INTERVIEW TO BE FELA’S NEW ASSISTANT by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola

INTERVIEW TO BE FELA’S NEW ASSISTANT by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola

by | 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

 

TO A FRIENDLY BROTHER by Oredola Ibrahim

TO A FRIENDLY BROTHER by Oredola Ibrahim

by | Feb 28, 2017 | POEMS

TO A FRIENDLY BROTHER

by Oredola Ibrahim

To a Friendly Brother

…for Bashir
Friends in arm
Brothers for life
Forbidding harm
Chesting the knife
Staying up late
Discussing dreams
Saving the date
With lightened beams
Crushing off bugs
Covering with clothes
Giving tight hugs
Roaming ghettoes
Brothers in arm
Friends for life
Under a charm
For friendly strife
Living off youth
In risky strides
The cult of truth
Stemming the tides
And ganging up
Against the world
Raising the cup
To reason’s twirled

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oredola Ibrahim, the winner of Inspiring Brilliance Foundation
National Poetry Award 2012, believes in poetry as a tool for self
discovery and ultimately, a potential tool for national transformation. His poetry delves into popular themes like politics, love and inspiration. Oredola Ibrahim is the convener of WhatsApp Poetry Contest, a periodic competition organized on the platform of “The Penclan Initiative” (www.penclan.com). He is a campus journalist, a student-entrepreneur and a web designer. He’s a recent graduate of the University of Ibadan. He tweets @platolaw and can be reached via asiaquad@gmail.com.

 

DEAR DADDY by ‘Bukola Ibirogba

DEAR DADDY by ‘Bukola Ibirogba

by | Feb 14, 2017 | POEMS

DEAR DADDY

by ‘Bukola Ibirogba

—01
Dear Daddy,
Mommy does not smile anymore,
Her eyes no longer light up with joy.
I remember nights when she cried herself sore,
And I have realized that,
We would go on,
After you,
Without you,
We would go on.
Though something beautiful dwells inside us,
all has turned to stone.

 

 

—02
Dear Daddy,
It has been eighteen years and counting.
I can barely remember your face,
Ivie is an adult now and doubting
if she ever heard your voice or felt your gaze,
It is hard but, we shall go on
after you,
Without you, through the years
of pain and raw bewilderment,
brutal and angry tears.

 

—03
Dear Daddy,
We struggled to eat from day to day,
Pangs of hunger, the scourge of kwashiorkor.
We had no place to lay
our heads,
and we thought you would walk through that door.
We survived and
we shall go on
after you.
Without you, we will heal,
Though love may labor in the heart,
The loss conceals the joy.

 

—04

 

Dear Daddy,
I am grown now, and I cannot forget
How other children laughed at me,
Prize-giving days when you were absent,
Birthdays you did miss, tears you did not see,
So much pain, but
we shall go on
after you,
Without you, life goes on,
But neither hope nor happiness
may undo what you have done.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
‘Bukola Ibirogba is a recent graduate of Law from the University of Ibadan. She draws inspiration for her poetry from her love for God and everyday issues.

 

YOU LIED TO ME, SWEETHEART by Vihasi Shah

YOU LIED TO ME, SWEETHEART by Vihasi Shah

by | Sep 6, 2016 | POEMS

YOU LIED TO ME, SWEETHEART
Hey, sweetheart you lied to me
You lied to me
You said it would be better some fine day
And night would be less dark one fine day
But you lied to me sweetheart
It’s hell repeating
every single day
Life doesn’t get better in any coming way
You lied to me, sweetheart
Hey, Life
You are my sweetheart
where have you got lost, sweetheart?
You knocked at the doors of my dreams, sweetheart
And You hid yourself, sweetheart
Stop childish games sweetheart
Stop kidding me, sweetheart
Embrace my breaths
Release me from pains
Photo credit: www.youqueen.com.

Photo credit: www.youqueen.com.

Hey, Life
You are my sweetheart
Kiss me when I sleep
Lift me to some peace
Give me hopes to hold on to you sweetheart
Hey, Life
You used to be my sweetheart
Still
You lied to me, sweetheart,
Don’t lie to me sweetheart,
Anymore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vihasi Shah is an Indian lady with vision and mission. Constant learner and human with utmost humanity who wants to put a smile on everyone’s face and wants to see world as one and combined lovable artistic place to live.
Lawyer in process, company secretary, writer, anchor, teacher, and volunteer. You can have a cool sneak peak at some of my works by paying a visit to my blog – https://everlastingsmilewisdom.wordpress.com
THE GREAT DIVIDER by Chuks Obi

THE GREAT DIVIDER by Chuks Obi

by | Aug 18, 2016 | POEMS

THE GREAT DIVIDER

Thousands of years ago

Before we touched the world

Our fathers felt a need

That spanned beyond learning

And extended the realms of curiosity

It was a search for tenable answers

To questions that still disturb us

The theories we expounded

To attempt insoluble puzzles

Left trails of confusion

As to the river of existence

chaos-mind_00345650

The permanent lacunae

The horizonless horizon

Led us to a dilemmic juncture

To the left there was no river

On the right a sinuous stream

Some steps shunned the stream

Others plunged into its intricacies

In the bid to unveil its mysteries

There arose the Great Divider

Like a flashlight of diverse rays

She seemed to clear all doubts

KD poem plate 22

 

 

We then called her “religion”

The endless ladder to God

One could say she was harmless

She had always been

Till the day of her exaltation

When we sacrificed our brethren

On the altars of our differences

Forgetting the essence of humanity

Is in living and dying for each other

And to all worshippers is one river

Enjoyed through diverse lenses

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chuks Obi is a law student at the University of Ibadan. He has written poems and articles which have been published in magazines and anthologies, both online and in print. His poems fulfill a duty to humanity; soothing wounds with the wonders of words.

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