POEMS READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 8 EPISODE 6 - SENDING

SOONEST NATHANIEL WINNER POEM OF THE MONTH

MYSTERY OF THE FIVE HOUSES (Poem of the month)

I

At the house of light bulb,
there is fog.
The man with the child in his eyes
has a cat which sits daily on his lap,
gazing constantly at the big sky,
searching curiously for Peter Pan.
In the warm room,
the Lord of the Reedy River sleeps.
Under the ivy,
The handsome cabin boy sips
his cappuccetto grosso.

II

At the house of silence,
they pose riddles
that only the dead can answer.
The grave robbers
do the dance of the dogs
before unearthing secrets.
The wolf and the raven
play the peacemakers
in a debate over greed.
No evidence against the black sheep,
the alibi pans out,
and again the tomb becomes a womb
from which the fetus of truth is aborted.
The dead pity the living,
as slaves beg for the cadavers of other slaves.

III

At the house of leaves,
the roads fall out of the windows.
the decomposing trees make for bridges,
bridges over the gulf of ignorance.
The children of rain
join the roots to their school,
underground.
Their chlorophylls have been extracted,
they cannot carry out the photosynthesis of their existence.

IV

At the house of jealous lovers,
the keeper of storms
opens the floodgate,
and the rooms overflow
with the rage of angels.
The weather is an equation,
the weatherman altered the arithmetic,
and the victims of mathematics
are stranded.
There is no sailing away
on the ship within the bottle.

V

At the house of memory,
there is a shrine of madness.
Pieces of glass litter the floor,
there is a song on the lips
of the broken china.
The clock has lost its limbs,
no one remembers
the dance steps
to songs of the season;
the world is ill,
she suffers from future syndrome.
Dead children smile
from wind-kissed pictures.
There is a woman left brooding
upon the ledge,
it’s the gravedigger’s wife;
her lover is coming home tonight,
he is coming to attend his funeral.

SOONEST NATHANIEL

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EL NINO (worthy of note)

Overdose on hope

I confess to Pope

I don't ask for bicycles, when I talk to God

Forgive me, Lord!

To drive home the point, hijacked a bus

             "Sir, where are you taking us?"

            Trouble’s attention is sought

No silver lining in my cloud of thought

           Land mines in mind: sparks from plugs

To answer the question planted a slug.

Overdose on hope

Without hooks and ropes

   Suddenly, got the idea his soul is lit

      So, pilot bungee jumps from the cockpit

Seems, He is trying to swallow spit

                  With his throat slit

I am in my zone

With my legion of zombies

Way up Forbes list

        Holding on with clenched fist

Overdose on hope

Waiting down the slope

     In pews of cornrows are flocks

Of birdies with locks

   Of dread, hammer head slunk

  In pants commands respect: punk

  Likes to keep his little ducks in check

 So he deals his cards from below the deck

         Bishop, Umpire, took the hint, outfox the fox,

   A gambit: he pulled a rabbit out the box.

Overdose on hope

   Like it's some stash of dope

                Opinions sway both ways: seesaw

                                   But I've got a glass jaw,

 I can't sling rocks

   From holes in my socks

   Tiny toes on my feet talk

   White power: dot: nose tip, Chalk?

   Do we need 'i's to cross these “t's"?

             I don't floss, brother, I cut my teeth

Overdose on hope

Now it's not hard to cope

Yes, things are looking up

Cupid like a cup

If anything pops or drops,

Flip flap floors: flip-flops

Then that should be jaws

Cos, it was us they saw

In a Porsche, of-course not a bus

Is this POE- 'eM? Ouch! Windpipe bursts.

Overdose on hope

Guess, this is within our scope

He says, "Philo, Philo..."

"You've got my heart you know"

Yes, He leads her on

“…Keeps the deuces up, Son!

There is no C in love..."

So, he use no glove

On his knees he plows

On her back she howls.

Adeoya Ajibola

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I AM FLY (worthy of note)

I am he that stomps the ground,
and grinds the ground,
I am fly,
I care less for niceties,
I couldn’t bother with novelties,
I am fly,
I  glimpse the sky's tears,
the earth dried off its lament,
I am fly,
stuff happens, we all sing dirges,
I bless fate and
medlies  flow,
I am fly,
I wake at the sun's yawn
and waltz through the day's page
dusk smiles sadly,
I am fly,
strangers meet
love choruses,
a new swan song births,
I am fly,
I love my life's thread,
I answer to no heathen,
my prayer's my anthem,
I am fly,
I sing lullabies
in my sleep,
suck on my thumb,
wait.
I war with babies' chants
in my sleep and
steal their innocence,
yet I am fly,
because hell will freeze
over before i give a hair's
breath,
because i am
fly.
UGONNA TEDDY RICHARD

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Wisdom’s Theme

(for Akeem Adetayo Oyalowo)

Dammy Krane

A mute bird in the cage

With a saccharine-d tambourine

Hippy, lippy and nippy

What message art thou sending?

Dammy Krane

Stewing in a skewed mane

With a borrowed robe

Of fools, frauds and firebrands

For whom is your inner life pretending?

Dammy Krane

Tell the Ostrich from the Crane

Concert fired fury

Dies the death of dye.

Fanned fame- fading

Hear, and heed the rhythm

Of wisdom’s theme

“Living a life your pockets cannot afford”

is misleading life of limelight.

Stop trending! Stop sending!

Loud emptiness.

Father M.

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

WHERE WE STAND

Sending love on tour

That’s being human

Not a grenade for Grande

The shattering of grand dreams

Or dreams of grandeur's

Becoming a dangerous woman

The climax of an explosive event

Making corpses of people

If immortal glory is the goal

Become a Shintoist

And perform kanshi seppuku

Life has a value

And it is not the price of your soul

Or dream of immortality

Not shattering the dreams others

Not making Grande the explosive bombshell

The harbinger of grenades

And explosive bombshells

We are sending this message

So the world can know where we stand

Olamide J. Santos (lariostylz)

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The Self

No one teaches one

how to build self

It has been

The greatest struggle

I have come to know

Kaptain Afrika

Had sent several

Books to guide

I am yet to reach

My perfection

After 24 years through

The electrical shocks of life

These thoughts

I have harboured after

I drank too many philosophies

And ate too many stories

I stagger through thoughts

having unnecessary injuries

In my head

Forgetting to watch self

Zapiro’s Zuma

Called out to me

I glanced at him

And immediately

picked a good run

Hoping I would get

Home soon enough

But then I think

what would I do

At home

If I do not face Zuma now

After all I, like Moana

have fought to

Declare that I am Art

Yet with my “prendas”

I have not gotten

The gol

I stopped, turned

Ran back to urge Zuma

So others after me

would urge him on

though no one truly likes a man

With a shower on his head

My justification?

The books to guide say

What is the point of self

If we do not stop judging

and urge the other through

To the land of love

Abiola Bonuola June 2017

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MEN OF MY DREAMS

I have seen two men
Brutal with diablos
Meek with personas
Graceful in dealing
Building faith
Showcasing wonder
Refracting glory
Like sun 
Like rain!

The one burns with the word
Making good the son's work
Abolishing death
Messaging life!

The other cools! 
Cool with words of grace
Making good the son's work
Banishing death, failure and lack
Messaging!

Chris 'n' John

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SENT

Many are called

Few answer

Some are sent

Others just went

Without seal, imprimatur

Without superscription

He was a man under authority

Not a scion of the living dead

Not operating as a Tonton Macoute

He was sent

He went

He sends and others go

A virtuous/vicious/virtual circle/cycle!

Depending on who sends, who goes, what is done in execution

Execution of building designs sent out to commissioning agents without guarantees

Expending, spending energy

Posts returned by the general

not backed up by the gatekeepers

of the super highway in this neo-tech age where subliminal messages generating mass hysteria can be sent out to the hoi polloi

Making more impact than IL Duce, the Fuhrer and Pol Pot

Not forgetting Bokassa, the Amin and Leopold of Belgium

Sent as a two edged sword

Cutting both ways

depending always on the sent and spent forces centripetal and centrifugal

Forces for good

for evil

for the never morally neutral.

Many answer

Some went

Everyday

messages are sent!

ANDREW WHITE

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I AM SENDING YOU THIS MESSAGE

The Sun smiled at the clouds

Shedding a few tears

As the colourful children of nature

Hug each other on the western shores

Capping the setting Sun

As we move on with our elliptical dance

Round the golden orb 

As it bows out of sight 

On third mainland bridge

We are caught in between,

As day hands over to night

A romance of two halves   

Honking symphonies of impatient herds

Making music in different keys

That kiss given from behind from a driver on the phone

Another dance drama begins

We are slowed down to give our ratings

Sometimes it’s more than a kiss

And for some that will be their curtain call

As we go back to what we left

To meet it in fear or joy

For some a delayed unavoidable battle awaits

So they gym up, wrestling a few bottles

As Mama Amaka waits for Papa Amaka’s return

To give him the news

Mummy Bukky with that scintillating smile, Ore mi kaabo

Daddy waiting to surprise Mummy   

Children waiting for their hero’s return

Others a night in chains and misery

Freedom comes when night hands over the baton

No wonder roses have thorns

The birth of a new day

Bringing with it a new page

I am sending you this message

As we write into history

What will be our story?

What will we write?

What if today is…

Ifeanyi Okwosha

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

SAFETY NET

I once had butter but no bread
A soft pillow but no bed
I wrote poetry in my head
cos I had no pen
That was then
Now I'm being offered dry bread
An empty bed
and paper when there's nothing in my head
Now is not then
There's no how
Or way to return to when
So somehow
I have to figure out how
To butter my bread
Make my bed
and sort out my head

So I leave my nest
and head West
A beehive of captivity
Poverty and insincerity 
I look East
all I see is trouble mixed with yeast
Confused though slightly amused
I look at the Northern sun
Glory looooong since gone
All that's left is a smelly sore
from a rotten core
The South looked lost in a greed war
A complete eye sore 
I could look no more

Yet as I closed my eyes 
I felt raindrops from the sky
I also felt the sun
Nature always won
I saw a picture in my head
I knew where to lay my bed
It’s not exactly buttered bread
No! instead
I'm changing my shoes
and I'm sending this to you
You know exactly what to do.
its time for something new.

Erhio

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

TWELVE FIFTY

Eyes opened to an undefined gaze

Stained with deafening shadow;

This quietness glowed undisturbed.

Gracefully, the feeble air walked

It touched all over me

Like whiff of distant hum.

Engulfed in that little sweetness,

I moaned...I burned...

Could I embalm these tides?

Should I savour nature’s Kiss?

Like one that ended before

The touch of a lover’s lips.

My moments glided into muse,

Helplessly wooed to sensitivity

And I couldn’t help the gush

Of smudgy laugh, reverberating deceit

Such conspiracy of smothering silence

Submerged in sunken dreamlessness 

Enlaced in the Blues’ kingly hues

I yearned slavishly for dawn.

‘Twelve fifty!’ The tardy arrows pointed

The night still riding at ease-

It mocked at my yellow

Rubbing its back on my window.

Twelve fifty five...

                                       Amar Basil

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PHILADELPHIA

You speak into a hollow

You speak the reverberating sound of a barrel thundering down a vacuum only travelled by echoes that tumble in protest against the orphaned trip to the deep

You speak to mortals clattering like expended bullet-cases on the granite floor of a death cell

Your words,

Mumbled sounds to yourselves

But jarring yells in the ears preferring the silence of the grave

You speak liquid words

Words drawn from bottles that smell of smoked ice

Harvested cells transform to cold raging words

They yell

Now the nonchalant syringe fails to mediate a tango between dead muscles and expunged cells

Recalcitrant spines refuse to embrace acids arriving from alien lands

You assemble your team and brush them queer

Bold strokes of confusion

They travel through routes winding in the slithers of still waters

Waddling through watery graves

Persuading relatives who have to kiss reluctance to lose their tooth of suspicion whilst chewing on the thought of sending cadavers to a god appropriating desperate powers to itself

Chukwuemeka “Deus” Njoku

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THESE WORDS

Dear child

I send you these words so mild

I send you these words like a king that was promised

I send you these words because

They will never hear you when you call

They will always laugh when you fall

I know the fright in your eyes

I see the flight in your heart

But stop!

I hear your heart beat

I am sending you these words to calm your heart

Take them to the bank they will always have your back

Like dough put them in fire and they will come out whole

Hang these words around your tongue

And they will keep you.

CHISOM

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FATHER

Father, greet your cherubim and seraphim

Clothed in white shining golden crystals

Send them to us as guardian angels

We are in dear need of your heavenly charms

Which will protect us from spiritual doctrines?

That is not in accordance to your grace

We are ready to receive your spiritual emblem

Don’t leave us to overwhelming sufferings

We don’t know your spiritual existence

God speaks”I am that I am in mighty furnace

I speak in the burning bush of unquenchable

I am always with you even in earth

Just call upon my sweetest venom

Which is the name above any other name?

Mightier and stronger before mere kings

He is the bright and morning star

Sparkling in the atmosphere of beauty

He remained the same, yesterday and today

Even forever, he is unchangeable

 Father God, please forgive us of sins

We are innocent vessels of honor in you

The enemy “the devil” enslaves us to adultery

Send us a purging and contrite spirit

Cast me not away from your beautiful throne

Restore unto me the joy of my salvation

And renew a right spirit within me

Because we are heir of your inheritance

We are joint heirs with thy son

We are children of thy kingdom

We are family, we are one

To you, we give all the praise

Bless my life in due for your glory

To you, I give all the praise

Father, we are singing unto your name

Singing hallelujah in your throne

We are not better than your perfection

But we are more than conqueror

In the beauty of your holiness

We are ancestors of your doctrine

Which can never be denied nor erased

To you, we give all the praise

Let my life be used for your glory

Join us together in love and harmony

In noonday and night

When the thief cometh not to us

But in reconciliation of peace

Between good and evil

Where destinies can’t be denied

UBONABASI