by KREATIVE DIADEM | Apr 10, 2017 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
INTERVIEW TO BE FELA’S NEW ASSISTANT
by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola
—01
your tunes have parted me into broken waters
searching for their own name in the tongue of
Oya, the goddess whose wisdom can pacify
the thirst of a sojourner on a quest for history,
for the lineage of family, for the home of memory
—02
we have heard it said time and again
that those who do not leave their houses
never find their homes, for the origin
of my blood is planets and footsteps away
and your tunes, which shattered me into pieces
have brought me back into one cacophonous cohesion
—03
let me be your disciple, your only family,
my friends say I deify you but no one understands
that when you have been broken once by a song,
only the minstrel can make you whole again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist and writer of fiction. He writes from Ibadan, Nigeria. His writings border on the themes of unease, racism, colonialism, terror and all things familiar to the black folk. He describes his art as that specialized literary alchemy which aims to extract beauty from the frail commonplaceness of words.
His experimental works have appeared or are shortcoming on such platforms as Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, Bombay Review, Lunaris Review, African Writer, Sprinng.org, Authorpedia, Kreative Diadem, Parousia Magazine and Sampad International Journal. He was the 2016 recipient of the Albert Jungers Poetry
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Jul 13, 2016 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
NIGERIA, HOW FAR?
Nigeria, when did your beauty,
Doused in rarity and clement grace,
A feast to the captured eyes of suitors,
A muse to the enthused voices of minstrels,
Become the protagonist of tales told
About remnants in the bowels of yesterday?
Source: www.bellanaija.com
How did your wild flames of fame,
That burned through the ears of the wind,
Across the silent oceans and restless hills,
Encapsulating the world in feverish awe,
Get quenched by the waters of corruption
Within the infant years of your freedom?
How did your foreseen blinding future,
A halo of distinguishing lights,
With the songs of angels in your eyes
Heralding a glorious tomorrow,
Turn to a perilous reality of gloom
And the plight of a defeated old hag?
I am the child of the night
Borne of the darkness of your bosom,
I am the cry of the earth
Bleeding out shrieks of your damning sins,
I am the crying child, probing, asking,
“Nigeria, how far?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a bibliophile who believes in the power of literature as a burning sword to tear through the curtains of darkness which becloud the society. He has been published on several sites and anthologies. He has had the priviledge of clinching a few literary awards in his quest to influence the world through the might of his pen. He is the brain behind the SPRINNG Literary Movement.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Nov 19, 2015 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
THESE WORDS WILL PROTECT US
These words will protect us
when the children of doom
appear at our doorstep
with message from Iku
on moonless nights of peril.
These words will protect us
when journeying missiles
tell tales of hastened mortality
on serene battlefields.
These words will protect us
when neighbours turn minstrels
that sing with livid tongues and teary gongs,
of Boko ruffians; miserable mindless machines
in the hands of political puppeteers.
I say, these words will protect us
when promise of willing virgins
makes men deaf to the sound of logic
and turns jolly streets into
sites of macabre massacre fest.
These words will protect us,
be our shield and solace,
our anthem of prayers,
custodians of our sanity
against these louts of terror.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist and short story writer. He is currently studying Philosophy at the University of Ibadan. His works have been featured in national newspapers and an international publication. An unrepentant idealist, he believes in the power of words to change the world.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Oct 22, 2015 | POEMS
AWERO’S POUNDED YAM
Have you eaten Awero’s pounded yam?
it is a scrumptious finger-licking action,
as each morsel dances around in plates
of egusi soup and calms the restleness
of watering lustful mouths.
Pounded Yam
When you hear the mortar and pestle
murderously conspiring to crush the yam’s bones
in her small smokey kitchen,
be sure to set your appetitie on fire
before the neighbours come around.
Her hut is home
to every hungry belly,
it unites the village
in webs of aromatic kinship,
Awero’s pounded yam
cures all sorts of sicknesses,
they say it is medicinal.
She has never tasted her own food,
they say she prefers
the company of starvation ,
they say she is strange,
probably demented.
Awero’s tale is the tale of our land,
a land where our drunk dumb chiefs
give out our pounded yam
to willing foreign food mongers
who empty our pot of soup
and fill it with sand in return.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist and short story writer. He is currently studying Philosophy at the University of Ibadan. His works have been featured in national newspapers and an international publication. An unrepentant idealist, he believes in the power of words to change the world.
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