POEMS READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 6 EPISODE 10 BURNING!

JOY CHIME WROTE THE POEM OF THE MONTH

I PREFER MADNESS – POEM OF THE MONTH
.
"You no dey shame?," she asked.
"I prefer madness," I replied, with a half-smile.
Attractive magical madness
That calls out to you like a siren's song
Enchanting
Convincing you to let go
To swim out onto its hot and tormenting shores
Glorious unrelenting madness
Unapologetic in its expression
Demanding release
Like a caged bird
Like a nympho's desire
And in this,
there is no shame
only satisfaction
ripe and
free and
complete and
filling,
like ice-cream from Coldstone.
.

JOY CHIME

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HURRICANE INANE - –(NOTE WORTHY)

Consumed by flames of ignorance
Coconuts receive awards for their brains
Rats play the tune for the pipers to dance
While our young voices scream in vain

Consumed by flames of foolishness
We build rails but acquire no trains
Drowning in rivers of hopelessness
We place baskets in the rain

Is it fear? Caution? Or just fate?
Someone please explain
For when dirt is heaped on our plates
We sing and complain in refrains

Consumed by flames of rage
Our deeds are recorded with pain
Humanity stumbles into a new age
With a world laden with Cains

Consumed by flames of blind faith
We count material riches as gains
With muddled up feelings of love and hate
We burn again and again and again

What a strain!

ERHIO
October 2015

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DARK WATERS –(NOTE WORTHY TOO)

Death drifted stealthily, below the waters
Rearing its head now and then.
Minions in every globule seep through the earth
Smothering all life in a suffocating embrace.
This dark gold that is our poison.

Twas by our greed that death came to us.
We awakened the dragon in the belly of the earth.
We bit his tail, but he spewed not fire
Even worse this murky, black water.
We let it run wild

It cloaked the sea from the light of the Sun
It drowned the fishes and crashed the birds
Into leaves and veins it crept, lurking
Dealing in its wake a final death blow
To prey and predator alike, sparing none

Yet we built for it a monument
A high tower as chimney
There we dedicated a bonfire
That burned to no end a sinister red flame
Looming over us like the Eye of Sauron

Vapour punctured earth's shield till it frayed.
Metamorphosing into drops, formed a deluge
That drenched us in a barrage of acid
Thus becoming one with the waters
To be drunk again as diluted smoke

Earth shivers in raging fever
And It will rage, as it did once in Kuwait
That out of the ashes a Phoenix may rise
And with it, sisters Flora and Fauna
To breath on earth a new sigh

When a tree, sprung from today's udala seed
Delights a child with its very last fruit
Amidst a sea of flowers unending
These dark waters will cease to be
And like Noah's ark, shall become history

IFEANYI MBAH

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LIFE ON WHEELS

Have you got to make me this angry to get your attention?

You allow your mind free flow in the middle of our conversations.

Getting ready to take off any minute

but the keys in your hand are mine

I own the vehicle you so much need

Your absence of my attention makes me constipate them

Yes, the few who love my attention to much it's sickening

They choke on the fumes of my love but you don't

If you only share my attention with them few all would be healthier

Because you are as sick as they are: you just don't know it.

lose that favourite word, it doesn't suit you

That word, can I get; it, that, him right now!

I know you are young, impatient but please be patient Patience.

Your strength and wealth I would be if you please

The vehicle doesn't own me, I own it.

My strength is in your attention, the loss of it burns me out.

Though you make me shine, I make you complete.

DORIS KOMLA

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BURNING THROUGH TO BEAUTY

Beat the drums
For truth is born
In you is truth personified
You are burning through to beauty

Beat the drums
For wisdom is here
With humility its' companion
You are burning through to beauty

Arise, sing, dance
For nature has turned
All shades like a Chameleon
You are burning through to beauty

Arise, sing, dance
For love has defied all seals
The harbour is stronger than strong
You are burning through to beauty.

CHRIS 'N' JOHN

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I BURN

I burn..

I burn…

Not the one that torches house

But that which touches the soul

I burn

Yes I burn

Burn for the will to move

And mow all thorns blocking the way

The ones hell bent on letting innocent blood

I burn.

I burn..

I burn…

I burn with the will to hit the bucolic abodes

And make them more habitable

I burn with an unending

Urge to end the lives of those weasels

Feeding on the ignorance of my people

I burn to see the day

That the castles they built crash down like a pack of cards

Like my friend who is currently crying her eyes sore

After bleeding our oil reserves sour

I burn for the third eye

To see beyond the souls of those mamparas

Who think we all are boneheads

So I can cut their souls short

No, I won’t terminate their lives

I will spare them

To participate in the joy of suffering

An excess of it, they sure will get

Oh!

I burn!

ILUPEJU ADEBAYO

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MARTIN

Wind

Patting the heads of mountains

Wind

Lending strength to coal charred short of strength

The strength it dies to have

To burn

To feel alive

To see that red

That leaves the shade of night

Coal longing to catch fire

The fire yet sapping it

Making ashes of a trunk resisting the blows of axe

Like Martin

The hardly Lutheran King

Sapped by the kindle and rekindle

Of the essence making him

Keeping him alive

Stealing yet his breath

He dies in the dearth of air

Of wind beyond the mountains

When he stops marching he dies

Short of the grave

The march sapping him

Scaring him

Yet making him

To march is to risk his life

Not to march is not to live

Not to be

Not to exist

His heart in his palm he rallies yet his squad

Rebels with a cause

Warring without weapons

Singing songs scorching hearts of stone

Hearts aiming bullets to the heart of King

For the end of all

His brethren

His dreams

His time is short

The temporal life of burning coal

Of an eagle

Making last flights

He spreads his wings as could

Aided by a wind

His ambition

Like coal

Given force by a blower

A confidant in his distress

Harry Belafonte

Raising wind

For Martin to take flight

©CHUKWUEMEKA NJOKU OCTOBER 5, 2015

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NO BE ME O

What is it that goes in the mind of men?

What is it that pokes at men to commit evil,

But to done the cape of innocence when exposed?

I am scared of even letting my toddler out of sight

Or send my young girl to a neighbour’s house.

“No be me o

I no no as he take happen

I no rape the small pikin

Na call I call am come collect chinchin

I beg una na the devil o”

But the deed has been done

A small girl had lost her innocence

Laid bare on the bed of irresponsibility

Old enough to be her grand- father.

“No be me o

No be me o.”

But the deed has been done.

Will she be able to trust men again?

Will she be able to rise to her dignity?

Now that she is an object of ridicule

Taken before she could dream of her man

Shamed because she was too young to know.

What hatred do you harbour?

That burns deep in your heart

Kindled with revenge?

A man died by your hand

A woman just lost a husband

Through your evil way.

“No be me o

Na the devil o

Na play I dey play with am

Before I mistakenly stab am.”

Now you have committed crime

Ready to spend time

Or visit the hangman’s rope,

Now your life is sliding down the slope.

“I am burning with rage

Like a lion in its cage

I yearn to destroy

Destroy the world

For my failures it had brought”

So you went on a killing spree

Throwing bullets at the market place

Destroying all that came your way.

“Na be me do am

Na juju dem use for me

I swear I no do am

The gun be like catapult for my hand,

Na the devil cause am.”

The deed has been done

Someone is missing the one they love,

A love destroyed by your hands

And tears you squeezed from people’s eyes

Won’t yield to your innocence.

“No be me o

Oga olopa no be me.”

Before you are being dragged

And made to pay for your crime

Think deep and seek out time

To weigh the consequence of your actions.

Na me o,

Na me,

Oga you see this verse,

na me write am.

© AYINLA MUYIDEEN ADELEKE

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A NEW WORD

It was written unblemished and pure

And noble heroes fought for virtues

Now our house is on fire

We have pushed ignorance to new heights

We need a new word to describe our reality

Blood moon, a visitor with known antecedents

And yet some celebrate

Celebration of squirrel’s shamelessness

I will return the ransom if given the opportunity

A promise made to the palm tree

And a glorious opportunity not to be missed

Give rabbit the carrot

And monkey the banana for safe keeping

When surprise is surprised by the new reality

We need a new word to support surprise

Hate and its fellow vices are feeling insecure

For they feel inadequate to describe humanity

This is just the beginning

We will burn to ashes

To prepare the land

Protect your seed 

For the new planting season

IFEANYI OKWOSHA          October 2015

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FIREMAN’S LAMENT

Ice is hot 

So you drop it, 

I'm sweating in the snow 

Heaven burns. 

Saturday nights 

No longer give 

Sunday mornings,

We are at the end of the circle. 

After the bomb 

A moment's pause, 

The shepherd boy 

Sings in the choir of the burning lights, 

They croon a pagan love song, 

We are all children of the firehouse. 

The world is waiting for the sunrise, 

Monkey brains;

The end is where we begin, 

Look past the scars. 

Yesterday 

I gave my last broadcast, 

Still the world didn't end in sulphur.

I'm on a Lagos bus, 

The journey 

Feels like a jail sentence, 

Infernal noises 

Like sounds of saints 

Singing from hell;

They say we are going home, 

There were the devil's spotless feet

Once did roam. 

Who will save Rome 

From herself?

This generation is thirsty, 

Yet, fresh fountains flow

From the old library shelf. 

We will build monuments 

With the little hands of concrete,

Doubt is the womb 

From which the fetus of faith 

Was aborted;

Curiosity denied 

She killed the cat. 

I too love the wild uncertainties 

Of life, 

But love to be specific 

On certain things

Like;

When does this romance end, 

I want to be invited to my funeral.

 Soonest NATHANIEL

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THIS THING OF OURS

I found out that this thing of ours is just for us

This our world is bigger than life itself

Nobody really likes us except for us

In this thing of ours

Yet they will uproot hell itself

And plant it in heaven to be a part of it

They thought we would quit

But they could as well say goodbye to goodbyes

Hot hate cooked so well

That it gives life to death

Our words hit like the son of krypton

And their words like the sissy we picked on

See we are writing memories

We are re-writing destinies

We are unveiling mysteries

And this fire we carry?

It burrrrns!

Not like theirs as hot as ice

Not like theirs weak where it lies

Our has been burning

Been burning since the beginning

Dug from the depths of the soul

Evacuated from the pits of imagination

Poured into this world they call theirs.

CHISOM