Ghaap
Sonnets from the Northern Cape
by Michael Cope

Poetry

Rain
GHAAP
   Contents
   Notes
Scenes & Visions
Some Examples of
       Silence
for the time being
Crossing the Desert
back view
Other Poems
Song Lyrics
A Virtual Anthology
YouTube Poems
Cautionary Verses

@ Contact
©  Copyright

4  Raise

Oh, raise the big ones whose hands

grasped and formed these scripts:

tall as antelope, lithe as lions,

versed in the ways of food,

the deep plants storing

for the dry time ahead.

Call their voices low over this booming valley

with our bodies in this sunset. The way of tools.

Holding a stone blade hear its speech

with the clear ear of the hand.

Let them speak in all deliberations.

Let us bow to the mothers of our mothers

here where their words are stone:

deep honour to a million years.