If I have to leave - D.E. Barrell

Today, I have mostly been trying to remember poetry that I last read in 1998, for my O Levels. 

Thanks to facebook, I now know that the book we studied was Revival (which I am now scouring the internet for), and have managed to track down my personal favourite from the set, and one that I recited for a school production my final year in Zimbabwe. 

I still love it! 

If I have to leave - D.E. Barrell

If I have to leave,

...I shall take from Africa,

No assegais;

But arrows of laughter in the eyes;

From the Shona women

Sorting washing,

Stitching sheets with me

In a mutual murmer;

The flicker of black hands

Smoothing sheets

And my sons cradled in their shadow.

Laughter in the kitchen,

In the market, in the meeting place;

Shrewd glances over business

Appraising each other's skills.

Black hands helping with sickness;

And that one wet night

As I drove her through darkness:

The awful pain of her childbirth

In my womb.

If I have to leave,

I shall take from Africa this strength,

This strange bond of women.

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School Days Over

Leaving Certificate Poetry

• Eavan Boland
• William Shakespeare
• Michael Longley
• John Keats
• Seamus Heaney
• Elizabeth Bishop

GCSE Poetry - T'Elf

If I Have To Leave - D.E. Barrell

Natalie Williams

A Level Poetry 

• Utter Filth

O Level Poetry

• They Walked and Talked - Uche Okeke

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School Days Over Table of Contents 

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