Our Fathers – Who We Become

: “The significance (and identity) of Ibo culture as do many other cultures is enshrined in the values and tradition expressly transmitted from one generation to another…It is the duty of one generation to sustain and pass it on to the next…with honor, truthfulness, and dignity.” – Oliver O. Mbamara

Our Fathers – Who We Become (Dedicated to All Fathers)

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Words of our fathers teach us wisdom
Beyond the times of read and write
In oral tradition they bestow on us
Tenets and principles that guide our lives

Ways of our Fathers pave our future
Their reputation precede our coming
Their honorable ways insure our honor
Their courage and blessings lead us on

Legacies of our fathers nurture our lives
Through trials and travails life present
They carve a niche so that we might live
And who we are is who they’ve been

Memories of our fathers stay with us
Through course and journeys of our life
Identity of the child is passed by the father
Through tenets and culture bestowed along

Deep in us they leave their presence
But we on our own must find our ways
To leave our mark and gifts of life
In the lives of generations yet to come.

EPILOGUE:

The fatherless have become the father never had
And the childless have become father to others
As the fathered have become like the father had
And substance of the fathers live deep in us

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For more about Oliver click to see his BIOGRAPHY

For a few more of Oliver’s poems CLICK HERE

For some of his other recent writings CLICK HERE