Showing posts with label african poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label african poem. Show all posts

Friday, 3 March 2023

LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 14 EPISODE 3 - "SLITS" EVENT

 


https://tinyurl.com/LPORS14E3SLITS


Join us for an evening of poetic bliss at Loudthotz Open Reading Season 14 Episode 3, with the theme "SLITS". The event will take place on March 9, 2023, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm ZOOM

Loudthotz is an open poetry reading platform where poets and poetry lovers come together every second Thursday of the month to read, listen, critique, and review poems. If you are a poet, you can submit your poem on the theme of the month to loudthotz@gmail.com for a chance to read or perform your work during the open reading.

During the event, all poems will be displayed on a big screen, and the authors will be invited to read or perform their work. The audience will have the opportunity to review and critique each poem, and the author will be invited to discuss their work.

Attendance is free, and all are welcome to join us for an evening of poetic expression. If you won't be able to attend but would like your work to be included in the anthology for the year, you can make a payment of 1k at https://paystack.com/pay/preading. For more information, contact us at 07064384235. Please feel free to share this invitation with anyone who might be interested.

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

POEMS READ AT THE LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 12 EPISODE 6 - CHANGES

 

WINNER POEM OF THE MONTH

HOME IS NOT ALWAYS A PLACE

 - (Poem of the month)

 

Home is not always a place, but a moment built

brick by brick, breath by breath, into a house

 

of memory. Where affection calls and there is one

to love. Home is where there is one to love us back.

 

Home is not always a roof, a room, and a bed but

a place to roam, where the heart blooms and stays.

 

Home is not always a place, but meadow of laughter

There the walls are raised joy by joy, happiness by

 

happiness. No angry frown, no selfish wish nor cruel act.

There, there is food for the body and fire for the mind.

 

I have lived in enough places. Home is not always a place.

Set your house on fire. Walls are false pretexts. Be free!

 

Michael Achile Umameh

  

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


RHEAVOLUTION O’CLOCK.

It is time!

Time to put money in the insurance account

Time to tell the kids things encountered in a motherless babies home

Time to get in shape for a leap off when the cannister is sighted

Time to get one’s affairs in order

Time to rehearse survival mode, in prison, exile or as guerrillas.

 

Its been the hour for ages now,

But you are just prepping,

Because your innocent son looked into your eyes as the machete was being pulled out of him

And then you saw the reflection of that boy

Who died waving the flag at the bridge, in his eyes.

Peace and unity he said. Because he knew yours will be taken away soon.

 

When the neighbors were gunned down because a chief’s path was blocked,

It was time.

When odi was crying and we unlooked, it was time

When zaki biam was razed and we were deaf to the inferno, it was time.

when herders herded lives into penury, and we snoozed our action for political correctness it was time

When Lekki toll gate was red with human wastes, we unlooked.

IT IS TIME.

 

Ololade Ajayi

 

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

 

FOCUS 

 Isn't it strange that we've been searching for change 

But over the ages nothing really changes 

E go better

E go better

The recurring mantra

We've made it to 2022

But it seems like Change hid in Timbuktu

For everything is still the same

The never ending blame game

Selfishness 

Self-interests

Conceit

Deceit

Disparity

Mockery

We're stuck in the mud

Watching our flag drown in a red flood

Sullied

Bullied

Believing lies

Hoping Justice will fly

But Justice Truth and Peace ran away with Change

No.

Went in search of Change

Let's deceive ourselves again

Maybe it will reduce this pain

Change will arrive

Peace will thrive

There'll be no more lies

No real horror stories

Just progressive victories

Are you with me?

Are you really with me?

I've left that dream

Tired of sleeping?

Tired of weeping?

Before the land is submerged in greed

Before the apples grow without seeds 

Before 2023 beats it's drum

I'll be long gone

A change in location

Is my current destination

Not all calls start with the word 'Hello'

Same way oranges are mostly green and yellow

Are you with me?

Are you still with me?

Focus on the changes

That keep changing

But never really change.

 

 

Erhio Obodo

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

 

AGAIN AND AGAIN

Again and again it comes clearer than a glass of water

with  the same  harmless and deceptive cloak.

 

Again and again it gradually raises its head to oppose glory

throughout ancient times  and even now in modern times

 

Again and again it brings up nothing entirely good

as the aftermath of the sins of Eve are still evident.

 

Again and again,  to intentionally refuse to listen to any news

is a means to at least retain some level of sanity. 

 

Again and again even in trying to mind personal businesses

the average believer, the simple hearted, and everyone should know

 

Again and again it's okay to  reminded 

that the times we live in are simply full of peril and it might not change

 

Esther Okekwuo

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

    CHANGES.

Upward or downward,

The road leads yonder,

Left or right,

High upper or Low under!

 

For some,

Chicken soup for breakfast slowly,

Has become;

Frozen fish for dinner only.

 

Many smile,

At the upward movement of prices,

As stock even decreases,

Others cry for low income;

Take home pay,

That no longer takes them home!

Changes!

 

Changes I see,

Changes in economy,

Changes in weather,

Changes in society,

Changes sprouting everywhere,

In every sphere!

Changes,

The only permanent thing,

In the life of man I see,

Changes everywhere,

And in everything I see!

 

Akata I. Lucy.

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

 

CHANGE:

 

What you receive after paying more than the amount demanded.

 

What the calculator driven tithe payer, demands from the usher after dropping it of, on the plate.

 

What all politicians purport to stand for, apart from those who are for continuity or who had a transformation agenda; one that operates with the anaemic consistency of the transformer in my hood.

 

Begging the question as to, change to what, continue to where and transform into what?

 

At that point the waters get muddied and we are truly bogged down and hemmed in.

 

Not by the paralysis

of analysis, as there

is no analysis to be paralyzed by; only printed cloth and bags of rice; only stuffed envelopes awash with Petro, tax, gubernatorial and other corruptly obtained and laundered and sometimes fake dollars.

 

Then deflections,

ad hominems and manic claims of entitlement to some manifest destiny.

 

A comedy of fools;

a tragic house of horrors.

 

Mephistophelean flies, from out of the woodwork.

So help us God!

 

We want change but not from Mephistopheles, Apollyon or Abaddon; not from the grandmasters of the craft, who vociferously ask us to give them the mandate or who vehemently claim it is their right to be no more a kingmaker,

but a king.

 

This one, a truly pathetic Lear-like figure- the king,

not the Jet, crying betrayal, betrayal, forgetting that chickens always come home.

He should ask those who love and want good for you.

 

We want change

as metamorphoo- metamorphosis- transformation.

 

We want change

as hupaballoo,

as transcendent excellence.

 

Not outside-in, that's why Decree 2 did not work, could not last.

 

But inside out!

Root, branch and stem;

Cooked, eaten and regurgitated as the change needed by,

We the people!

 

Andrew Whyte

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

 NOW AND THEN

 

Chances are that we witness today tomorrow

So take note of the obvious and fear what it obscures

 

As they say “there is none so blind as those who will not see”

 

Take this law at heart because we may call it chance tomorrow or luck or whatever your intellect not your intelligence call it

 

For what we know is a pink unicorn may become may become common

 

Things are lost if you are not searching, you will always find when you search

The threads of fate looms steadily so what will be has been

 

Don’t be afraid of Changes.

 

Chisom

 

Saturday, 16 January 2021

POEMS READ AT OUR LAST POETRY READING LOUDTHOTZ POETRY READING SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 - SAIL

 

WINNER POEM OF THE MONTH - KEMIBON

WEIGHTLESSNESS – POEM OF THE MONTH



I’ll rather take the
Pockets of joy
That your presence can afford
Than the heaviness of your absence

That you belong to another is the most weighty thought that I have to bear

To think That I once had you in my arms
Sears me through and through

To love you is to walk on the softest and pinkest of clouds
Those pink clouds of the morning
That herald the newness of the day

When I walk beside you
I take
Light steps
Bright steps
Happy ones

To love you so helplessly from the sidelines is my only chance at joy full ness in this moment

I have no right to frown when you speak fondly of her
I see how willing you are to be with her
And
To accommodate this friendship so wholesomely with the fluidity of a mature mind

Midnight conversations
Vulnerable moments
Real tears
You share in them all
And
In those moments I wonder

Does he still burn
For me like he did a decade ago?
Can he still pant after me?
Does he see beyond the subtle rejection on the stairs
When I told him off because
See, I was young and proud
And he was on the streets
Hustling for his future
And no time was spared for me so
I left...

Do I suffer now for that age of foolishness?

I am in awe of the depth of my love for you
Still so energetically drawn to you
I am
Naturally me with you
And you
Do you see it?

This effortlessness that is
This ease that people see
This power filled attraction
That palpable stillness between us
That propels the question
When will it be?
Your union...when

We don’t only look good together
We are good together
Existing in your space is to call comfort by name

Alas It is not to be
This is not a love lorn story
This is love besides
Love because
And love in spite
Of
Love

Weightlessness
That is how I can describe it
When I am with you
I feel no pain
My heart
It sails because you are the wind beneath

So I am lifted when I am with you
Such light headed joy
Oh!A fleeting pleasure
But pleasure still

Amoreux
I desire you
Like
The morning desires the sun
Like the night reaches for the moon

I long for you
For what you could be for me
What we could be to each other
A gleeful playmate
An agreeable partner

A walk with you...is too much to ask for?

You aren’t mine
Yet
 I burn for you

But

I’ll rather take the
Pockets of joy
That your presence can afford
Than the heaviness of your absence

Kemibon

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

 

 

‘’NEW NORMAL ADVENTURES

 

If

I should

Open up

To a new me

Day & night I'll swim

Through barelled gates & walls

Pour into fresh basins & wells

Fill up ducts of empty barrels

Pitter-patter through bitter-sweet pipes

While docking off stacks of ragged pebbles.  

For if the night wings her body away

From the humming harp whose time is near,

Surely, like a cock, I'll whistle

Upon the morning feathers

& open up to new skies

Smiling bright over

Blushing blue seas.

A new me,

A new

Day!

 

Oluwatosin Okupa

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

ANYTIME THE RAIN FALLS 

Any time the rain falls, 

My imagination rises from her slumber 

She sees the droplets as foreign currencies, 

Every splash feels scandalous, but little does she care 

She is drenched in riches, and power drunk as the water cascades. 

 

Anytime the rain falls, 

My window plays a trick on itself. 

It sees my lover’s silhouette in a broken pose 

Begging me to accept a bed of roses, 

Brighter and purer, than my rival’s supplies. 

 

Anytime the rain falls, 

I see sanitizing dewdrops, so I pick up my least favorite things: 

a coat of fear, an umbrella of faith, gloves of distrust and a mask of lies,   

and hit the journey to destiny, for I cannot live a life 

while a virus is living THE LIFE. 

 

Lolade Oye

 

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

 

WE WILL NEVER FORGET 

 

Emotions sailed through my body

Anger crashed against the walls of my heart

Squeezing out the love from my lungs

Sucking out the last vestiges of compassion harboured within

Dark clouds in my eyes

Dried tears on the shores of my cheeks

Shipwrecked

Sails completely shred

The sea turned blood red

For the captain and his cabinet had sent crew

To throw passengers overboard

Hullabaloo

Yet hope is not dead

Instagram live kept it alive

The truth swam to foreign shores

The captain unmasked

Threatening all in sight

Forced might creating a forced night

The sea became turbulently calm

Survivors mute to prevent further harm

Yet they mend their sails

Build their boats

And wait

For the right time

For the shipwrecked will sail again

This is definitely not the end.

 

Erhio

 

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

SAIL 

 

I have waved farewell to the coast of old

I have entered into the ship of new

In foresight my treasures lay

The seasons will take turns to welcome me

In their dance of obeisance 

I have perfected my sail

I will pay my dues,

to the wind of challenges 

The sun will smile at me at noon

The moon will wink at me at night 

Then shall the horizon bless me with my prize

 

Olumide Soyemi

 

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

RENEWED VOWS

 

Till our

breath ceases

and our bodies 

no longer of men's plane. 

 

We shall cease not 

to be one in each.

 

Till our

carcass gel to

birth our souls,

and the soul gives in 

to hereafter,

 

We shall cease not 

to be one in each.

 

And 

if there be 

an afterwards, 

 

we shall 

hold hands,

to take the

walk of atonement,

if there be any,

 

We shall stand 

shoulder to shoulder 

before vindication, 

if there be any. 

 

Damnation

or not, we vowed

to embrace

eternity together.

 

-Amami H.

 

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

THE MUSE HAS SET SAIL

 

The lamp is burning dry and dying off

The enthusiasm that guides the ink on the white ocean

Seems to have set sail

The muse not tended have gone to a silent corner

In the darkest recesses

Hidden from all joys and sorrows

Even the seeming ordinary has no appeal

Marooned in this endless ocean of darkness

Where galaxies are like tiny pin points

Between the ephemeral and the eternal

Lost

Flickering in this darkness

The light of hope beckons

The muse is silently watching and waiting

As the mind searches

Groping, crawling and hoping to feel the crumbs of joy or sorrow

To point its sail towards the muse

 

Ifeanyi Okwosha         

 

 

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

 

WHAT A YEAR '20.

Sailing through the just concluded year of 366 days was like paddling through an ocean of

million square kilometers; with a canoe!

On our hyped journey for “fruitfulness,” we bagged our hoes to reap what we sowed and that

which we never sowed.

 

A New Year! We’ve grabbed the wheels and up on our heels to reach the hill He has set for us.

 

Like Moses, we're driven by the words: “stretch forth” and “go forward,” our watchword; for we have seen visions, they have dream dreams and all ready to go by the specifics of the four

Ds

(-Decree, Direction, Discernment and Declaration)

Selah.

 

A New Year! Our eyes are wide, for we are neither intoxicated by beers nor by peers, but by the

shadow of Him that is there (- heaven).

 

Not by might, but by His Spirit.

Upward and Forward ‘cause nothing can stop us.

Bigger everyday ‘cause He is our Yahweh.

 

It’s a year to start! We have started.

It’s a year that will end! How shall we end it?!

 

Adegboyega Oluwatoyin

 

 

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

 

SAIL:

 

I have always loved the idea of a sail, sails and sailing.

 

The idea of a boat,

a cruise ship, a yacht.

 

Though sometimes

I suspect, I like those things the way

I liked the thought or picture of living in the rustic and pastoral environment of Ikorodu town or the cool, cold, temperate climate of the Jos plateau.

 

Things enjoyed more as dreams,

than in hard headed and hard nosed reality.                                      

 

Though from the delta,

I have a rather desultory relationship with water- enjoying it's power, force and flow, yet concerned about its potential for tsunamic rearrangements of tectonic plates.

 

As a proverbial emblem of movement and direction, it works well for me.

 

What with Mr Rohn encouraging

us to set our sails in particular

and beneficial directions.

 

Telling us that it is in the setting

of the sails that direction is determined.

 

You don't want the proverbial, clichéd

wind knocked out of your sails after you have put out a good idea which was shot down.

 

We must learn that success,

any success, soon palls and loses

its luster, so enjoy the time when the breeze first strikes your sails, and the waters rustle under your yacht's bows.

 

Words spoken ostensibly

by Buxton pere to Buxton fils.

I am guessing!

 

If the wind is taken out of your sails and they don't flutter or blow in the wind anymore, what then can the future hold?

 

A lot, surely, if you make

the decision to live in perpetuity

as a landlubber.

 

The making of complex decisions and the use of abstruse words, causes choices and language to

sail over the head of the many, where instead of being blown towards the landing lights of the shore, they glide into a fog of confusion.

 

As Florio says, Wisdom sails

with wind and time.

 

Happiness is not a brief interlude;

it is the human condition and God batters at its sail, in order to transform it into Joy of the amazingly indescribable variety.

 

I adjust my sails.

I am the realist

who does this-

neither pessimist nor optimist. 

Just the realist who yields to wind;

who bends as required and so does not break.                             

 

Always, the set of the sail

and not the gale determines destination!

 

 

Andrew Whyte

 

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

SAIL – For Bri

 

Bri

You have set my heart on sail like a kite

Tethered to earth by your coming

Flaying in the wind powered by your chuckles

 

Bri

Your coming has made my heart set sail

On a journey of happiness buoyed daily

By your ever increasing beauty

 

Bri

You have made me an eagle

At peace in the storm

Sailing in the wind with

The power of your clinging little hands

 

Bri

My mind and heart are muted

And in the loud silence

I hear only the fluttering

Beat

Of

My heart

When

I

Hold

You in

My arms.

 

Bri!

 

Chisom