Dr. Kofi Anyidoho is one of Ghana’s leading poets and he is cousin to Ghana’s other poetry great, Kofi Awoonor. Both of them have shared poetry in which they were talking to the other. Kofi Anyidoho was born at Wheta, in the Keta district of Ghana and had his schooling variedly in Ghana, the UK and the US. He has acted on stage, written for radio and been the director of a film company. One of his most popular poems is the one titled above. I enjoyed studying this poem for my English Literature Class in High School in Ghana. I remember when I dated my first girl friend, I saw this poem in her attitude towards me but blinded by love (guess from my side alone), I did not heed to the poems advice and the relationship eventually broke up. What am I driving at? I guess I am trying to say that in relationships, many clues are given out that shout ‘do not give too much of your love to me’ out at us; if we heed to such an advice we won’t entangle ourselves in a destructive web.
So now! I present you:

‘Do not give too much of your love to me’

Do not give too much of your love to me
I am the bird with the voice of dreams

I bring the brief glory of wings upon the rays
Long ago I chose the rainbow upon my soul

I am the bird in flight
The arrow through your night
Do not give too much of your love to me

Once the angels stole my cloth somewhere upon the clouds in house of storms

Today I sweep the sky I leave footprints on thunderclouds

I spread the swift glory of winds upon the rays
O do not give too much of your love to me.

-Kofi Anyidoho