together
Almighty hand and rest upon us
from this mighty land.

Give us your Peace.
We ask thee now
Give us your Peace
We ask how?

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
In time of trouble,
what is it can you do?
Your borders closed
turmoil enclosed
The sadness fills the air.

For Peace is fleeting,
The enemy has come there.
Your golden arch is dim.
Your Eiffel black with sin
The City of  Lights
are in the shadows for his mighty
hand has struck.

Peace you may ask,
Revenge your reward.

The Gambia, My Motherland
How I weep for you
For can we say, no more, no more?

©Marabi Amfaal Hydara
The Humanitarian Poet

Break the shackle

Don’t be fooled by me.
Don’t be fooled by the face I wear
for I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
masks that I’m afraid to take off,
and none of them is me.

Pretending is an art that’s second nature with me,
but don’t be fooled,
for God’s sake don’t be fooled.
I give you the impression that I’m secure,
that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without,
that confidence is my name and coolness my game,
that the water’s calm and I’m in command
and that I need no one,
but don’t believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,
ever-varying and ever-concealing.
Beneath lies no complacence.
Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness.
But I hide this.
I don’t want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed.
That’s why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
a nonchalant sophisticated facade,
to help me pretend,
to shield me from the glance that knows.

But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only hope,
and I know it.
That is, if it’s followed by acceptance,
if it’s followed by love.
It’s the only thing that can liberate me from myself,
from my own self-built prison walls,
from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It’s the only thing that will assure me
of what I can’t assure myself,
that I’m really worth something.
But I don’t tell you this.
I don’t dare to, I’m afraid to.
I’m afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance,
will not be followed by love.
I’m afraid you’ll think less of me,
that you’ll laugh, and your laughter would kill me.
I’m afraid that deep-down I’m nothing
and that you will see this and reject me.

So I play my game, my desperate pretending game,
with a facade of assurance without
and a trembling child within.
So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks,
and my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that’s really nothing,
and nothing of what’s everything,
of what’s crying within me.
So when I’m going through my routine
do not be fooled by what I’m saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying,
what I’d like to be able to say,
what for survival I need to say,
but what I can’t say.

I don’t like hiding.
I don’t like playing superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me
but you’ve got to help me.
You’ve got to hold out your hand
even when that’s the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you’re kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings–
very small wings,
very feeble wings,
but wings!

With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you can be a creator–an honest-to-God creator–
of the person that is me
if you choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
you alone can remove my mask,
you alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic,
from my lonely prison,
if you choose to.
Please choose to.

Do not pass me by.
It will not be easy for you.
A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer you approach to me the blinder I may strike back.
It’s irrational, but despite what the books say about man
often I am irrational.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
and in this lies my hope.
Please try to beat down those walls
with firm hands but with gentle hands
for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet.

© Marabi Amfaal Hydara
The Humanitarian Poet

YCFaC: The That of The Community

Your Change For a Change
Deems to serve humanity
All the people in the community
Vested with duty not by the government
Always answer to a call at any moment
On non emergencies to save a life in torment!

Humanitarian men and women of vision
Eager to work to fulfill a mission
Different treatments are available
In combating disease so variable
Get in touch with YCFaC when you need their services
At all times you will be served not kick
Let these young Humanitarians make your life's clock tick!

Cease not your trust and confidence
Every time you come to consult with prudence
None is rejected when one needs Health Fair treatment
To avail of the best cures for an ailment
Entrust  your pains for medical support
Reciprocates them with good rapport!

Our Health Fair program
Is available for every community without a dime
We consider not your location
We are determined in every motion
Our hearts have been robed with kind lotion
Serving the community is our propagation
Caring for someone from a strange location
Our works aren't magic nor imagination
Giving to the vulnerables is our supplication
I would always cherish and embrace the time we had in socialisation

We Are That Of The Community
And we must feel nothing at all
Amid all the commotion
Ardent to push the mission
Anxious to reach the site
Determined to save lives
Composed as if unfeeling
Expecting the worst, yet still hoping

For today, I will show you the That Of The Community
When you show me a volunteer

Show me a person who spends endless hours in training without pay,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person where a cry for help brings split-second dispatch,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who is devastated when lives are lost or maimed,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who is graciously welcomed as a next-door neighbor,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who takes ridicule more than compliments,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who may be asked to give more than just dedication,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who always answers to the call of the vulnerable,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who gives free services,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community.

Show me a person who is asked to give more... and more... and more,
And, I'll show you the That of The Community. .
We posses all these qualities and never shed tears,
                           BECAUSE
WE ARE THAT OF THE COMMUNITY

©Marabi Amfaal Hydara
The Humanitarian Poet

Regret

How do you go on knowing that you failed
and all your friends suddenly disappeared and bailed
Can you see the shame on everyone's face
and your parents look at you like your the biggest disgrace
All this time you blamed everyone else
but all along it was none other than yourself
Now your stuck here paying the price
It's up to you, how are you going to change your life
Will you sit there and look like your lost
or are you going to get up and pay the cost
Don't sit there and reminisce the past
for the future is coming and it's coming fast
So make some memories, ones to remember
because you my friend will graduate in December
So how do you go on knowing that you failed
just smile to the world cause you could have bailed

©Marabi Amfaal Hydara
The Humanitarian Poet 

The Song of Your Hope

I Know I am The Song of Your Hope
The song which owes its existence to your care
The song which on being sung
Comforts you
Makes you feel the other side of life
A life where happiness exists in real
A life where harmony is not just fantasy
A life where hard-work is rewarded

I Know I am The Song of Your Hope
The song which owes its rhythm to your love
The song which on being hummed
Makes you feel that there is a world other than this
A world where evils don't succeed in their motives
A world where the fear of being back stabbed doesn't exist
A world where blood doesn't decide whom can you trust

I Know I am The Song of Your Hope
The song which owes its lyrics to your mysterious life
The song which on being played
Reminds you of your dreams which silently breathe under your deep sighs
Reminds you of the rewards whose distribution has been delayed
Reminds you of the silent-nonviolent
Revenge you can take from the unfair

I Know I am The Song of Your Hope
The only asset which you think you possess
Let me assure you dear Dad
This song of yours will spread
Its melody all over the world one day
You will be its proud owner one day
This song will then sing your greatness
And give you the identity you have been longing for

I Know that I am The Song of Your Hope
But please don't forget
The source of your hope's hope is your smile
Let it not vanish amidst the fog of sadness
It's  fog after all
Will vanish one day
Till then keep singing the song of your hope
And I Know I am The Song of Your Hope

© Marabi Amfaal Hydara
The Humanitarian Poet