Compassion II

I am you are that.

I am you and you are That.

I am you receiving the medal in Australia. I am you staying home to take care of your new born baby angel. I am you in Stuttgart, and Brussels, and in Paris. I am you as you savor the wonders of the world.
I am in your buds tasting exotic foods and wines. I am you watching sunset on the Pacific and sunrise over Kilimanjaro. I am you watching the birds in spring, watching the animals come to the river at dawn. I am you saying goodbye to your hosts in Kenya and Peru and China.
I am you proud of your daughter's new job, new creation, new home, new husband. I am you smelling the flowers in the Bellevue and Butchart gardens and the garden cities of the world.
I am in you listening to the summer music on the beaches and parks. I am you swimming with the dolphins in Kona in Hawaii.
I am you sobbing at night, cursing sunrise.
I am you planning to take away your life. I am you ashamed of your body, ashamed of your life, guilty that your grand daughter has been molested. That your son is in prison. I am you unappreciated at work, at church and at home. I am you watching your husband die slowly. I am you mourning mother’s death. I am you afraid of the next attack.
I am you lost in the forest of life without a path to come back home.
I am you.
I am with you in the joy.
I am with you in the despair.
You are not alone.
I am you and you are that.

Only God

Prayer of the 246 million child laborers,
250,000 infected with HIV/AIDS every month,
and 300,000 child soldiers



Only You can heal
The wounds in our hearts
Only You can hear
The cry of our spirit
Only You can breatheLife into the dead bones
Only You can set us free
Only You can sustain our world
Bringing together all people
Into one peaceful family
Only You, God, Can
It is in your name,
El Elyon,*
We trust.

Kwami E. Nyamidie,
Seattle, July 12, 2006









*El Elyon is Hebrew for Most High

Glimpses of a New Age

For Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev

Devoid of lust shall float weightless,

Man's body, flying falcons in the sky.

Visible to all like cloths men wear,

Naked intentions

Secret thoughts.

Washington and Moscow partners

In quest of the earth's survival shall be:

Dissolve the South and North.

Poverty-stricken lands become royal estates

A mighty sun rises

In a land now oppressed,

In a land once deemed dark,

Uncivilized.

The Bhagavad-Gita in Christian temples shall be read,

The Bible in mosques with zest displayed,

Sikhs and Hindus shall live in peace;

Shall be enemies Jews no more of any race.

Of murderous crimes, deadly diseases

The earth shall be wiped clean.

Shall be keepers of the poor the rich

Divergent ideologies shall reconcile;

Of their union shall be born a maiden;

The mother of new conceptions of reality.

Terrorist threats shall there be no more

Tyrannical thrones shall there be no more

Injustice, inequality and poverty no more

When man's body shall float, flying falcons

In the sky, weightless, devoid of hatred

Devoid of lust.

Kwami Nyamidie

Port Harcourt, 1990