WELCOME TO HIDDEN NUANCES BLOG
TO REGISTER CLICK: REGISTER
TO LOGIN CLICK: LOGIN
LOST PASSWORD CLICK: GET NEW PASSWORD
This is an open forum for all aspiring and great poets to exhibit their finished poems and works in progress for comments and/or comment on posted works of others.
We want to build a community of poets that will support the development of each other and expand the frontier of poetic discourse.
We welcome all kinds of poems as long as they are polite and respectful, on any issue that catches the poets fancy. Politeness in discussions does not exclude critical poems or critical analysis of poems!
While we want to encourage African Contemporary in all forms we do not limit contributions to Africans or African themes and issues therefore human being in the world is invited to join, after all we are all human beings before we are anything else.
We reserve the right to exclude any post that is unduly and unfairly offensive and warn against plagiarism. It shall be the duty of every participant to get necessary copyright approval before posting the works of a third party and give necessary credits.
You can go to the current post page by clicking here: POST-PAGE
Or any of the following archives and other pages by clicking the link:
Hurricane Ike (Facts and Superstitious Fiction)
CHAIN SONNET: WAR DIRGE
HUMANITY DIES?
John McBush
LOST INNOCENCE
McCain’s Dance of Witchcraft: Thirst of Blood
POEMS FOR MY SON: OLUJARE-DEAN
POSTS FROM APRIL TO AUGUST 2008
RUMINATIONS 1: BY UCHENNA OYALI (AND COMMENTS)
TUFIA! BY UCHENNA OYALI (AND COMMENTS)
WITCHCRAFT AND THE US ARMY
TO REGISTER CLICK: REGISTER
TO LOGIN CLICK: LOGIN
LOST PASSWORD CLICK: GET NEW PASSWORD
Ayoola
I arrived in this tropical mangrove lair to the embrace of warm hospitality of the vegetation and clime, which chanted to me welcome home. I grew up in Lagos, a tropical mangrove vegetation climate just like the Fiji, made up of Islands called Lagos, Ikoyi, Victoria, Banana, Coconut and Takwa Bay. From the Nadi town airport, the 30 minute drive to town on the left side navigated through swamps crawling with long legged woven willow like giant plants and the breath and sights of salty lagoon. On the right side arrayed the hint of a forested density later giving way to the sparsely populated modest dotting of bungalows, behind which stood, intermittently peeping in the distance, the sleepy giant rocky mountain ridges. I was later to be introduced to them and the garden, which they guarded: “The Garden of the Sleeping Giant!”
(Scene One)
The mid afternoon sun in its sense of humour turned the pacific ocean into a white silvery gold, while the clouds above pensively view the scene in awe and the population of the coastal vegetation arise and stare in amazement at the artistry of the Fijian Sun.
(Scene Two)
The Clouds wrap there arms around the Rock head of the mountain ridge in a warm smothering hug. The embrace of heaven and earth, mother and child.
To see more of the Fiji Island go to Pages Fiji Islands: Paradise Found
DAUGHTER OF THE MOON
The allure of my nine-storey office block
In a city that hardly license beyond five
Is the making of a giant in dwarf municipal
Often to the top I go, to refresh my lungs
But always the sight drains my respiration
Vegetation of rolling hills clothe this town
Stone Faced Elephant
She is guarded by an army of rocky ranges
Stone faced huge titans armed to the teeth
In an impervious battle ready formation
One morn, staleness in my lungs beckoned
And I saw the sun squat to bathe this town
In golden rays mixed with the morning dew
Bathing in the Golden Rays
One even’ time I ached for the soothing breeze
And I saw the moon kneel to pick and cuddle
This smiling content and serene metropolis
A pampered town birthed by the moon
But disciplined by the monarchical sun
Often playfully splashing in swirling rains
I stand as the custodian of her beauty
And I pronounce…
ABUJA! The Nigerian City Princess.
My Secondary School was at St Gregory’s College, Obalende, Lagos (not college in the American sense) from 1973 to 1978 and we had really great teachers who took exceptional care, when compared to today’s standards, to inculcate in us not just an education but excellent standards of human decency, dignity and etiquette.
In respect of this, my class mates desired that some of us should visit our Vice Principal in those years, Mrs Carol Obianwu, a citizen of the United States of America, married to a Nigerian, to express our appreciation and courtesy at the devotion and commitment she displayed in handling her duties as the Vice Principal of the School and Physics teacher to the upper classes.
She has since retired and lives in the Austin, Texas, where I visited her on a recent trip.
AYOOLA
LAUGH UNTIL YOU CRY
No wonder Sarah Palin almost became president. There are too many Sarah Palins out there
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nHmPeVSdyk8/SasSwRdUQSI/AAAAAAAACcE/ibcfwsJ7Fec/s400/rose+with+thorns.jpg
I go quietly now
to lay in the thorns
a familiar place
i’ve been before
bereft of joy
devoured by rage
save for the fleeting moments
of kindness and love
confusion and fear
torn by resentment
i sink further away
into darkness i drown
struggling to embrace
memory’s waning beauty
i recall those dreams
and despair in silence
i lay in the thorns
now in sweet misery
better to whisper truth alone
than to live an illusion
* this time i’ll stay
til this pain disappears
and the scent of roses
kisses my heart again
JG 2009
* for Ayoola 
The Thrilling Man
FOREVER THE CHILD
Grand success achieved in a breath
Bundle of cute joy bubbling on stage
In sacrifice of the elixir of his youth
We heard not the cry deep in his heart
Cruelty jokingly called him big nose
Precipitating a lifelong nasal battle
Cosmetic knives with many sutures
We heard not the cry deep in his heart
Worshipped, adored, loved but vilified
Wacko Jacko rolling of malicious tongues
Understanding not search for lost youth
We heard not the cry deep in his heart
He smiles tears of his sorrow to oblivion
Did we know the heaviness exertion?
Craving and striving for acceptance still
We heard not the cry deep in his heart
So, he sought a his own realm Neverland
To embrace an illusion of what he lost
His life, his identity and core of his soul
But life really is unforgivingly short…
Take a moment to hear the cry of his heart
And then say Adieu!
My baby gave me the world
For two hours
Not actually the entire world
But this beautiful city of ours
Abuja, the grand heart of Nigeria
This State capital of ours
We ascended; up and up and up
Each step taking us higher and higher
To an uplifted view, above us, the skies
Beholding our world
Watching the electrical stars
Struggling to outshine each other
Punctuating the night’s darkness
They cooked and ate
They laughed and played
Read and slept
Touched not and touched
To the various sounds of their televisions
All in the warmth of our imagination
The coolness of the breeze
The sensual Tiv songs and their tease
We descended; floating down as it is
With our minds left in the heat
Of this moment of such visual riches
Victoria Offiong-Moses
6:00pm, April 24, 2009
http://kickskirt.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/stethoscope-for-web.jpg
I used to fall asleep
Counting all those lies
You caught me with,
Counting lies after you left me
Sleepless and steeped in misery…
No, crying didn’t exhaust me
To sleep with countless tears
From a trusting, tattered heart.
I counted lies instead,
Like others count bleating sheep
And when I reached a hundred and three,
I fell asleep from sheer surprise.
I used to fall asleep
Counting all those lies
You duped me with,
Counting lies after you left me
Sleepless and searching for the truth…
No, it wasn’t rage that lulled me
To sleep with vengeful ideas
Of painful ways to get back at you.
I counted lies instead
Like a mother’s sweet lullaby
To her first-born child
And when I reached a hundred and three
I fell asleep from sheer surprise.
I used to fall asleep
Counting all those lies
You fed me with,
Counting lies after you left me
Sleepless and starved for real love.
No, not even soul-searching
Helped me to sleep with soothing
Words of forgiveness
For my gullible, grieving soul…
I counted lies instead
Like a mug of hot chocolate
On a cold, cold night
And when I reached a hundred and three,
I fell asleep from sheer surprise.
No, furry sheep had nothing on
Your pack of smooth, smooth lies.
Those lies!
They jumped all the fancy fences
Of my suspicions.
Yes, you were a master
In the art of deception
And you gifted me with quite a collection…
A hundred and three different emotions
For a hundred and three creative lies,
A hundred and three valid reasons
For a hundred and three heart-felt thanks
Because when sleep eludes me
Only a hundred and three lies can exhaust me!
http://katiehull.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/bartender02.gif
THE BARTENDER
From time to time to time I am bewildered
As my mind plays bartender to visitors
Wayward thoughts telling profane tales
In codes of legends of staunch immorality
Like a deer caught in headlights I freeze
Why is evil such a wealthy honeycomb
Easy on the tongue’s appeal to itchy ears
But the mind’s stomach churns and ulcerates
So I lock the doors to my heart in piety
I bake the key, overlay icing and swallow
Next batch of visitors arrive at the motel
Demanding to see their friend the bartender
“No drinks today or in fact ever again … go!”
Their curses pound the door ferociously
Each blow softens the foundation of resolve
Under the barrage of angry voices I sleep
Dark hour shadows emerge to plead dreams
Ghosts of amorous appeals infiltrate deep
Lacerating, yet soothing my conscience
With the guile of a serpent’s movement
I awake to sounds of dissolute music
I trace the source to the bartender’s bar
Smiles all around and drinks are served
Peacocked visitors trading wanton tales
I check the door. It’s unhinged and loose…
Romans {7:14} For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. {7:15} For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. {7:16} If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good. {7:17} Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. {7:18} For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to
perform that which is good I find not. {7:19} For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. {7:20} Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. {7:21} I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. {7:22} For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: {7:23}But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. {7:24} O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Galatians{5:16} [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. {5:17} For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
IDANRE
PART 1
When I arrived and my exhaustion slept
Idanre was blanketed by the night
As the early morning condensed and wept
I was touched awake by the first sunlight
Man’s insignificance is apparent
In the sight of bold, proud arrogance
Of gigantic boulders that stand silent
In a domineering oppressive stance
In the brave face of massive sheer presence
Man is an infinitesimal grain
His boggling mind has to bow in deference
Purged of any irreverence or disdain
Completely humbled by the work of God
Even as my lost words were like a flood
PART 2
(Motions)
Mother earth dances in undulation
Mimicking supple motions of sea waves
Bouncing homes like vessels of the ocean
And creating snarls of crevice enclaves
(Call to Climb)
You can hear the sounds of quietness
Dotted with the chirping of birds swirling
Cruising on this splendour of stillness
That compels all who dare to come climbing
(Magnificence)
Magnificence sits on the blue skyline
Riding on the back of an earthy scene
Arrestingly sublime wondrous goldmine
Black and grey monuments, speckled with green
Completely humbled by the work of God
Even as my lost words were like a flood
PART 3 (MOTIONS)
Ripping through the ground, thrusting through the skies
Massive giants hold the heavens captive
Each, a fabulous escarpment high rise
Echoes of times when the earth was active
Framed across the skies in phantom motion
Gliding fleetingly the giants shift
Woozy heads will reel in mild confusion
Then clouds move instead and dizziness lift
Was it in the mind or did the hills move?
Yet morning dew condenses to create sweat
Soaking heads to shoulders as if to prove
That perspiration had made the hills wet
Completely humbled by the work of God
Even as my lost words were like a flood
PART 4 (The Climb)
Grand awe inspiring monsters to behold
Peer down at the climbers in indifference
Swaying balance of each treacherous foothold
Continues assault in careful deference
Dancing on the back of the pious creatures
Curious inelegant tentative steps
Humans simulating caricatures
On the fringes of hard rocky biceps
The silence of the hills reverberate
In the loud bellow of their awesome size
A cause for heartbeats to accelerate
In the quest for satisfaction as prize
Completely humbled by the work of God
Even as my lost words were like a flood
PART 5 (Magnificence)
Even as their heads are buried in the height
By the eloquence of unspoken words
Their voices speak of the mysteries of might
“The mighty need never unsheathe their swords”
The ambition of man is not a threat
To the substance of these massive presence
They are neither alarmed nor do they fret
As man surmounts the peak of their essence
From these eerie heights a delight is seen
Idanre as ghosts of an untold dream
A uniquely iconoclastic scene
That sings the tune of an African hymn
Completely humbled by the work of God
Even as my found words are now a flood
Life is a gift
And we unwrap the years.
There are some we
Tear through with impatience
-Typical of youth-
But then we discover…
Life is a gift
And we unwrap the years.
There are some we
View with caution and fear
-Typical of doubt-
But then we learn…
Life is a gift
And we unwrap the years.
Finally, taking them
Just as they come
-Typical of the wise-
Because then we know…
Life is a gift
That once unwrapped,
Returns to the Giver.
http://d.yimg.com/ca.yimg.com/p/090708/afp/iphoto_1247078355219-1-0jpg.jpg
What is there left in life that’s free?
And money still doesn’t grow on trees.
Zamani has brought fresh levels of greed,
Overflowing pockets of endless need.
By all means plant your seeds of ready cash
Inevitably, you’ll loose each precious stash
You’ll find there’s little in life that’s free
And money still doesn’t grow on trees.
AJANGBADI WHISPERS
(PART 1)
Tonight I heard whispers of Ajangbadi
The lost world of forgotten intonations
Which many nights sang my soul to sleep
In the gentle arms of quiet night breeze
Pleasurable passions long frozen in time
Defrost in warm memories soaked with pain
Inhaling the sweet lava of molten passion
Coloured in purple red and forbidden hopes
The nights locked our secret rendezvous
Hinting only the voice of a poetic wine
The pleasures that oozed from the dark
Healing the echoes of concealed tears
I still taste the tears of stolen emotions
Tightly wrapped around my fading heartbeats
Dancing on the edge of timeless time
As if time froze and the memories live
Ayoola B. Oke; 9th April 2008, 12:50 am
AJANGBADI WHISPERS
(PART 2)
In a dream you slipped into my arms
I awoke to the reality of you
Innocently asleep in my arms
Even as I remained asleep in yours
Amour not blinded but fast asleep
I dreamt of a beautiful butterfly
Nectared only by a single flower
In the midst of a blooming bouquet
Your lips softly on mine did drink
An elixir Amaretto that feeds amour
Mutually, you from I and I from you
Intoxicating each other with life
Ajangbadi pronounced like Paradise
Fairy tales of untold honeyed dreams
Seen through the wide eyes of innocence
Two beautiful souls peacefully asleep
AJANGBADI WHISPERS
(PART 3)
Amour was born on yesterday’s freshness
When we listened to our hearts in dialogue
Speaking in mysterious silent commune
Content to say all by saying nothing
The rogues would not let us alone
Promises of glamour like a Greek gift
Led you away from our sweet commune
C’est dommage; “Ce sera, sera” my love
Evening slips on the night as a negligee
She looks sexy, transparent and warm
I feel her breath caressing our faces
As we sat on the sand dune next door
“If you could see me now…” as Millie said
Pleading for you not to roam the fields
But if whatever will be will be
Do not hold on to this shade of Amour
2:55am, 11th April 2008
FAITH’S TEST
“Fitnah”! The evil whisperer says to me
“Sabr”! The goodness in my heart yells in reply.
Oh,my conscience, the battleground of good and evil
where strife and patience draw swords,at war.
Temptation, the weapon of evil struggles to hold on
‘Taqwah’, ever so strong, holds sway
The battle is over, but never the war
Not until judgement day.
Note: the words in quotation marks are of Arabic origin.
‘Fitnah’ means trial or temptation
‘Sabr’ means patience, perseverance
‘Taqwah’ is piety, righteousness.
Hadiza Nuhu
The child is not a child,
Who grew up yesterday
When innocence was snatched away,
Leaving a distant pin-prick of memory
Where childhood was once at play
And in thier eyes lies part of the story…
The child is not a child,
See the shattered illusions,
The lost hope and broken dreams,
The bruised heart and tired soul,
See the cruel lessons learned
And behind thier eyes shadows lurk…
The child is not a child,
Who lives with nightmares,
Hides from memories
And battles elusive fears
With a wisdom beyond their years
And through their eyes age disappears…
The child is not a child,
Who looks at the world
With young-old eyes
That have seen too much,
Too soon.
For Kassim
Warm mellow light
Kerosene and melting wax
Grey-blue swirls, sweet smoke
Of incense sticks burning
In a red clay pot.
Mud-brown walls
And high-domed ceilings,
Shadow games
Mis-shapen lumps of shade
Formed by clever fingers.
Dark ghosts flicker,
And fear lurks in corners…
Yaya’s voice is
A spider’s web, a cosy cocoon
Around drowsy heads
The husky tones
Of the storyteller’s wisdom
Cast a sleepy spell.
A slice of silver moon
Shines on the woven patterns
Of an old straw mat
Where eyes shut and limbs lax
Small bodies cuddle
Uncovered to the wafting breeze.
As we haste the winter to pass, let us remember each winter ages us as we lumber to the winter of our lives:
A SONNET FOR WINTER
Filled with beauty of snow, the winter
The voiceless soft falling and dancing flakes
Cotton harvest, white polka dots litter
Sheeting the earth with the icing it makes
The grandeur of Christmas and New Year kiss
On the icy breath of the winter’s mist
Such grand beauty surely we should not miss
As death and birth confluence a yearly feast
Yet we haste to the spritely spring of life
Forgetting we age into wintry grey
The heartbeat of time is our sober midwife
As to the waiting grave we haste to lay
Winter, Winter, Winter of my old age
Pass not quickly as I savour this stage
Written sitting on the laps of dawn 6:30 am 20th January 2008
This poem arose from the discussion on 2:00 a.m.: A Poetry Group titled Should Poetry Be Simplified To Be Better Understood By Casual Readers?
Link: 2:00 a.m.: A Poetry Group
AYOOLA’S UNIVERSE
Centripetal essences bound in gravitational pull
The centre draws the object to itself but holds
In abeyance, at a distance, unwilling to let go
In disobedience to the tenets of the universe
Centrifugal essential rudiment of fleeing masses
Explosive fusion in fugitive fissure from the core
Mass savours space like delicious multicourse menu
Space endless continues to expand as exploited
I see, I see not as sea of stars in furious motion frozen
Gases, solids and liquids in ghostly parade circles
They sing nursery rhymes clap their hands and dance
Atichoo atichoo, we all must someday fall down
Space is ripped by intensity of a burnt out furnace
Furious matter collapses, a dungeon is established
Like a spiderweb it grabs all passersby in a swallow
Darkness conquers light, a spatial celestial manhole
Beware, beware, be aware of the Bermuda triangle
Little quantas leap in quorky fashion and reason defies
In the skies mirrors escavating the faces of legends
Aries marshals its armies and jupiter’s thought in haste
Pyrotechniques renegade solid, where comet thou
Roguish antecedents transversing circular motions
Collusion, decimation, animation, flames and sparks
A fleet of new comets, devils of the universal laws
The hammer throwers of space, brawned star athletes
Multiple arms swing through showers of the dual nature
Quantum of light, particles or waves, particles that wave
God is Light, God is Light, Eternal never aging, God is Light
http://images.google.com.ng/imgres?imgurl=https://webspace.utexas.edu/yg387/universe.jpg&imgrefurl=https://webspace.utexas.edu/yg387/science_society.htm&usg=__VV5gK73gjEDNjFP0yZZUrKbcf0s=&h=900&w=1242&sz=393&hl=en&start=50&itbs=1&tbnid=IwfwH0FYzLZf9M:&tbnh=109&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Duniverse%26start%3D42%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1
VOICE OF DAWN
(KUKURUKUUU!)
Part 1
I wake up in the morning to listen
And hear the voice of the great KUKURUKUU
Prophesising the candour of the day
But dew bathed dawn delays the sunshine
Nevertheless the red bearded one never lies
Never shies, the truth to tell early enough
He flaps wings of his coat of colours many
And commands the break of his prophetic day
The sons’ of men who are hard of hearing
Fail to understand the seeds of his message
The insistent shrill, air rending, arousing call
Faithfully delivered by the bellicose voiced one
He stares inquiringly at men about to die
Curious that they hear not his ominous words
He flaps his scarlet crown and blinks his eyes
Hopping out of the way of their destiny’s call
He mopes at the back of skulls about to fall
From heights of favour and grace; forgotten!
Consigned to the shadowed caves of bats
To roam in the belly of sun starved seasons
If he could, from painful gains would he distract
These deafened zombies who on his warnings tread
But like a hastening bird to it chicks’ hanging nest
Over their heads, his prophetic cries fly, kukurukuuu
Part 2
Opportunities not to be missed, blessings unclaimed
Yet clueless and in gyrating circles some stalk
Until each one stumbles on a cobweb chained door
“Jump in” Kukuruku’s echoing voice exclaims!
The King to be made, in humility’s simple strides
Meets the eye of a proud apostle of prophecies
All hail the king! Kukurukuu lifts up a song
Yet none is moved to cheer the king to be
Their eyes spit scorn on his veiled kingly path
Jeers born into regret as the crown does fall
On the temples of destiny’s long awaited head
Only Kukurukuu knew that the day was here
Conclusion
Let us learn the language of the Great Okukorukuuu
For my twisted tongued brothers hear this…
We are the voice of the Great Kukuruukuuuu
Yet we know it not; we are Priest and kings unto our God
A TEAR FOR NIGERIA
PART 1
Dusk snarls and threatens to swallow daylights
As bleak darkness creeps on the sprawling land
Its shadows climbing trees and hilly heights
Before intense blackness descends its hand
Soft lanterns, lamps and bulbs punctuate the speech
That draws a sword’s sharp curtail on freedom
They are no match for this harrowing pitch
Each creates just an island of wisdom
Under this guise the jaguars reign supreme
They are the sculpted fangs of corruption
Who suckle dry the blood of our frail dream
That this land by truth, spring forth a nation
A tear I see in the face of the sun
A tear for Nigeria the loaded gun
PART 2
We dance to the drumbeats of filthy lies
Argue hoarse as deception bleeds our lungs
And poverty-struck people fall like flies
While hoping to gain from nepotic wrongs
We are the opened mouths of orphaned chicks
Waiting in vain on providence’s lost tail
Each rapture away as death’s hunger picks
And ailing shells of forgotten dreams fail
Shrewd vultures on our decaying flesh feast
Sweeping Abuja streets in crude finesse
Fat bellied arrogant strides that resist
The counsel of restraint and quietness
A tear I see in the face of the sun
A tear for Nigeria the loaded gun
PART 3
They blow the smoke of their pomposity
In the faces of the dregs of our land
Paupers, fed on hopes of mendacity
To escalate them to millionaires’ brand
We all dream on foolish hopes of one day
Not like Martin Luther King’s brave forecast
But we dream selfish hopes of a big pay
That shouts personal rings of “freedom at last”
But dawn wakes to another dreary morn
“Forty nine sitting, ninety nine standing”*
Our soaking sweats are tear drops that mourn
Our gross lack of basic understanding
A tear I see in the face of the sun
A tear for Nigeria the loaded gun
*Words of Fela Anikulapo Kuti from his album Shuffering and Shmiling
Ayoola Babatunde Oke
November 2008
I believe in dreams
for they often come true
and with it the beams
of joy and bright hue
Thus I am not weary
of this lonesome night
that my heart grows dreary
For my dreams shower light
on the form of a seaman
with gleaming silver on her kind
and thoughts of an airman
on her mind
I believe in angels and oftentimes saints
I believe in dreams that often come quaint
YOU INDEED ARE THE EMBODIMENT OF LOVE
HOW CAN ONE LOVE WITHOUT YOU
BESIDES YOU LOVE IS VANITY
BESIDES YOU LOVE IS TORTURE
LOVE SO AMAZING
LOVE SO TANGIBLE
OH MATCHLESS LOVE
YET YOU SEEM INVINCIBLE
VERY EASY TO UNDERRATE
SO EASY TO IGNORE
OFTEN ABANDONED FOR THE TEMPORAL
STILL YOUR POTENCY NEVER RECEEDS
THE WISE CANT DECIPHER YOU
YET THE SIMPLE OFTEN FIND YOU
NEVER FADING
NEVER ENDING
BECOMING MORE BEAUTIFUL
AS YOU ARE BEING UNRAVELLED
OH LOVE THAT SUCCORED ME
YOU HAVE ASKED FOR NO PRICE IN RETURN
ONLY TO GIVE LIFE MEANING
OH LOVE THAT GIVES ME HOPE FOR THE MORROW
THAT GIVES ME A GLIMPSE OF ETERNITY
CAN I EVER LOVE YOU TRUELY IN RETURN?
OH LOVER OF MY SOUL
How far do you go before you say enough?
How far?
Till your back is against the wall?
Till you recognise yourself no more?
Till a carricature you become…
Of that most despised of persons?
Mather?
How far?
How far do you go before you say no?
When the words have stopped coming?
When you no longer remember who you are?
Before you became who you are now?
When the anger overflows?
How far?
How far before you say no?
NEVER?
LATER?
WHEN?
How far?
How far before you say no?
REJECTION
My love is like a grief stricken widow
Mourning the demise of my lonely heart
Mortal was the hurt that came from her bow
The arrow whose tip was a poisonous dart
The power of my bosom speaks no more
And I am a doomed mummified zombie
Unfeeling and lost to viva l’amour
Cursed be the day that you, my eyes did see
Disconsolate winter has seized my soul
My insides are cold and numbed to the core
Bitterness’ bile spews out to play its role
To curse your sweet face with loneliness sore
Yet I cannot curse your cherubic face
Nor hatred find for your elegant grace
My heart is heavy with words unspoken
Its pain intense,with love so broken
My eyes are laden with tears unshed
blurring my vision,slowing my stead
O love once sweet, love once profound
You elude me love where are you bound
I hear your call, I hear your whisper
I follow your voice, then I falter
Do I seek revenge, do I seek redress
should I be patient and pray instead
My heart is torn two either way
The relief I seek so far away
This elegy I sing for you,O love
You’re dead to me, O elusive love
My heart still heavy, though purged of words
My lids still drenched with tears in hoards
HADIZA NUHU
What is this world after all?
Pride goes before a fall;
Great men, kings and sages have come and gone,
and so shall we all when destiny with us is done.
Shall we then tarry, idle, adrift
or shall we with purpose spend life in thrift.
The vanities of this world so clear to me.
The void in my being as clear glass I see.
It eludes me what I am meant to be,
Being as I am, loathing what I see.
I struggle on, though I stumble and fall
I pick me up, my destiny, my all
Hoping for the best, waiting for the call
What is this world after all?
HADIZA NUHU.
HUMANITY DIES?
PART 1
WHY ARE WE SO RAW
Why are we so raw?
Always going to war
Against our fellow man
Doing things inhuman
There is so much hate
It can fill a bottomless pit
One with whom you ate
You kill in an angry fit
Are we so demented
Not feeling tormented
By the sight of carnage
The product of our rage
Look at Sarajevo
Rwanda and Kosovo
Slaughter incorporated
By a race so demented
Sorrow tears my soul
Hitler has risen again
Ready to play his role
Just like the first Cain
PART2
WHO IS HITLER?
Who is this Hitler?
He’s a principle of evil
The prototypical killer
The son of the devil
Hitler enslaved Africa
Decimated Indians in America
Destabilised all Europe
A destroyer of human hope
Hitler is wicked ambition
Greed and avarice
He is discrimination
Cause of social jaundice
The first Hitler was Cain
Blood thirsty to his vein
Killed his brother in rage
Thus setting up the stage
War, war and more war
Raw, raw and so raw
War has crippled man
And destroyed his whole clan
PART3
HITLERIAN WORLD
(WAR, WAR AND MORE WAR)
Diseases in divers places
Starvation all around
Affects the various races
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
AIDS has killed many
Cancer still abounds
Medicine begs for a penny
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
The environment is dying
We stand on mournful ground
Most people are crying
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
Children learn to kill
Like the killer hound
Others learn to steal
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
This is such a shame
Problems all around
Yet help is so lame
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
PART 4
WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY?
Love your next door neighbour
Be your brother’s keeper
Live a life of candour
Commands our heavenly father
We are made in his likeness
To reflect his glory
But we have lost our greatness
And become so gory
We have all gone astray
Falling out of the WAY
Helping not the needy
We have become so greedy
Where is our humanity?
Milk of human kindness
Where is our divinity?
Godliness and goodness
We’ve become like criminals
Preying like animals
Humanity has lost her life
Stabbed with Hitler’s Knife
PART 5
MY BEST FRIEND IS NAUGHT
What a tragic shame
Says I the town crier
I do now proclaim
The warring man a liar
He kills for nobility
Yet murder is ignoble
He claim it is necessity
To make his domain stable
Now my soul is sorrowful
My best friend is naught
I have been such a fool
Because I knew it not
Her name is humanity
Milk of human kindness
She gave us divinity
Godliness and goodness
She lost a limb in Sarajevo
Got blinded in Rwanda
Was stabbed in Kosovo
Now bleeds to death in Chechnya
Ayoola Babatunde Oke
Categories: General, Political Thoughts, Social Issues
(CULLED FROM WIKIPEDIA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:God2-Sistine_Chapel.png
CHAIN SONNET
Q: What is a Chain Sonnet
A: A chain sonnet is a sonnet form that contains not just one sonnet but several sonnets (at least two) with the same final verse couplet. The couplet serves as the link. Each sonnet in the chain is in itself a complete sonnet but together they deal with same subject matter.
The Chain Sonnet is an African invention-adaptation of the Sonnet tradition (because I invented it as an African) I also call my sonnets African Sonnets because the way we speak English in Africa it will be difficult to match our word stresses with that of the United Kingdom or United States of America. Therefore although I still utilise the ten meter beat for each line, the beats are not iambic.
LOST INNOCENCE
PART 1
CREATION OF MAN
(God)
In his thoughts the being of all forms of life
Racing thoughts… his creative prowess flee
The decrees of contentious battle-strife
Thrust into the atmosphere’s fertile sea
(Creatures)
Eloquence speaks and lovely creatures form
Silence hides beneath the watery strongholds
While above the loquacious raging storm
Brings to birth prototypical life moulds
(Man)
An eastern wind blows on the earth’s surface
Leaving in its brief wake a form called man
The north wind brings breath to his lifeless face
Adamic nomenclature thus began
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
2:10 am 1st February 2000
PART 2
CREATION OF EVE
(God)
In man the Almighty reverberates
By his breath, man became a living soul
And the glory of the Lord celebrates
In Adam’s enigmatic hyperbole
(Adam)
By himself, man could not reproduce life
“It is not good for man to be alone”
But under the Eternal Surgeon’s knife
A rib removed, becomes a semi clone
(Eve)
Suddenly, like a flower’s emergence
Blooms forth from the belly of the dark night
Eve from Adam broke free of submergence
To bask in the bright sunshine of daylight
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
2:27pm 1st February 2000
PART 3
EVE MEETS THE SERPENT
(The Serpent)
A smooth kaleidoscopic symphony
Plexus myriad of colours radiates
In choreographic movement synchrony
An uncommon beauty, which fascinates
(Eve)
Prepubescent nascent maturity
Nudity…virginal and innocent
Softly speaking of untouched purity
Harbours endearing natural accent
(The Nexus)
Slippery, slithery and very subtle
The serpent invades her innocent mind
Subjugating her innocuous mettle
Holding her in a captivating bind
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
30th January 2000
PART 4
SEDUCTION OF EVE
(Alteration)
Up close and personal, eyeball to eyeball
The serpent drains her essential substance
By substrusive capture without a brawl
Altering her consciousness in an instance
(Loosening)
A thing, an act to which she was averse
But suddenly in her heart desire swells
Emotive gears are thrown into reverse
Letting loose water from her deep spring wells
(Ecstasy?)
“The fruit is surely good for food,” she says
“Certainly pleasant to the eyes,” she moans
Sensations from body to soul relays…
As the serpentine creature in her groans
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
5:00pm 31st January 2000
PART 5
A NEW EVE
(Body)
A new bodily feature undulates
Supreme curvature hyperbolism
Laced with fragrant and visual accentuates
Richly dressed in subtle symbolism
(Soul)
Her furnace stokes of a burning desire
Inducing graceful serpentine motions
Speaking volumes of subterranean fire
In the dungeons of subconscious notions
(Spirit)
A startling new spirituality sighs
Like the first yawning of a breaking dawn
In her new morning wake emergence lies
Wide-eyed like a fallow deer’s new born fawn
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
5:25pm 31st January 2000
PART 6
ADAM AND EVE
THE LAND OF CARNAL CRUDITY
(Adam)
Adam roamed free in his garden domain
Painting his person in the atmosphere
Establishing his kingdom and terrain
In the strength of his sceptre’s fiery fare
(Eve)
Eve loosened by her serpentine colours
Presented a panoramic concept
Permitting a variety of detours
From the path of the eternal precept
(The Nexus)
Adam in the embrace of Eve’s fresh form
Enticed by her alluring nudity
The currents of her strange passions transform…
All to the land of carnal crudity
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
1:38am 2nd of February 2000
PART 7
INNOCENCE HAS GONE
(Two Birds)
Guilt’s wings spread like a shadow overcast
Innocence wings spread ready to take flight
Birds of plumaged in opposition cast
One of the day, the other of the night
(Weeping)
Innocence weeps for days of old gone by
When she was supreme in all men’s affairs
Her scepter’s reign waves a tearful goodbye
Even as guilt’s strides gain arrogant airs
(Goodbye)
Hypoglycemia berths at harbour’s dock
On the coastline of humanity’s range
Strength is gone in the frame of ticking clock
Time flies and innocence becomes so strange
(Lament)
Eve, Eve mother of all what has thou done?
Guilty waves swell and innocence has gone!
10:13am 2nd of February 2000
OLUJARE OKE
EPIPHANY
PART 1
I WANT FREEDOM
Groaning in the belly of the dark dungeon
Wallowing with other souls under the dragon’s yoke
Weeping for the lost kingdom of yesteryears
When we roamed free in sunlit days
I look up to see no rainbow in the sky
To the horizon my two eyes roam to and fro
There is no flushing of blooming meadows
I painfully resign to this palace of doom
I wonder about the veracity of time travel
To be able to transverse zonal dimensions
Breaking down rigid barriers of steel
To escape the oppression of this darkness
I traveled through time to get here
This penitentiary of a hopeless dawn
Where sun rays are smouldered and quenched
So that draconian ideals may reign supreme
My conscience has been imprisoned
The keys to his cell cannot be found
I remain locked up in this desolate bunker
Where roaches feed on my brains festering wounds
Part 2
VISIONS FROM ABOVE
I sat in the region of darkness
Swimming in an abyss of slime
Senses beclouded and lost
In a place called Golgotha
Suddenly a door way appear
A staircase to the stars
Angels descending from above
And ascending back again
I saw visions of heavenly glory
Colours of myriad consternation
Beauty of the face of God
Shinning upon my countenance
I am sustained in his love
Covered with his splendour
Oh what a resplendent brightness
In expressible in mere words
Transposed in to Benjamin’s Chamber
In the ruling house of Judah
Where the sceptre departs not
El-Gibbor’s throne room of grace
Magnify him in his magnificence
Exalt the high and Lofty One
Who dwells in the heights of Zion
In the midst of the great congregation
The nimbus and the aureole
Do no justice to your majesty
Indescribable are you Lord
Excellent beyond comprehension
AN ODYSSEY WITH DEATH
(A HANDSHAKE WITH DEATH)
(A HAND FROM HELL)
A cruel mercilessly cold hand
Clutched at the boy’s heart
At the dawning of his birth
Drawing him behind the curtain of life
Tetralogy of the fallot…
That was the diagnosis
As joy of birth turned to despair
In a grief stricken moment
(WILL HE DIE)
We all merged into his life…
Battling and struggling through
As sunlit days became darkened
By the looming presence of death
Hope hung precariously on a thread
Threading softly near the abyss
The cold dark and bleak void
That envelopes all man’s expectation
(PORTAL OF HOPE)
Helpless but hopeful
All turned to the place of prayer
The cloak room of fortitude
To seek the GOVERNOR’s consent
The boy bravely soldiered on…
In the Spirit of us all
As doctors cut open his cardiac
Carefully suturing and mending
(MIRACLE)
Out of his dying embers
A spark ignited a flame
And the miracle of faith
Stoked the furnace of life
The boy shook hands with death
And bid the sentinel of life…
Farewell, Adios, Bye-bye, O dabo
Until the time of the evening sunset
(MILLENNIUM)
As the sentinel lingers…
The boy turned away to face
The sunshine of a breaking dawn
In his eyes the rays of a new millennium
1:14 am Sunday 9th of January 2000
RAISED FROM THE DEAD
(GOD IS JUSTIFIED-OLUJARE)
(THE INJURY)
Caught in a cross fire of frailty
He was shot in the fallot
Developing a cardiac injury
A slow descent to the grave began
(THE BOY)
He was born in a little town
Remote somewhere in Ireland
But drew the ire of death so soon
And the dark angel was PETULANT
(THE ANGEL)
Peevishly impatient and impudent
The angel wanted his prize
The little boy’s yet short-lived life
Spreading gloom he loomed
(HEROD OF HELL)
The Herod of hell held on…
Awaiting a fait accompli report
Of the sunset of an unrisen sun
Snuffed out like a candle in the wind
(LAMENTATION)
Who saw the boy’s star?
Who informed hell of his birth?
Sorrow was feed to his heart
His mother felt the gnawing pain
(DELIVERANCE)
Then a strong and resolute hand
Was held out form heaven’s throne
“Loose him and let him go”
Thundered the voice of Love
(PROPHECY)
Who has believed our report?
To whom is the Lord’s arm revealed?
He shall grow up before the Lord
Tenderly, a root plant out of dry ground!
11:30am Sunday 9th January 2000
HUMANITY DIES
PART 1
WHY ARE WE SO RAW
Why are we so raw?
Always going to war
Against your fellow man
Evil deeds you plan
There is so much hate
It can fill a bottomless pit
One with whom you ate
You kill in an angry fit
Are we so demented
Not feeling tormented
By the sight of carnage
The product of our rage
Look at Sarajevo
Rwanda and Kosovo
Slaughter incorporated
By a race so demented
Sorrow tears my soul
Hitler has risen again
Ready to play his role
Just like the first Cain
PART2
WHO IS HITLER?
Who is this Hitler?
He’s a principle of evil
The prototypical killer
The son of the devil
Hitler enslaved Africa
Decimated Indians in America
Destabilised all Europe
A destroyer of human hope
Hitler is wicked ambition
Greed and avarice
He is discrimination
Cause of social jaundice
The first Hitler was Cain
Blood thirsty to his vein
Killed his brother in rage
Thus setting up the stage
War, war and more war
Raw, raw and so raw
War has crippled man
And destroyed his whole clan
PART3
HITLERIAN WORLD
(WAR, WAR AND MORE WAR)
Diseases in divers places
Starvation all around
Affects the various races
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
AIDS has killed many
Cancer still abounds
Medicine begs for a penny
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
The environment is dying
We stand on mournful ground
Most people are crying
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
Children learn to kill
Like the killer hound
Others learn to steal
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
This is such a shame
Problems all around
Yet help is so lame
How does the world respond?
War, war and more war
Raw, raw…and so raw
Stockpiling weapons of war
In order to fight more war
PART 4
WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY?
Love your next door neighbour
Be your brother’s keeper
Live a life of candour
Commands our heavenly father
We are made in his likeness
To reflect his glory
But we have lost our greatness
And become so gory
We have all gone astray
Falling out of the WAY
Helping not the needy
We have become so greedy
Where is our humanity?
Milk of human kindness
Where is our divinity?
Godliness and goodness
We’ve become like criminals
Preying like animals
Humanity has lost her life
Stabbed with Hitler’s Knife
PART 5
MY BEST FRIEND IS NAUGHT
What a tragic shame
Says I the town crier
I do now proclaim
The warring man a liar
He kills for nobility
Yet murder is ignoble
He claim it is necessity
To make his domain stable
Now my soul is sorrowful
My best friend is naught
I have been such a fool
Because I knew it not
Her name is humanity
Milk of human kindness
She gave us divinity
Godliness and goodness
She lost a limb in Sarajevo
Got blinded in Rwanda
Was stabbed in Kosovo
Now bleeds to death in Chechnya
Ayoola Babatunde Oke
08.14.08TUFIA!Posted in Social Issues at 7:50 pm by OYALI
Cutlass and gun
lightening and thunder
the last brine drops flow
and voices crack
we inhale the acrid smell
of our burnt flesh
our blood flows the streets
mothers wail
fathers sigh
children gaze ahead
they see nothing
we eat ourselves
to promote peace
our sects say so
TUFIA!
Permalink · Edit
8 Comments »
Ayoola (administrator) said,
August 19, 2008 at 12:50 am · Edit
Hi and welcome to this blog site.
This poem is thought provoking, “we eat ourselves to promote peace?” Is it a strange religious sect or the predicament of the “brine filled” tragedy dominated Niger-Delta?
Ayoola
OYALI said,
August 19, 2008 at 7:32 pm · Edit
Incidentally, I was not thinking of the Niger-Delta when I wrote the poem. My inspiration was the recurrent religious crises that have been punctuating our history, especially the Kaduna 2000 one. Thanks for your comment. I’ll keep in touch.
OYALI said,
August 19, 2008 at 7:32 pm · Edit
Incidentally, I was not thinking of the Niger-Delta when I wrote the poem. My inspiration was the recurrent religious crises that have been punctuating our history, especially the Kaduna 2000 one. Thanks for your comment. I’ll keep in touch.
OYALI
Administrator said,
August 21, 2008 at 12:33 am · Edit
Hi,
What brought Niger delta to mind was “the last brine drops flow” brine being salt water. Anyway it just shows how a poem may deal with a subject so well that it’s application can be universal to similar situations. The way Niger Delta militants are “cannibalising” (we eat ourselves) each other also focus my mind in that direction.
However, clearly it applies to religious riots and even the Junkun/Tiv crises and the fulani indegene crises of the Plateau state about 2years ago.
Keep posting!
Ayoola
OYALI said,
August 23, 2008 at 4:46 pm · Edit
The ‘brine’ I refer to here is tears. We shed our last tears before we give up the ghost. Anyway, that goes to show how more can be read fron a seemingly simple line of poetry. Thanks for your comments
Administrator said,
August 23, 2008 at 8:54 pm · Edit
I am kicking myself anyway I should have figured out that form of brine.
OYALI said,
August 25, 2008 at 4:18 pm · Edit
I must confess that you are good. Very good. I have not been able to fully surf the site to get your data. My email is uoyali@yahoo.com. Kindly send me yours. Thanks
Administrator said,
August 26, 2008 at 12:04 am · Edit
Thanks for your compliment. I think you are really good yourself and I’m happy to have somebody like you on the site. Let’s build this a community of poetry loving people on this blog to encourage each other.
My e-mail is ayoolaoke@hiddennuances.com.
Ayoola
08.14.08 RUMINATIONS 1
Posted in Love at 7:46 pm by OYALI
What kills a man more
than the surge of emotions unspoken?
the heat ’specially when sincere
makes hell a paradise
pent-up feelings seeking
fissures to plode
oh!
the ecstasy will the imaginations outwit
when the explosion finds
the due season and soil
how glorious will the union be
when a man his lost rib finds!
Permalink · Edit
4 Comments »
Ayoola (administrator) said,
August 19, 2008 at 1:09 am · Edit
Hi,
Seeking fissures to plode or explode. Did not find the word plode in the dictionary.
Plod means to walk heavily or to work labourously.
The glorious union is sweet for the moment
And the mind is soaked with passion until
A fiesty disagreement,
Sharp words exchanged
Dark passion blows open
The tigress of silence
Backs are turned
Shoulders drawn away
From conciliatory touches
And a paradise become hell
When the found rib
Pokes you in the face.
Ayoola
OYALI said,
August 23, 2008 at 4:54 pm · Edit
‘plode’ is actually meant to be a clip of ‘explode’. It is a conscious coinage. Thanks for your observation. And for your response, I have this to say:
The pokes and pushes
The aches and sighs
Are meant for proper adjustments
The rib must push
To take its place
Else it’ll suffer all alone
Left to bake and left to freeze
To please the sun and chilly cold
What ecstasy of love unmatched
When the rib fits into its place
What life the man is blessed to live
When the man finds his missing rib
OYALI
Administrator said,
August 23, 2008 at 8:50 pm · Edit
Well said and excellent response. This response flows better than the original poem.
Ayoola
OYALI said,
August 25, 2008 at 4:20 pm · Edit
Thanks you. You are a great poet for it takes a poet to appreciate poetry.
CHAIN SONNET
Q: What is a Chain Sonnet
A: A chain sonnet is a sonnet form that contains not just one sonnet but several sonnets (at least two) with the same final verse couplet. The couplet serves as the link. Each sonnet in the chain is in itself a complete sonnet but together they deal with same subject matter.
The Chain Sonnet is an African invention-adaptation of the Sonnet tradition (because I invented it as an African) I also call my sonnets African Sonnets because the way we speak English in Africa it will be difficult to match our word stresses with that of the United Kingdom or United States of America. Therefore although I still utilise the ten meter beat for each line, the beats are not iambic.
WAR DIRGE
PART 1
The nightingale perched on the tree of life
And beautifully sang an ode to Peace
The champion who triumphed over all strife
And created an unparalleled bliss
As the eulogy of the perched bird sang
Hatred, Intolerance and Prejudice
Produced the treacherous conspiracy gang
With the foul league of Greed and Avarice
With a single shot the nightingale died
Thus instead of the peaceful reign…torment!
All the consorts of Peace scuttle to hide
As tides of brewing trouble did forment!
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
Part 2
Hatred, Intolerance and Prejudice
These are desperate demons within man’s soul
Which wage a bitter war against Justice
The Guardian Angel with truth extols
Greed and Avarice are dangerous pirates
On the high seas of man’s voyage of life
They plunder unsuspecting cargo freights
And unleash poverty, hunger and strife
When the Guardian Angel loses the war
Man’s soul ebbs and dies on the battle field
Death’s victory celebrates with open jaw
As the fate of the warring man is sealed
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
PART 3
Blood letting sights thrust into the airwaves
Disembowelled victims on the ground lies
Severed heads, scattered limbs… more! Hatred craves
Death’s toll counts, rises and then multiplies
Frigidity paralyses my soul
Horror stare into my inner most mind
My lachryma sheds tears into a bowl
And my teeth tightly shut, begins to grind
Man turns to shit before he turns to dust
I smell the odour of death by my eyes
Question: whence comest this blood letting lust?
Eyes opened, tightly shut…reason defies
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
Am 13th April 2000
PART 4
Question: whence comest this blood letting lust?
Down the ages from the man of sin …Cain!
He slew his brother at a vengeful cost
Hatred seized his heart and filled it with pain
“I’m not my brother’s keeper” Hatred speaks
“Who is my brother?” Prejudice replies
“Those that I consider not to be freaks”
Intolerance applauds these wicked lies
The cost to Cain for murder was vengeance
Do unto others, what you wish yourself
Hatred does not owe any allegiance
He will be your enemy’s friendly elf
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
Part 5
The tragedy of man lays itself bare
In the pain man inflicts upon himself
Women feel the pain as they gape and stare
As wickedness speaks like a brutish elf
Sorrow tearfully sings a burial dirge
“Abide with me fast falls the eventide”*
Man’s soul sings along and in tears submerge
“The darkness deepens Lord with me abide”*
Putrefaction’s odour, in the air hangs
“Change and decay in all around I see”*
And bleeding hearts ebb away, in deaths pangs
“Oh thou who changest not abide with me”*
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
(*From the hymn “Abide with me” – to be sung)
PART 6
All cry bring back the glorious Peaceful reign
No more wars against mankind’s dying soul
Let’s heal the hurt and alleviate our pain
Regain the throne of Peace that Hatred stole
I want to hear the nightingale’s love song
I want to eat fruits from the tree of life
And escape this terrible life of dung
Where Peace is lost and in her stead stands strife
All cry bring back the glorious Peaceful reign
No more wars against mankind’s dying soul
Let’s heal the hurt and alleviate our pain
Regain the throne of Peace that Hatred stole
My friend why then would we not stop this war
And say unto hatred, “we love you no more!”
Your future is yours to decide
Your destiny is in your hands
In a world that move on and on
Remember you are just a spec
Without you the world still moves
You can make yourself great
You may make yourself big
So you don’t just revolve
Around this great big world
But let it around you revolve
The fact of life is that
Your hard work and your Faith
Gets you to were you dream to be
And where you want to be,
So do not forget your goal
“So move the world”
And destiny will rise up to you
KIKELOMO TOGUN
As we walked down the road
She spoke a destiny to me
In my wildest imagination my heart leapt
Two eyes sitting on dimpled cheeks?
A dreamy man of dreams
Could I be dreaming or …,
I search her face for a tease
Could it be true or not
As I searched fervently for a glimmer
Sincerity smiled back at me
I dared to hope!
But could he want me for me
Would I just be another conquest
Or just a prized trophy to tell
There I was, my emotions restless like the sea
Tossing and turning by billowing winds
Driven by opposing thoughts of confusion
And my mind relentlessly wanders
In my confusion rays of sanity
Filter through the cloudy haze
To calm my rippling emotions
And bring succour to fulfil
The destiny that was meant to be
Chika Njoku
BIRTH OF CREATION
The Ominous Mind broods over a sea of ideas
Thoughts flame through the expansive firmaments
Interlocking, engaging and creating patterns
Before bursting into words, LET THERE BE LIGHT!
The nature of the Infinitive rejoices
Boundless leaps of rays break loose in joyous hymns
Streaming freely in prisms of the elements
To resurrect the beauties of colours and space
The formless Being commands obedience to flow
Arise and be separate in terraces and hills
Undulating dunes and curving forms in bays
Laced with serpent-rivers, waterfalls and delta ways
The Lord of heavens communes by floating forms
Agitated giants arise in aggressive mien
While from their feet the canvassing earth roams free
Hugging lakes and spawning caves and crevices
Wisdom articulates rooted living greens and browns
Fed from the womb of interlocking terraces
At their feet, lesser vegetation scrubs the dirt
Birthing flowery waves to the host of the skies
The Highest fills the air with sinews of logic
Invisible pathways transverse the realm between
The wind surfers hold a parade of flight skills
Dancing on the living breath of the Almighty God
Righteousness sits on the firmament of firmaments
Decreeing the innocence of forest roamers
The wariness of the prey and its stalking predator
In a choreograph to the music of life and death
The Bellowing Voice that utters all things to be
Spoke life into the strongholds depths of blue and green
And brine drunken philosophers embraced its vastness
Courting and carousing foreshadows of vegetations
The Sovereign decrees destinies of clones of understanding
To mirror his power and majesty of his ominous mind
Behold the prince by which all things are begotten
In the reverberation of simulating appears
Dominion arose from the dusty face of the earth
Endued with powers of cascading intelligence
Rising in the octaves and billows of scented sacrifice
To the stealth and traction that overcomes the world
MAN!
29th August 2008
Ayoola Babatunde Oke
08.24.08WITCHCRAFT AND THE US ARMYPosted in General, Political Thought, Religious at 2:27 am by Administrator
John McCain searches for victim Abel
His ancient name was Lamech Cain the thief
Who stole a hapless soul and cursed himself
To be damned seventy times seven times
For the blood spilt on the skin of the earth
More blood to spill on Iraqi soil
To feed his thirst at the witching hour
Sitting on the hat of raging horsemen
Vultures who feast on flesh and belch oil
Marching on the grave of Nimrod’s home
US Army as witchcraft’s veritable tool?
For a hundred years in Mesopotamia
Yet the world plants a garden of silence
So deafening are its flowers of sorrow
As we weep for the flesh of lost children
Called McCain yet we all are blind
McLucifer’s name will blind open eyes
To the devises of the wolves of Lamech
Who howl at the moon of George Bushes crimes
In nostalgia for the cold peace of war
Modern Pandora called condeleeza Lies
Stokes the drum of war on Georgian bait
Sharpened teeth famished for a cloud of blood
Poking out of a face veiled with venom
Yet a garden of silence we plant
Lamech burns a witch in the public frames
But keeps a witch with an Army cap
Yet the silence we plant is deafening in silence
The hordes of hell wait to be let loose
Our silence fulfills their twilight flights
Ayoola Babatunde Oke
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991417-2,00.html
“I Saluted a Witch”
Monday, Jul. 05, 1999 By S.C. GWYNNE/KILLEEN
Article Tools
The high priestess lifts her arms to the crescent moon, her bright silver pentagrams shimmering in the light of a burning cauldron. About her stand hooded figures, some with long forked staffs bearing stag horns and hawk feathers, animal skins and other talismans. “Circle of power,” she chants, “I conjure thee to ban such things as named by me…Attract such things as named by me…Be cleansed of all impurity…So mote it be.” Surrounded by swarms of mosquitoes, the others chant back in litany, “So mote it be.”
The ceremony is a “moon ritual,” and the 20 people who gathered two weeks ago in this meadow in the middle of Texas believe it will change the world, if ever so slightly. That is because they are witches, and what they are doing in this incantatory rite is casting spells, in this case for “tolerance and understanding.” And while card-carrying witches might seem remarkable enough, these are more exotic still. They are Army witches: colonels and sergeants and captains and privates. They belong to a group of 50 or so kindred spirits who assemble regularly at Fort Hood, the largest U.S. military base, in Killeen. They are, in fact, part of a boomlet in the armed forces of believers who call themselves Wiccans and follow a polytheistic, nature-based religion that centers on an earth goddess. Since Fort Hood gave official recognition to the Wiccans more than two years ago, four more military bases have sanctioned the religion.
Few people outside the base knew the Army had approved such a group until a couple of months ago, when a photo of a torchlight ritual appeared in a local paper. As word spread, Christian groups and politicians denounced the Wiccans as both satanic and inappropriate in the U.S. Army. Eleven religious organizations called on Christians not to enlist or re-enlist until the Army stops supporting witchcraft. “What’s next?” asked Republican Congressman Bob Barr in a letter to Fort Hood’s commander. “Will armored divisions be forced to travel with sacrificial animals for satanic rituals?” G.O.P. Senator Strom Thurmond vowed to introduce legislation to stop the armed forces from condoning witchcraft. The Army shrugs at such complaints, saying it has no plans to shut down “minority religions.” “This belief is protected under the First Amendment,” says Major General William Dendinger, chairman of the Armed Forces Chaplains Board. In any case, as he points out, “very few members of the military practice these beliefs.”
In Killeen, Christians howl in protest. “We believe they are satanic and that they do not deserve to have any place at Fort Hood,” says the Rev. Jack Harvey of the local Tabernacle Baptist Church, which sponsored a letter-writing campaign against the Wiccans. “Eighty percent of my congregation is military, and they are appalled by it.”
Actually, Wiccans say they profess no satanism at all. Their paganism is drawn from pre-Christian European tribal religions that invoke spirits in nature and celebrate the seasons. They do not sacrifice animals or cast evil spells. Ron and Marie Smith, recently retired Army colonels, became Wiccans after having tried the Episcopal Church and Seventh-Day Adventism. “I was raised in the country, and in church I always felt enclosed,” says Ron, 53, who is now a registered nurse, as is his wife. “I feel close to God in nature.” Ron and Marie say they have paid a price for their beliefs. “We have had persistent threats against me and my wife,” says Ron. “People have told us they will beat us up.” Says Fort Hood high priestess Marcy Palmer: “I get threats on e-mail and calls threatening me at least twice a week.”
While their beliefs and practices may be gentle at heart, their symbolism makes it fairly easy to demonize them. Besides calling themselves witches, they often prefer to conduct their rituals naked (Fort Hood has forbidden them to do so), use 9-in. daggers called athames in their ceremonies, cast magic spells, and worship, among others, “the horned god” found in pagan traditions. Wiccans are also pacifists, but believe that your actions come back to you threefold and are prepared to accept the consequences of what they do as soldiers. That the Army would be so progressive in its acceptance makes perfect sense to the Wiccans. “The Army has always been ahead of the civilian world on things like racial and sexual equality,” says high priestess Palmer, a former military policewoman. “They’re just a lot more tolerant. When you’re in a foxhole, you don’t care what religion the guy next to you belongs to.” Army witches even have a sense of humor. At Halloween, Palmer turns her home, where she keeps a pet wolf named Spirit, into a haunted house for trick-or-treaters. “What could be better,” she says, “than a haunted house with real witches and a wolf that howls on command?”
Permalink Comments · Edit
08.23.08Posted in General, Political Thought at 11:21 pm by Administrator
The current face off between the United States of America and Russia is a perfect example of the gross stupidity of this American president and the Republicans should be thoroughly embarrassed that they bequeathed Bush to the world for 8 harrowing years. It is amazing that he is ready to sacrifice the war on terror for the Georgian president’s miscalculations.
Now that Condelezza Lies is signing a Defence pact with Poland on behalf of Bush and America, what if Russia was to sign a defence pact or nuclear development pact with Iran or Syria.
The French and the Europeans know the real deal and that is why they are threading carefully but the Bull (or Bush) in China shop will not stop to Amaze a bemused world.
Dear Republicans please do not unleash someone even worse than Bush, John McCain
Permalink Comments · Edit
08.14.08TUFIA!Posted in Social Issues at 7:50 pm by OYALI
Cutlass and gun
lightening and thunder
the last brine drops flow
and voices crack
we inhale the acrid smell
of our burnt flesh
our blood flows the streets
mothers wail
fathers sigh
children gaze ahead
they see nothing
we eat ourselves
to promote peace
our sects say so
TUFIA!
Permalink 8 Comments · Edit
RUMINATIONS 1Posted in Love at 7:46 pm by OYALI
What kills a man more
than the surge of emotions unspoken?
the heat ’specially when sincere
makes hell a paradise
pent-up feelings seeking
fissures to plode
oh!
the ecstasy will the imaginations outwit
when the explosion finds
the due season and soil
how glorious will the union be
when a man his lost rib finds!
Permalink 4 Comments · Edit
07.27.08INFESTED RIVERPosted in General, Love, Romantic at 12:42 am by Administrator
Like a crocodile infested river
Her tantalising agenda loomed large
Scented heavily with hopeless aroma
Of promises that cannot be fulfilled
Contentious and wicked lies struggle
With shades of colours of shallow reason
Somersaulting on the gilt-edge of hope
Like the tail of an incestuous dream
I am doubly ensnared but not defiled
As I embrace the shadow not the essence
Of a night that gossips about sunshine
In the floating shadows of moonlight
I drank and savoured her sultry lies
But when the night bled into daybreak
And she treacherously tiptoed away
I remembered her like a bequeathed dream
9th April 2008; 10:17am
Permalink 1 Comment · Edit
RAGING PARADOXPosted in General, Love, Romantic at 12:40 am by Administrator
I dared to sail on a tempestuous sea
Carried away on the wings of true love
The whirlwind’s force broke my anchorage free
I swirl to depths below and heights above
I long for the shoreline of loneliness
The shallow waters of tranquility
Of certainty’s reign laced with tardiness
Where I laid fallow in obscurity
I like to be in control of my flow
In the rest realm of lethargic calmness
But love the challenge of fissures and glow
Metaphors and imageries of brightness
Man truly is a raging paradox
Conflicting schism like Pandora’s box!
Permalink Comments · Edit
EPIPHANYPosted in General at 12:39 am by Administrator
Part 2
VISIONS FROM ABOVE
I sat in the region of darkness
Swimming in an abyss of slime
Senses beclouded and lost
In a place called Golgotha
Suddenly a door way appear
A staircase to the stars
Angels descending from above
And ascending back again
I saw visions of heavenly glory
Colours of myriad consternation
Beauty of the face of God
Shinning upon my countenance
I am sustained in his love
Covered with his splendour
Oh what a resplendent brightness
In expressible in mere words
Transposed in to Benjamin’s Chamber
In the ruling house of Judah
Where the sceptre departs not
El-Gibbor’s throne room of grace
Magnify him in his magnificence
Exalt the high and Lofty One
Who dwells in the heights of Zion
In the midst of the great congregation
The nimbus and the aureole
Do no justice to your majesty
Indescribable are you Lord
Excellent beyond comprehension
Permalink Comments · Edit
EPIPHANYPosted in General at 12:38 am by Administrator
PART 1
I WANT FREEDOM
Groaning in the belly of the dark dungeon
Wallowing with other souls under the dragon’s yoke
Weeping for the lost kingdom of yesteryears
When we roamed free in sunlit days
I look up to see no rainbow in the sky
To the horizon my two eyes roam to and fro
There is no flushing of blooming meadows
I painfully resign to this palace of doom
I wonder about the veracity of time travel
To be able to transverse zonal dimensions
Breaking down rigid barriers of steel
To escape the oppression of this darkness
I traveled through time to get here
This penitentiary of a hopeless dawn
Where sun rays are smouldered and quenched
So that draconian ideals may reign supreme
My conscience has been imprisoned
The keys to his cell cannot be found
I remain locked up in this desolate bunker
Were roaches feed on my brains festering wounds
Permalink Comments · Edit
RAISED FROM THE DEAD (GOD IS JUSTIFIED-OLUJARE)Posted in General at 12:36 am by Administrator
(THE INJURY)
Caught in a cross fire of frailty
He was shot in the fallot
Developing a cardiac injury
A slow descent to the grave began
(THE BOY)
He was born in a little town
Remote somewhere in Ireland
But drew the ire of death so soon
And the dark angel was PETULANT
(THE ANGEL)
Peevishly impatient and impudent
The angel wanted his prize
The little boy’s yet short-lived life
Spreading gloom he loomed
(HEROD OF HELL)
The Herod of hell held on…
Awaiting a fait accompli report
Of the sunset of an unrisen sun
Snuffed out like a candle in the wind
(LAMENTATION)
Who saw the boy’s star?
Who informed hell of his birth?
Sorrow was feed to his heart
His mother felt the gnawing pain
(DELIVERANCE)
Then a strong and resolute hand
Was held out form heaven’s throne
“Loose him and let him go”
Thundered the voice of Love
(PROPHECY)
Who has believed our report?
To whom is the Lord’s arm revealed?
He shall grow up before the Lord
Tenderly, a root plant out of dry ground!
11:30am Sunday 9th January 2000
Permalink Comments · Edit
AN ODYSSEY WITH DEATH (A HANDSHAKE WITH DEATH)Posted in General, Religious at 12:35 am by Administrator
(A HAND FROM HELL)
A cruel mercilessly cold hand
Clutched at the boy’s heart
At the dawning of his birth
Drawing him behind the curtain of life
Tetralogy of the fallot…
That was the diagnosis
As joy of birth turned to despair
In a grief stricken moment
(WILL HE DIE)
We all merged into his life…
Battling and struggling through
As sunlit days became darkened
By the looming presence of death
Hope hung precariously on a thread
Threading softly near the abyss
The cold dark and bleak void
That envelopes all man’s expectation
(PORTAL OF HOPE)
Helpless but hopeful
All turned to the place of prayer
The cloak room of fortitude
To seek the GOVERNOR’s consent
The boy bravely soldiered on…
In the Spirit of us all
As doctors cut open his cardiac
Carefully suturing and mending
(MIRACLE)
Out of his dying embers
A spark ignited a flame
And the miracle of faith
Stoked the furnace of life
The boy shook hands with death
And bid the sentinel of life…
Farewell, Adios, Bye-bye, O dabo
Until the time of the evening sunset
(MILLENNIUM)
As the sentinel lingers…
The boy turned away to face
The sunshine of a breaking dawn
In his eyes the rays of a new millennium
1:14 am Sunday 9th of January 2000
Permalink Comments · Edit
Categories
Tag Cloud
Blog RSS
Comments RSS
Last 50 Posts
Back
Void 
Life 
Earth 
Wind 
Water 
Fire 