Lenrie Peters (The Fence) Poem by African Poetry

Lenrie Peters (The Fence)

Rating: 3.5


There where the dim past and future mingle
their nebulous hopes and aspirations
there I lie.

There where truth and untruth struggle
in endless and bloody combat,
there I lie.

There where time moves forwards and backwards
with not one moment’s pause for sighing,
there I lie.

There where the body ages relentlessly
and only the feeble mind can wander back

there I lie in open-souled amazement

There where all the opposites arrive
to plague the inner senses, but do not fuse,
I hold my head; and then contrive
to stop the constant motion.
my head goes round and round,
but I have not been drinking;
I feel the buoyant waves; I stagger

It seems the world has changed her garment.
but it is I who have not crossed the fence,
So there I lie.

There where the need for good
and “the doing good” conflict,
there I lie.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Oyibo Nelson 16 June 2018

true the world changed her garment...and it seems the untruth has won the combat

2 0 Reply
Bharati Nayak 14 January 2017

A marvelous write.Love reading..To quote a few lines- - It seems the world has changed her garment. but it is I who have not crossed the fence, So there I lie. There where the need for good and “the doing good” conflict, there I lie.

3 0 Reply
Kedrix Udjoe 16 May 2016

The world has really changed her garment@nice personification. There i lie@nice refrein. You are sitting on the fence without make a choice@ what a delimma

2 0 Reply
Oladehinde Temitayo 26 October 2015

There where the need for good, the doing good conflict. I just like poem nice work

3 0 Reply
Babatunde Aremu 12 November 2013

Thank you for reminding of this poem. I was opportuned to study it for my School cert exams in the late 70s. Great work

13 1 Reply
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