Poetry: ABIKU - John Pepper Clark

About the Poet.

John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo (born 6 April 1935) is a Nigerian poet and playwright , who has also published as J. P. Clark and John Pepper Clark .

J. P. Clark

Coming and going these several seasons,
Do stay out on the baobab tree,
Follow where you please your kindred spirits
If indoors is not enough for you.
True, it leaks through the thatch
When floods brim the banks,

Poetry: Olukun by J. P. Clark

I love to pass my fingers
(As tide thro' weeds of the sea
And wind the tall fern-fronds)
Thro' the stands of your hair
Dark as night that screens the naked moon:

I am jealous and passionate
Like Jehovah, God of the Jews,
And I would that you realise
No greater love had woman
From man than the one I have for you!

But what wakeful eyes of man,

Poetry: "The Casualties" by John Pepper Clark

Image | Casualties

THE CASUALTIES.
to Chinua Achebe.

The casualties are not only those who are dead.
They are well out of it.
The casualties are not only those who are wounded,
Though they await burial by installment.
The casualties are not only those who have lost
Persons or property, hard as it is
To grope for a touch that some
May not know is not there.
The casualties are