POEMS READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 7 EPISODE 7 FORGIVEN

KemiBon Winner Poet of the month July 2016

FORGIVE MY BLACK – POEM OF THE MONTH

Just give me 21 days

To forgive everyone

For everything

Or the book of forgiving

So I can find the fourfold path

For healing myself and the world

I see you really detest my black magic

So I’ll teach you how to forgive yourself

Totally

You can begin by breaking free of the

Myopic views that blind you

So that next time you feel

Like reaching out for melanin

You can remember to resist

The ugly thoughts that delude you into

Thinking you are superior and

Instead

Embrace the richness of the

Diversity in

Creation

KEMIBON

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FORGIVEN AGAIN

The philanderer caught in the very act

The woman accused alone

The man unaccompanied by the sirens of wrong

The men in age order slinking away at the recounting

Not knowing that even then it was written

In delible sand

The second thief on the elevated tree

Those who in ignorance took an oath upon themselves

Swearing to their own eternal hurt,

But for the certainties of Eternal Life.

They should have refused the invitation

To swear on the second mountain.

Forgiven by the resonant act

With multiple reverberations through eons

Seven billion big ones

After the war that came after the war

To end all wars

Reconstruction, rehabilitation, renewal

Not the liberte, fraternite, egalite

Of the extant and untelevised revolution

But not too far off in scope

Debt clubs gathered to forgive debts

To Shavian deserving if not deserved poor

Deserving but not deserved,

As the mountains grew again

Not the famed groundnut pyramids

Or the Butter mountains of the Union

Before the exits- Br or Gr

The mountains grew again and exceeded the marks

Previously set

Hupaballoo- the exceeding of marks

Doing a Usain Bolt on a Johnson

Except that the return is not congratulations

All round but commiseration and questions

But what is it to be forgiven again but

The enjoyment of the grace that has no terminus

And trumps and triumphs over Karma.

The grace that erases all marks

And pulls down all walls

Even the one’s in Frost’s poem

Walls that lock in and also lock out

Forgiven again by grace notes that all can read.

ANDREW WHYTE

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AMNESTY

Bread was the only thing left to eat

From where I lay on the bed

Struggling for breathe

As I sucked on my inhaler

Stealthily, he came along

Lean and lame

With a mean look for effect

Obviously hungry from weeks

Of lack

Or Possibly a hobby to rob

I love to fight him off

But all I had was my inhaler

Which would spell disaster

Yes, disaster for both the robber and his prospect

But even more for me, the prospect

If the bread went and I save my breathe

The disaster of hunger will linger

But with life, they say there is hope

Being a lone ranger

As created by the system in "Igida" has made us

Every man is now a rat

Sneaking in and feeding off the sweats of others

Gudugbe has done it yet again again

Robbing me of not only my sweat

But that of my entire family

I am not happy with Gudugbe

But I cannot act for fear of losing altogether

Together we planned to stage a campaign or is it proper to call it a protest

But the  'Olofofos' were quicker in their campaign

We talk, we shout, we cry

And still walk in the face of the pains

Gudugbe cannot hear our cries

The cry of the praisers and pilot sirens have overshadowed our lots

What baffles me of all

Is how he manages to swing these acts in the face of anit-graft players

One wonders what rules they play by

Or are they simply playing us as fools

Like they always did?

Some say it will get better

When...

We cannot say

How can one say

Even as the impunity persist

I insist!

We must dialogue!

We must get a change to say our piece or do we remain in the shadows

Penning our pains away as we wallow in poverty

No!

I insist we get out from the shadows and make our voices heard!

Ilupeju Adebayo

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CAN YOU HEAR HER?

When she is losing that special one
Because deception brought out a gun
And ignorance won
Causing an implosion
Of misconstrued information
Compressed emotion
Silence became a deadly potion
The path then chosen
Boiled the ocean
Causing a division
Which dissolved all acts of contrition
Into worthless missions

Listen!
Please listen!!

For this tension
Is at the last station
The one where she lets go
And holds on to snow
Where loves fire becomes frozen
'Cos no one bothered with her version
Only true love can understand
The antics of a woman
Towards a lost man
True wisdom knows the solution
Is in an explanation
Communication
Information
Hoping he still has a heart
And not an onion with many parts
Hoping he realizes that instead of forgiving
He is the one that needs to be forgiven
She just needs to start living
So even though he is the special one
She's done being the sober one
I hear her approaching a new sun!

Listen!!


Erhio
July 2016

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GESTURES OF PARDON

We are harvests of the soil

Collected into this earthenware

Made for the earth

Yet the earth

In the courtroom of our conscience

We swear our innocence

Protesting

Calling the fly to the witness box

That survivor

The life of it our alibi

A proof that we cannot hurt a fly

Morality bears us witness

As amputees of its clipping program

Yet these tongues

Lacking limbs

Lacking the skills of Kung Fu 

Somehow unsheathe the Samurai’s sword

Daily warring

The ears

The mind

Building up offence like fences

Wailing walls

Destination of lamentations

Yet these tongues

Hand out band aids

To wrap stunned ears

Gestures of Pardon and reconciliation

Yet the scar insistently refuse a cover

And we prevail upon it

With overlooking eyes

Enforcing the creed

That out of sight is out of mind

We preach to it

Pardon

Like the Uterus grants the sterile sperm

Which travels down to the Ovary

Bearing false hope

Like tribesmen pardon herdsmen

Constantly slitting the throats of their kinsmen

Tasting again the beef they swore to touch no more

But swearing never to forgive the Caliph

Breathing down their necks

In palpable silence.

Chukwuemeka July 14, 2016

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THERE ARE THINGS (editor’s title)

There are things they will do to you

Just for being a girl

Swollen flesh below the nipples

And the front and back stuffs down below

May make them think you are feeble

So your case is always on the gist menu

We can loudly discuss, there’s no need for a special venue

Was the treatment special

When throats were slit, soon as he entered

Was it because they were boys

Women to them are better toys

Something a shelf could be used to display

Something with a price tag,

Something you could call drummers for

And be paraded around town, because she’s getting too old

She’s yearning to play

She’s willing to be yours, even if you are earning lesser pay

The things we would do

Just because she’s a girl

The list we would give

Just because she dared to love

And must be blessed before she’s sent on her way

Someone needs wrappers,

And bottles of spirits

Someone needs pampers

For the grandchildren of the clan’s elderly woman

Who lives in a district the bride has never been to

There must be wines, there must be beer

She doesn’t drink and she hates the smell

That’s even why, they said she was the right choice

But she must also been seen and never be heard

Because no one quite cares, whether or not she has a voice

Virtues request silence

And silence begets acceptance

She’s often told she needs a ring and must seek the lord for repentance

They often ask me to bring forth a child, and I do desire a daughter

But these grounds are a preparation for slaughter

We love being the cock, chasing after the hen

We promised her sweet love and lured her into a den

The rules have changed because she’s a woman

Just because he has male organs, he is thinking he’s a man

A ward bearing his name has never seen his check

The paths he is forced to follow isn’t from his deck

A child has learnt to love from her mother’s bosom

Wiping sweat from her brows, she’s determined her flowers must blossom

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

You may call them mothers, if they have to hawk almonds for bread

Walking for miles to earn half his night’s expenses on beer

Going home to bed, the burdens of the smell she has to bear

And the things she must teach her child

That there’s no justice in the syllabus often drives me wild

They call it culture

I maintain we are not all vultures

They praise her for having the patience to bear all these

And the wedding sermon is for her to be like her and discover bliss

They say he’s the crown on her head

They say his food must quickly be ready, and he must be well fed

They say she must contribute her quota

Women these days are conscientious workers

They say she must never raise her voice because he deserves respect

She’s surely heading to prison, and she’s taking the express…

Akeem Adetayo Oyalowo

April 23, 2016

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OUR RIGHTS

The gate is chained and locked

The key to rights

Held by each inmate

We step out

The cool fresh air a fleeting experience  

In a few minutes

And it is time to go back to the cell of rights

The right to hate

The right to kill

The right to wickedness

The right to jealousy

The right to sadness

The right to racism

The right to terrorize

The right to hope

The right to happiness

The right to peace

The right to give

The right to forgive

The right to freedom

And the right to love

Who gave us the right?

The right to right our wrong 

Prisoners by choice

Choices made by right

Rights we know is our right

You don’t have the right

You know you do

The right to choose

And the consequences

IFEANYI OKWOSHA         JULY 2016

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FORE-GIVEN

I really do not know

If truly my heart has

Healed from the pains you brought it,

And the tears that wet the earth

Still refuses to sink beneath.

I pray you do not come again

In the guise of innocence

To take of what is left in pretence

This heart still aches

That mark you left yesterday

Refuses to heal today

So please do not come again.

So many promises you made

But none you could hardly fulfil

And even when all that I beg of you

Is to walk with me through this path,

You never looked back while you depart.

I have fore-given

Before you pulled your hatred on me

I have fore-given you

As I wish you that you wish me

I have fore-given you

Even though this pain refuses to heal.

MUYIDEEN AYINLA

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THE TYKE AGAIN

A glance at the walls reveal crisscrossing

 lines from colored pencils,

Color marks spiraling on and on,

Vivid marks that cannot be ignored.

Livid, the punisher calls out the censurable

Due punishment to be meted out!

The ankle-biter approaches quietly

With a rueful look on her face.

In a tiny voice, she pleads guilty

With head turned down in self-pity,

Eyebrows slightly pulled together in the middle,

Mouth turned down at the corners.

The Little fellow appears even smaller in her misery.

Slowly, ever so slowly she lifts her head to gaze timidly

Into the eyes of her supposed punisher.

The look on her face dissolves the angry look

On the would-be punisher.

The look reaches into the heart of the punisher.

The look melts the heart of the punisher.

The punisher feels her heart swell.

This time, however

Her heart swells up in forgiveness!

The moppet has been forgiven!

AGAIN. ----------------------------------------------------- NNEOMA ONYEUKWU

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FORGIVEN                                                

If we would remember

That night, dark and cold in winter

When the messiah laid in no cradle but a manger

Shared the fate of a stranger

As given by the ones he came to deliver

To Calvary’ cross he journeyed

My sins upon his shoulder he carried

With no guilt yet like a lamb he tarried

My salvific work to accomplish

Winning for me a crown of glory

A life, a gift….Eternity

Now I live!

A life full and wholly given

Broken from hiddenness’ obscurity

Crimson’ filth and grim for covering

Light, my feet is set in dance unending

Ring out with joyful song!

For man once exiled is reconciled

No more shall envy be birthed by strife

Nor death and fright govern the mind

No more shall sadness latch onto the darkness of lonely nights

For the festival of beaming lights puts to flight

The presence of eerie nights                                 

FABIAN MCROB UGBECHIE

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GIVEN
Forgiveness is missing
In a forgiven world
In the environment given
Walking, talking, playing on a ground given
Learning, sitting, sleeping on a ground given.

Found in the environment of given
Everyone was afraid of given to forgiven
It became a scarce chances to be given
Forgiven was scarce in a forgiven world.

Running to be forgiven
Forgiven refuse to be given
Unknown reason to be forgiven
Running for every reason known to the personnel
Whenever we hear he is coming
We run from the hills to our sanctuary
Under a mountain to take any available space
Even when it doesn't belong to us,
It was given.

Hastily rushing through the hills to their holes
Running from three monsters behind forgiven
Gentle fellow fell into the
Immunity given to forgiven,
It was unfortunate

He fell down, panting silently and looking pitiable
Hoping for some mercy to be forgiven
Forgiven was too expensive now! To be given!
You can guess the end
Reminisce of given to be forgiven.

SALAWU FLORENCE

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I wish(editor’s title)

I wish I could tell you that it is not for you.
But it had to be said.

Stones reside not in hearts.
Neither the other way round

Stone-like must it be
The heart to weather what comes

Where is the sailor and his boat
Where is the laddy and his kite

Boy, your mother calls
Wrapper dance-like sways

Toss a coin in the air
Lo, a third side shows

T'was not foretold that it would end like this
And yet, t'was foretold

The ambush, dark and weighty
Swiftly artillery come rushing through

Motionless, your heart stops
A pause of your every nerve

The Sun veils Her face in mourning
Tears that lack in mercy

Relentlessly the pummel unassuages
Then it's heard

Whispers of a name long forgotten
Teasing, mischievous and coy

IKUKU!

IFEANYI MBAH

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APOLOGIES

 Time is the wave constantly washing our crimes

From the shores of our memories

constantly reminding us to forget

that sins forgotten are not sins forgiven

sins sinned and  forgotten

sins unsinned yet un-forgiven

Apologies for the sins I’ve sinned

For I’m not even sure of my sins

Apologies to life for treating you with so little care

Even when I know I’m void of a spare

From the earth I seek forgiveness

Apologies for rashly trampling upon your patience

Apologies to the sky for being so high

Never to be looked down upon except by the most high

With the falling rain I’m guilt ridden

Apologies for running to take cover every time you come visiting

To the burning sun I’m conscience stricken

for having to bear with my constant nagging

Oh dear faith! Hold no grudge against me

Apologies for embracing you only when it suits me

My dear lord, before you I bow

Forgive me, for only remembering you when I’m down

O happiness! You can call me an ingrate outright

Apologies for treating you like you were my birthright

Sadness even to you I’m sorry

 Apologies for not being able to cause the world any more than worry

For so many mistakes I was never made to pay

Apologies for not seeing how much you’ve cleared my way

My love, weep not for not all hope are lost

Apologies for not being there when you needed me the most

On the slate in which I write

Forgive me for tainting your white

With my pen every reason to be outraged

Apologies for spilling your blood just to fill my page

AJIJOLA HABEEB

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SONG OF DEATH

Vultures hear the sound of death

Vultures feast on bodies taken by death

So does the heart of the brave hear

The sound of Ekpe and feast on fear

We have kept faith with destiny

We have been kept by fate

So we won’t be late

When the time comes we will be listening

We sing these songs on birth days

So we won’t be taken by surprise of the last days

But if by chance you forgot

Then know you are already forgiven

We the elders of Oruku have forgiven

For death is often forgotten

Though men should know it is a given.

CHISOM