3 poems by Benard Berinyuy

Green lands of Nso

Nature commemorates the advent of the dry season with extreme beauty in the green lands of Nso.
As we wandered down the hills from Netnab, nature with extreme beauty humbled us with pump and pageantry.                                                                                                                       Was it a Biblical scene of prophets in the countryside or a paint of Jesus’ scenes in the salvation campaign?
A tall silver-like cross on the top of the apex of the hill range 
A picturesque of windswept escarpments and gentle slopes, punctuated by U and V shaped valleys, drilled with interlocking spurs wired the white streams from the black walls down the vast basin
Waterfalls from the sides on the steep slopes dropped silently to the pools
Beautiful flowers in multi colors were scattered on Greenland. On them were colorful insects-beetles and bees
The mainstream flowed silently through the basin determining the haphazard dance of trees and shrubs in a constant motion with no breeze
From a distance was the bray of asses mooing of cows and beating of sheep and goats.
A dilapidated black bridge with two pools took us across the silent stream, by lion courage. What a fright?
On a noisy tree up the stream, a swamp of weaverbirds chirped, jumping in and out of the nests in salute of the beautiful and safe abode as the blue sky and blazing sunrays pierced the beautiful setting.
At a plain up the slope were huts, flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and horses in different colors but commonly white, black and gray. Herdsmen led them to greener directions as they fed. Some went for salt and others by the stream for water. Like in the ‘lost sheep’ a herdsman returned with a stray calf to the team as they wandered.
Hurts like in Peter’s transfiguration scene were sparsely dotted on corners of the plain.                                                         
 From a large rock, a middle-aged man with a bald heard, long white bieds, a long gray gown and sandals fluted some consoling music that rained comfort on us as we moved home. 
As we moved to the city, we gradually lost this natural ambiance and romance to a vast farmland with some fruit trees and families returning home as we crossed the green raffia valleys, banana and eucalyptus leaf-sheds.
A bird from the tree cautioned us in the following wordings......guuguu kifa kee’ sartong x x x ....... (Beware of what lies beneath the navel). 
We missed the beautiful jungle!
Home sweet home; It melts home




HOPE

I would like to take
the paths of new hope
and erase my footprints behind
me because your escort is
superfluous before the rising sun.
I would like to walk
the land of solitude
for years
and walk on
the silence of the
pathlessness liberated
of all your words and
deeds. I would like to be
born again
bathed in purity
of my soul
and stand
in front of the starry sky
as a newborn.
And pardon
my rude words
and be patient
because my loneliness
is your loneliness, too.
You are my other self.
You do what I am afraid of.




SILENCE

Silence in me
strikes in lightning
of the sky too gray
and destroys my accumulated fear
in the years of non-belonging.
Silence in you
does not know my fears
and gets lost in the words of
unknown people
whose hands cannot
touch the softness
of our hearts.
Don't let me stay silent
because my love is
louder than your smile.
The loudest

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Benard Berinyuy was born in Sakir-Nso Bui Division of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. He has a PhD in Health Economics, MBA in Finance, PgD in Business and Administration, and BSc in Business Administration. He is a field worker on humanitarian missions in Bui Division. Besides his passion for the vulnerable, he enjoys and celebrates nature as he visits communities. It remains his wish that nature be preserved and managed sustainably.

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