Africans - João Melo

Our paths are as old
as the ones worn by mankind.
We carved paths since the beginning, since we departed
our forests of origin and crossed the still-fertile Sahara,

African Poem - Antonio Agostinho Neto

There on the horizon the fire
and the dark silhouettes of the imbondeiro trees
with their arms raised
in the air the green smell of burnt palm trees

Christmas Eve - Deolinda Rodrigues

—7:00 PM

by the latrine.

Yeah, it’s all set up,

I didn’t miss a thing.

Contract-Workers - Arnaldo Santos

They are coming, in the distance

Merged together

A gust of murmurs on the horizon

Like deep echoes of a force.

Asking - Deolinda Rodrigues

Cold-blooded murderer,

commie spy,

woman playing at politics,

whore.

Bamako! - António Agostinho Neto

Bamako
               Where the truth dropping on the leaf’s sheen
                  unites with the freshness of men
                     like strong roots under the warm surface of the soil
                        and where grow love and future
                           fertilised in the generosity of the Niger
                              shaded by the immensity of the Congo
                                 to the shim of the African breeze of hearts

Farewell at the Moment of Parting - António Agostinho Neto

My mother
(oh black mothers whose children have departed)
you taught me to wait and to hope
as you have done through the disastrous hours

Letter from a contract worker - António Jacinto

I wanted to write you a letter
my love,
a letter that would tell
of this desire
to see you
of this fear
of losing you
of this more than benevolence that I feel
of this indefinable ill that pursues me
of this yearning to which I live in total surrender …

Poem Of Alienation - Antonio Jacinto

This is not yet my poem
the poem of my soul and of my blood
no
I still lack knowledge and power to write my poem
the great poem I feel already turning in me