Dr. Chinyere Grace Okafor, poet, playwright and fiction writer, “is a Professor of English and Women’s Studies, Director of the Center for Women’s Studies and Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies and Religion, Wichita State University.” She has contributed a poem that is featured in the redesigned Naftzger Park in downtown Wichita.
Chase Billingham visited the park and transcribed the poem. He reports: “This is the poem that has been carved into stone pavers in the new Naftzger Park. The poem appears twice in the park. It appears in its entirety in one large slab near Douglas Avenue. And the first few stanzas appear in larger print in stones that line the park’s lawn. I have transcribed the poem exactly as it appears — carved in stone — in the park (including, for example, the repeated use of the word “-nd”).”
Sunflower Exclusive
By Chinyere G. Okafor
Fans make brief stops at Naftzger Park
Salute Clinton Naftzger and Carry Nation
Folks that did their work for this Park
At the heart of our Shocker Nation.
We salute colors and creeds of the globe
Rainbow signs and heart of the Air Capital
Where choral birds and metal birds waltz
Skip and jump to the music of sunflower
Arkansas River constructs the message
The Prairie manufactures gifts of love
Wrapped in sundry waves of grandeur
Acclaimed by all as beloved of our land
Sunflower knows naught the plough
Name and hand that works the prairie
This beauty snores but rises with spring
For now day begins when you wake up
You too, me too, like sleeping black bears
Must wake up and rise up after our winter
And with bold eyes face the blue sun of reality
In the productive -nd laid-back home of liberty
Breezy, windy, witty Wichita
Where prosperity kisses reality
Get-go-confronts the kitchen table
And therapy comforts fragility
Wide country stretches eyes to domain of memory
Where landscape of imagination waters contemplation
Earth, sky, and all deliver top of the line conditions
Boast of twist -nd tornado that torpedo foundation
Not what we have but how we love is what they remember
Lives we touch not the bank account is what they remember
For the ultimate within compels the fellowship marshal
Smile of your hands -nd complete oneness of our circle
Your bloody face and eyes like mine
Fabulously human and whole not digital
With legs that waltz the grace of love
Shall drink from the cup of Wide Country
When summer heat and River fest
Rain, hail, slush and all of winter
Where Santa, Silent Night and Snow
Strive to rouse our snoozing vivacity
Sparrow shall call the bell of liberty
And beckon all to cookout at festival
Where babe, pet and pal shake hands
-Nd celebrate the blue sun of Wichita
Cottonwood canopy spreads its wings
Welcomes the crane and fish crow alike
To halls and even basement of its groves
So is our park with peace and open doors
You may judge my stance as hopeless
The one in some kind of freaky ditch
Know that my time is mine and I rise!
With my Chi or Angel planted by my God
See processions of fish birds in the sky
They do not disturb the pelican parade
Or challenge globe trotting metal birds
For the figure of liberty is clarion of all
Arise fellows of this grumbling fest of life
For our yesterday forever ended last night
Seize our bill of right to the extraordinary
I am special -nd shaped to be exceptional