Saturday, 22 August 2020

POEMS READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 11 EPISODE 08 - GIVEN

 

GIRL!!  - Poem of the month

 This one is a memo for my girls ‘em! 

The sky is falling, Girl, 

Let’s hold hands while catching it. 

Happiness isn’t a given, Girl, 

It’s your job to hack it. 

Power is never bestowed, Girl, 

You’ve got to grab it. 

Oh! I’m so tired of being stereotyped, Girl, 

You aint even started. 

Let’s just dance around these issues because Girl, 

The world isn’t ready. 

You are too loud, too strong willed, delusional, 

Don’t know your place, Girl, 

There is nothing new! 

 

The Message 

This message is clearly not of love, but Girl, 

I love to preach it! 

Oh, Feminism is bitter but Girl, 

It fights your battles 

Equality is the norm, but Girl 

They love to twist it 

They selling equity but Girl, 

No equilibrium. 

you love to work, love to clean, love to boss, 

love to love, love to serve, Girl just go do it. 

365 days, be kinging and queening, Girl,  

However you like it. 

And what’s more Girl, 

I love to see it! 

LOLADE OYE AJAYI

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Give Back My Soul & Take My Body

in this one, my mother is a back pain;

the reason I can't lay to bed since three fortnights 

 

she places her age-old cauldron over

my head—the fire

 

burning wild in blue flame. she never asked

why I disappeared in a scene of combustion

 

folded with waves of various wavelengths

stashed at a migraines fingertips

 

this is what we give; my mother and I

that we give to make peace

 

she has all the answers hung by the

dusty corners of her boudoir

 

look! look again!

this is what she gives; my mother

 

that she gives to make peace

to blink my tears away

 

to turn the telly off of those who watch as grief

envelopes an innocent body like a

 

cocoon does a budding butterfly

this is what i give; i a butterfly

 

learning how not to do what i do best; to fly

to make do with the laundry ongoing in my head

 

Olaitan Humble

 

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Queen of Philippines 

 

Queen of Philippines 

She is to me like pink

Sweet, blush

 

When my eyes rest on her fresh bloom 

I feel a tug in my heart 

Love 

 

So perfect, this gift of nature. 

 

Kemibon 

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GIVEN

 

'What's on your mind?'

fleets of cars?

Or sheets of scars?

 

What's on your mind?

darkness and luxury?

Or sadness and fury?

 

What's on your mind?

dark fantasies?

Or stark miseries?

 

Your mind? Or our mind?

What is there to find?

Or are we all blind?

 

Whatever it is on our mind

Is either given to us

Or given by us.

 

Chima Daniel

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GIVEN: POETRY

 

Gifted are these words

To fingers that scribed them,

Gifted are these words

To voices that speak them,

Gifted shall it be

To minds buried

Beneath landlocked sand grains.

 

They shall become your beam of light,

Healer of your soul.

 

Poetry is your messiah,

A pot of ink,

The burnt offering to gods,

The day and night

Watchers of your soul.

 

Your mind shall see the light,

You shall be free.

 

Kolade Olawale Kabir Àdèlé 

 

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TO DOMINATE IN A CONTEST

Our deepest phobia,

Is not we are going to quibble.

 

Our deepest phobia,

Is no we are going to quite.

 

Our deepest phobia,

Is to concentrate on our mission.

 

We have professor,

Who am I, to brilliant, talented,

Who am I, not to be?

 

We were born to manifest the glory of God,

That is within us.

 

Why are we misusing it?

Those women are the glory of God,

But we destroy the life story,

Just for 5 minutes enjoyment,

And forever sorrow.

 

We have let our own light dark,

Because we follow our heart desires,

Not care for others,

We off the glory light,

And turn the entire life on darkness,

Because of our stupidity.

They have turned our girls to windows,

Because they rape them and lift them.

 

They destroy the life our future wife,

And spoil tomorrow.

 

They are not Man,

But Animal,

Those who did not follow the will of God.

 

They shall not be forgive,

Who so ever commit such a crime,

 

Rape in our community,

Is nothing but produce bad children to our community.

 

Say no to Rape!

A real man never Rape.

Say no to Rape.

 

 Dhikirullahi, Olayiwolah, Tatanbara.

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

The Journey

As he wandered through the forest of his thoughts

Almost blinded by the storm of his emotions

He stumbled against his insecurities

Sweated from the heat of his fears

Staggered under the weight of his goals

Yet

He could hear

The silent whisperer

Whispering hope

Whispering a way

Whispering Light

The silent words gripping his heart

Yet he stumbled on

He felt  glances pricking his skin

As he picked up another rock

To him it was a trophy

Telling how far he had come

To him it was needed

And so he stumbled on

Refusing to let go

Refusing to listen

Refusing to take what was being given

The silent whisperer whispered on

Knowing the wayfarer could hear

Yet he  just stumbled on

Keeping on his blindfold

Holding tight his rocks

Grumbling under the weight

He journeyed on

Till he was late.

 

 

Erhio

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A Call for Prayer 

 

That

the purity of the sky

shine through the heart of man.

Now! And ever!

 

That

the soil forgive man's many

trespasses and soil not our toils

but the unwholesome ones.

Now! And ever!

 

That

the sea and oceans see beyond

man's many afflictions

and seek not retribution

at our doorsteps.

Now! And ever!

 

That

the rocks, hills,

trees and valleys bears

with man more than a little longer.

Now! And ever!

 

That

man's unheeding ills

against the flying-diving-crawling neighbours

and the cousins on two and four

turn surely but quickly on man.

Now! And ever!

 

That

no known and unknown

tongue, creed and colour

shall n'ever subdue the humanity in man.

Now! And ever!

 

And that,

humanity shall n'ever come to amity desecrating nature.

Now! And ever!

 

-Amami H.

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

BROKEN TOGETHER

They sailed on and on

As the wind blew ashes of a painful separation

Which the elements absorbed like a sponge

The void that was created on this ship

Which set sail a long time ago

Hoping was like a mirage

A waking dream to a sleeping reality

 

Ashore it was a calm wind and weather

When they set sail

Now the tidal waves of emotions

Have cast them rudderless and birthed a blurry destination

The sail is climaxing

Into a swan song, a dirge

All mingled in one

Yet as far as the stars are in adorning the robe of the night sky

To this blue speck

 

The pain became painless

For pain could not bear the pain they habour

It will kill a billion and more

But its roots lie in that that cannot die

For even in death it lives

 

They sail on and on

The anchor is still very much on deck

 

As day turns its pages to weeks, months and years

Within a prison of the physically free

 

Ifeanyi Okwosha

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For Brianna – Part 1 – A gift

They say bowed heads can’t hold a crown

With my head bowed in humility

You are the most beautiful crown I can ever wear

When you were given, there was worship because

You are the church I am the congregation

I think I was put on this earth to find love

But I found you, you are better than love.

Bri

 

Chisom

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GIVEN 1:

 

Things that are assumed

and expected.

 

Philosophical, mathematical underpinnings;

 

Prepackaged judgements that make scientific enquiry possible; that allow for philosophical formulations.

 

Without them, there is no

basis for determining what is.

 

The things that produce outliers beyond the pallid self- aggrandizing claims of self-making and pulling up by the bootstraps.

 

As if without boots and straps

any pulling can take place.

 

Understanding that if this is,

then that will be, without shock 

and horror or even awe.

 

Much like Van Til's presuppositionalism- things so self evident like equality and freedom, that denial no matter how finessed must be deliberate.

A deliberation attracting swift vilification.

 

The basis of the simplicity that

is at the other side that is the complexity of our lives.

 

Creating a starting point

without which nothing starts.

Ex Nihilo is not a part of the cocktail.

 

A word used in scientific theory

and hijacked by all the other fields of study( much as they did with Paradigms and their shifts, an engineering/ physics word coopted and absorbed into management speak)- philosophy, theology.

 

Even life itself is a given.

And that is where we leave it!

 

GIVEN 2:

 

To whom much is given,

much is expected.

From whom much

Is taken, much is expended-

Much rationalization, much explication to create a balm

for the troubled soul.

 

Many books.

Much learning.

Of which there is no end;

which makes diviners mad;

which is a weariness to the same traumatizing  traumatized- by oppression- soul!

 

They took, they were  most certainly not given.

 

They took Native American lands by dripping blood on the trail of tears; by tearing out hearts

and burying them at wounded knee.

 

They took Congo, sight unseen

and never seen- the holocaust practitioner who never saw the land, but built up his land with it's treasures.

 

They took African lands and told

us quic quid plantatur solo solo cedit and told us res ipsa loquitor.

They took

They stole

They were not given.

 

Now, there are others- who want our sovereign souls by guarantee.

This time not by force, but by financial stealth and clout.

The difference this time- they

are both taking and being given.

 

ANDREW WHYTE

 

 

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