By Ebi Perekeme
The body of renowned Nigerian literary icon, Professor John Pepper Clark, who died on Monday, will arrive his hometown Kiagbodo today, for burial.
Chief Ebikeme Clark, former chairman of Burutu Local Government Council and son of Niger Delta leader, Chief Edwin Clark, disclosed this to GbaramatuVoice in a telephone.
According to him, “The family is trying to obey his “Written Will” which is that he should be buried within three days…”
When he was alive, he wrote many poems, but the below poem, was in line with his wish.
JP Clark had written:
MY LAST TESTAMENT (A POEM BY JP CLARK)
This is to my family
Do not take me to a mortuary,
Do not take me to a church,
Whether I die in or out of town,
But take me home to my own, and
To lines and tunes, tested on the waves
Of time, let me lie in my place
On the Kiagbodo River.
If Moslems do it in a day,
You certainly can do it in three,
Avoiding blood and waste,
And whatever you do after,
My three daughters and my son
By the only wife I have,
Do not fight over anything
I may be pleased to leave behind
Editor’s Note: THE ABOVE POEM IS FROM JP CLARK’S BOOK, “FULL TIDE” (COLLECTED POEMS), PAGE 385.
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