so long so far away is africa
Not even memories alive
save thoes that history books Afro- American Fragment
create, save thoes that songs
beat out of blood with word sad- Before the english began to colonize Australia at the end
sung in strange un-Negro tongue of the 18th century, the australian aborigines the
native peoples
so long,
so far away
is Africa.


subduced and time lost
are the drums- and yet
through some vast mist of race
there comes this song
i do not understand,
this song of atavistic land,
of bitter yearnings lost
without a place
so long,
so far away
is Africa's
dark face.


the song is gone; the dance
is secret with the dancer in the earth,
the ritual useless, and the trilbal story
lost in an alien tale. Only the grass
stand up to mark the dancing- ring:
the apple- gums posture and mine a
past corroboree, murmur a broken
chant.

Literary Treasure