POEMS READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 8 EPISODE 3 THROUGH

Joy Chime (with braids) Winner Poem of the Month

NO MORE NKEM. (poem of the month)

Bright colours...
That's what I thought of as my lover swept me off my feet - literally, and spun as I screamed in dizzying delight.
Happiness swirled in my stomach in bright colours: bold red, rich purple,
warm blue, brilliant yellow,
cool orange, hot pink...
He stared into my eyes, and I saw promises of a thousand tomorrows together,
each one better than the one before,
promises that were, somehow, more potent because they were unspoken.
'You are beautiful,' he said, kissing my palm.
'I do not say it often enough.
'I want another sunrise, another sunset, another harmattan;
'I want another full moon, another Christmas.
'I want, not just another, but many more 365 or 366 days, times 50 at least.
'And I want them with you, nkem. Marry me, ifeoma'm.'
He carried my 'Yes' with him back to his base; I held on to his promise that he would be back, no matter what.
     *    *    *    *    *

Endless gray...
Grief lines my heart in thick clumps of dull, endless gray.
He said he missed me in truck loads.
that he could hardly wait to see me when he was on pass.
He said he dreamt of me every night.
He said he had to go on patrol so he would call me back.
He said many things.

They said his jet was shot down as he was returning from the patrol,
that they had recovered his body.
They said it was clearly an ambush.
They said he was a packard officer.
They said many things.

I didn't say anything.
    *     *     *     *     *

When my lover died, I didn't cry for two days.
The day before I did,
His brother who had been with me since I got the news said he had to go work.
I laughed.
What a reminder!
My lover died, and the world didn't miss a turn;
just kept right on spinning.
He was my world, as I was his.
I will always know the shape and feel of you, nkem,
but, like air,
I can never hold you again.

Nwamaka!

Joy Chime

/////////////////////////////////////

“Let my Shadow Grow Old”

My conscience broke and silence spoke.

My soul was kidnapped

My imagination fainted

My laughter is now like the prodigal son,

sharing my inheritance with his brother, tears.

I solicit for the survival of my future.

The nobility of my smile has been crowned through my sufferings.

I wrestled war and happiness was my trophy.

Living through this earth,

I would turn into a bridge just to endure five-hundred years of rain and sunshine,

only to watch you pass through me.

My suffering has met its waterloo.

Oh sweet aroma-blended fragrance of "living poverty".

I was shot when I was thirteen by some teens for many things.

I must express my awe of not dying. I survived.

I have lived through life and now that I am a hundred and six,

I have forgotten how to die.

Deep deeper and deepest

climbing through life in descending silence.

Forever young they say.

We must live on

through the shining stars,

and the blue skies.

We must live on

through the news of daily disasters

and the stories that causes heart quakes.

We must live on

like kids without worries.

My conscience broke and silence spoke through my heart.

I'd never quit through this, no matter what.

Panel.

///////////////////////////////////////////

EMBRACING LIFE

 I do it long

Longer than letters spelling the words

I live for the length

I have lived through the times 

But my memories are unspent

I do it long

Seven different beats

Dancers changing costumes

With every new scene

I am patient

You left me at the rails

But the ocean’s still down below

I have seen miracles before

And my rebound has long been foretold

I am doing it long

Fulfilling expectations

Showing naysayers why I am an exception

I’m attracted to bends and curves

I am winning my wars without carrying guns

I know what a journey of a thousand steps takes

My will is not made from bones, that’s not how you define stamina

I put values in the means, so it’s not enslaved by an insatiable end

I have seen fireworks thrown at my spanners

I have used that to test my imperfect manners

I love it long, 

Sweetness in a longing’s aftermath

Weather often gets cold

But I’m never scared to run a bath

I hear you saying it, but I’ve seen me doing it

You know how to describe, but my steps are practiced

You said his voice was husky

When you heard it first you panicked

I have been doing this for long

Words aiming for my heart never leaves me forlorn

You aim to pierce

I came prepared

Through the bumps

That makes us do sudden jumps

Through bare hallways

Which makes us question why our tunnel is dark, always

Through days

We wished were perfect, till the rains again had its way

Through preference for means 

Because we knew ends are endless

And often create hardened monsters

Through all the courage we could muster

When men said we should move on

And our minds reply it isn’t a chalkboard

That could be erased by a duster

Through Easters when only the winds came around to spend time

Through scenes and words, we often rewind

We have held sanity with grips only silence can describe

Birds often arrive with dawn

And often come along with a song

We will face today again

Embracing life, that package of twists and turns

Clutching dreams till harvests say it is our turn

Living it long

Till earth says we should return…

Akeem Adetayo Oyalowo

///////////////////////////////////////////////

SCHOOL OF LIFE

if only I could self edit life

This would be how my biography would go

I was born to billionaire parents

In a private get hanging over the Bermuda triangle

Home schooled because my brilliance is beyond class

I find poverty irritating

And religion a drug that gives Hope to those that need it

By the time I'm 19 I'm richer than my parent

So all I do is travel and party

One of my favorite destination is…

Last bus stop oga. We done reash ojuelgba

Waking up from my transfixed daydream

Hurriedly, I gather myself and alight

Only when the bus has driven off do I remember

My change…

O boy, na to waka reach shitta so?

I reach for my phone and earpiece

Needing music to accompany my exodus

After frisking my self and finding nothing

I declare, 'Oh Lord, it is finished!

Lagos does not discriminate class

Every body is a student in this school of life

And every student has a story

Those who pass through this school

Are the brilliant ones

And those who don’t will have to learn from those who did

Olamide Santos

///////////////////////////////////

THE WORLD FORGETS QUICKLY

Through 33 and 45

6,000,000 faced inhuman

Discrimination

Only time can reveal if

6,000,000 more were erased

Time never forgets

For only time recorded

the anguish

The palpable fear

The chaos

That can only be faintly captured

in words

Wiesel and Frank

Gave the world capsules

Of their experiences

But the world forgets quickly

How does one understand the experience of

another?

How do you appreciate every terrible hour

In those camps?

When life is a bitter pill

And death a close pal

Now the world looks on as evil

Rears its head again

The world chants the superiority song

As egos clash

And memories of ancient struggles

Are forced to cower in fear…

Kemibon

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

LOOKING THROUGH

Today I'm taking a break

To check if I'm still on course

Consciously checking through

Like a pilot before take off

Feeling the essence of my being

Today I take my last breath

To breathe again

In this new consciousness

Consciously conscious of every moment

A new beginning

I am making a pit stop to

Thank every single cell

For a job well done so far

And for a better tomorrow

When I checked my heart,

Beating with joy in greeting

I felt emotions

From a beautiful muscle

Pumping with joy

As we shook hands

I saw through his eyes

The never give up loyalty till the very end

We have been together since conception

We have been through a lot together

Tirelessly you keep rhythm fast and slow

As I took you through highs and lows

Every part of this nature's beautifully crafted machine

Like a soldier has pledged to serve

Till the last breath

To win every war

To be there when called upon

My final pit stop

Looking at the finest tool matter have produced

A servant turned master

My failure passed on to the next generation

Your mutiny I granted

From my earliest beginning

You now serve another

The blame is mine not yours

I'm not asking you to yield

I know you will fight back

You have been the general for a long time

Now the Field Marshall is awake and getting stronger

It's only a matter of time

Before balance is restored

IFEANYI OKWOSHA 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

LOOKING THROUGH

When my eyes were just two

I loved anything blue

Apart from blue shampoo

I didn't like shampoo of any hue

Though I really loved new shoes

When my eyes were just two

My dad looked as tall as bamboo

Mum was more like a kangaroo

And Cecilia always had weird hairdos

Mum had weird hairdos too

Well I didn't really have much of a clue

Besides my eyes were just two

When my feet were ten

I wanted to walk down Allen Avenue

In blue jeans and purple shoes

I really wanted to learn kung fu

Just so I could deal with Andrew

Yeah when my feet were ten

I wondered why I only had two

You would wonder too

If our dog Billy pursued you

Except that day I filled his kennel with glue

You should have seen the fit mum threw

Luckily dad came to my rescue

Besides my feet were just ten

Just when my tongue turned twelve

My aunt came to visit from Peru

Claiming I was her favorite nephew

She even called me baby boo

But my tongue was just twelve

So I couldn't argue

Or start a coup

I had to make do

With hot spicy stew

And other concoctions she knew

Some of which I could barely chew

Just when my tongue turned twelve

Now when my hands were twenty two

I was a computer guru

Having built my own CPU

I'd been on the cover of Time Review

Survived countless interviews

When my hands were twenty two

I was in front of the queue

The king of the crew

I even liked Andrew

There was no issue I couldn't breakthrough

When my hands were twenty two

When my heart was thirty two

It flew

But that's something I'm not going to tell you

Not that its a taboo

Or has to do with virtue

I just don't want to continue

Besides it was long overdue

When my heart was thirty two

Now when my brain was sixty two

It felt like I was eighty two

I no longer needed Google or Yahoo

There was a lot I already knew

When my brain was sixty two

I had issues using tissue

I had a totally different menu

I withdrew from a lot if venues

Words held more value

Though not all would share my view

Especially my long love for blue

But my brain was sixty two

Right now

I'll just sit here like a statue

Longing for a chicken barbecue

While my age is under review

What say you?

Right now.

Erhio

//////////////////////////////////////////

THROUGH  ALL

See it through

Through riddles

Through the eyes of a child

Through the window

A dark and bright light

That gets you through hard times

Peering through the drape

Painting of my prison

It underlines my situation

Through the door way of poetry

The quirk of interpretation

On hiccough, thorough, slough and through

Through it all

Passing through

Through the looking glass

The way through the wood

Through the ages

Sorting through

Through love’s great power

You keep watching to the end

Through it all you wouldn’t change a thing.

Salawu Florence

/////////////////////////////////////////////

NOT ALONE

1

I still do not know what you found 

when you looked through the windows of my soul,

into the hull of this sand castle.

I wonder if what you found 

was just my fear, or the truth 

about how women become leaders.

2.

You say you will stay 

through the storms, 

I say it leaks through the thatch, 

but you remind me,

we cannot leave

saving the plants to the environmentalists.

3.

I say its a season of grief,

you ask me to savor the salt 

and see through the tears.

You say we must learn to walk 

the Brazilian wilderness,

by seeing the world through Abrahams who never cast away their lots.

4.

I say I cannot see through silk to silicon, 

I say I cannot see through the eyes of innocents. 

But you say I am a marooned child at the shoreline of time,

searching through the eyes of Katrina.

You say I must learn never to rush through the early days of childhood,

so I am learning to see through the crack, I am learning through vanishing point,

the essence of space.

5.

You ask what do I see through flowers,

I say I have never seen through the eyes of an artist.

I ask if you could have your baby 

through egg donation,

you say its all anemophily, 

your pollination is through the air.

6.

Nne, my doctor who sees life through the patient's eye,

my teacher who teaches maths through nursery rhymes; 

at your foot I am learning to appreciate the music through the dog's ear.

Mommy, I am learning to hear God through the noise. 

I will convert myself through hymns, I will forgive my sins,

for through this sister's eyes, I realize that I am not alone.

 Soonest Nathaniel

//////////////////////////////////

FIRST STEPS


I dive into this ocean of wordy waves
To get my first dip in artistic ink
With bloodthirsty sharks lurking
Waiting on a mistake that would draw blood
So their disparaging teeth can feed on my cold soul


I lunge into this war of medieval arts
With my sword of untested words
To lock horns with lines of unrivalled quality
And share a sit in the spotlight of poetic ingenuity
Ignorant of arrows that pierce into life’s shining armor

I take my first step to embark on an adventure
On the same noble path with which Soyinka
Tackled numerous foot wearing oppressive boots
With hopes I’m not forever chained down by suppressive hooks
For I have no kindred spirit robed in iron as my companion


Neither do I possess the arrow of God
With which Achebe became a man of the people
Still I thread his dead men’s path, where things are always falling apart
Hoping that when things are no longer at ease
My voice won’t be forever lost to the deafening roars of time


I take my first steps despite the odds
True I might stumble and fall
Bite the dust, fall deeper within the earth
I hope these humble steps of mine
Would become leaps that transcend the web of time

Ajijola Habeeb

/////////////////////////////////////////////

TALKING IT THROUGH

That is what all the Counsellors tell you

Nouthetic or non-directive

Talk it through!

Stand your ground!

Don't fight!

Don't flight!

Don't enter your cave!

Don't descend into your well!

Just talk it through

Perfectly simple counsel, you might say

Except that in the thought of Oscar, nothing is perfect or simple

Certainly not the truth

But we do have to get to and through the wall

Like the lonely distance runner in every story.

Through the wall of Trumpet Sound

Through the wall at the point where Banksy

Built the Walled Off Hotel

Through every wall that separates

Keeping them out

Keeping us in

Forgetting that guarding your heart

Is not a prison sentence!

2

When the clouds are full the rains will fall

When a big tree falls it lies by itself

A living Hyena is better than a dead Lion

Qohelet the Didact said that

When is enough enough?

When have we pushed through enough?

That will have to be,....when it is enough!

That is the checkout time

Andrew checked out, then checked in

And finally representationally gave out

When the first blow lands

When the boiled over, vitriolic words are first spoken

When you hear and see the truth

Barack told dreams from his Father with the Audacity and Chutzpah of Hope

The Trumpet gave no uncertain sound

He told no lies about the lies

He took no hostages to fortune

It was all hidden in plain sight

That was enough but we did not believe.

And now we have to push through!

3

We are pushing through

We have lived through an Alice in Wonderland Fantasy

Seen through the Looking Glass

Into a mostly dark scenario

The secret door to Narnia has opened to us though we did not receive Aslan Salvation

Humpty dumpty has fallen through the cracks and the Praetorian Guards have no answers.

But things are looking up and maybe we can still go through

The Cybernetics of Physiology have brought​ us a New Helmsman who acting seemingly beneath the radar is pull-pushing us through

a land that is not Changri la or Hollywood's La-la Land

We hold out for hope!

Andrew Whyte