Minstrel

The Minstrel

I come from a family of poets so you can be sure you’ll get to read a lot of poetry from my siblings on this site.  However eventhough we are a family of very cool poets, this site would have poems from my friends and poems submitted by readers as well. My promises are to bring the coolest contemporary closet poets and poems out of the shadows as well as to convience the world that poetry is fun. For now, here is a poem by my brother entitled the Minstrel.  I think it is perfect for the first post on this blog.

 

 

The Minstrel

 

In a land far away

In a time long gone

There it happened

Listen to my tale

 

I am a minstrel

The son of a minstrel and

Rumor has it

That my great grandfather was one

 

I sing then

Of tall trees in the forest

Of birds singing

Of water bubbling in the brook

 

So I sing then

Of a man in love

With his lady and

His music

 

And I sing

Of a town with few people

And fewer good people

Of a tragedy waiting to ‘appen

 

Of the man making the wrong choice

And his lady going to another man

Too late he realized

His music was not all

 

Of the burning of the village

By one so selfish

A world of luxury

Was all he wanted

 

Alas the poor village

Could not satisfy him

So men, women and their property

Fell to a man’s lust

 

Still I must sing

For the selfish man and the broken man met

The selfish for the opportunity

The broken for the consolation

 

To the city they went

The selfish to make money

From the music of a broken man

So broken he didn’t know nor care

 

Their first performance was a huge success

And the selfish man was already seeing

The wine and the women

Alas it was not to be

 

For the broken man

In his music heard

His own tale being told

And whatever had till then supported him

Was shattered to nothingness

 

No food he would eat

No water he’d drink

For as he often said

He had nothing else to live for

 

His friend begged him to no avail

For so soon his dream was fading away

Of wine and women

The man was dying of a broken heart

 

To no avail I said

For one day his friend woke up and

The man was dead

Of a poor choice and a miserable heart

 

I wish I had the  words

To describe his pain

Or to make you feel for him

But I don’t

 

Listen then to my story

The son of a minstrel

The options are many

Choose right

 

The options are many

The paths we tread varied

Each step is a choice

To go or to turn back

 

Your steps go different ways

For each one of us there is a path that is right

A purpose to be fulfilled

Still I’ll say it again

Choose right

 

In a land far away

In a time long gone

There it happened

Listen and learn

From my sorry tale

 

© Adedotun Adejuyigbe (2000)

April 13, 2009 Posted by Tomi | Dotun, poetry | family, guest post, minstrel | 1 Comment