Ode to Poetry

Oh poetry, art of language divine,
With words that flow, in meter and rhyme,
You paint a picture with each verse and line,
A tapestry woven, with thought so fine.

You give voice to what lies in the heart,
Emotions raw, made into art,
With rhythm and sound, you play your part,
To heal and comfort, from the start.

You take us on journeys to far off lands,
To meet characters, in your written hands,
You let us feel what it’s like to stand,
In someone else’s shoes, and understand.

Poetry, you challenge and inspire,
With truth and beauty, you never tire,
A spark that ignites, with a single fire,
Bringing wonder to all, higher and higher.

So here’s to you,
dear poetry, we sing,
With each word,
our hearts take flight
and wing,
With you, we soar, our spirits take wing,
You are the soul of language, the art it brings.

Tolulope Amao
© 2023

Rise from the Dust

Love, I need you to rise from the dust.
You might not have the best words,
But I need you to speak
You wouldn’t move mountains with your thoughts.

Love, I need you to give that warmth
You might not be the best fit
But I need you to try
You wouldn’t feed with folded arms.

I need you to feel – again.
Feel the compassion that runs through My veins.
Since you are a child of me,
You’d see men as I do with the eyes of Mercy.

I need you to see – again.
Walk this path, it’s yours
Don’t forget who is always beside you,
Don’t forget who has always held your hands,
Don’t forget whose love has taught you,
Don’t forget whose words have kept you.

Love, I need you to be – again,
I need you to rise from the dust.

Jahzrhythm
© 2023

Goodbyes

It’s hard to say goodbyes
Always feels like a lump
Too big to swallow
Too hot on the tongue
Too sticky to spit out

Does Life play a trick on us
When it shows us love
When it watches us love
Then expects us to say goodbyes
Starting what it won’t finish
Because life never really ends

Here the comfort lies
When the Truth speaks
Pulling pictures to remembrance
All tagged with love and laughter
‘we had a good time together
I hope to see you again someday’

Pearly Thoughtz
(C)2022

Gift

Gross is the word for it
That pain accompanied by loss
Overwhelming the reality of it all
We would rather take a walk
Better still a break from the fall
The very point where life’s meaning got raked.
Then what?
Stay locked up in an abyss giving access to non

Pain
Loss
A drawn blind obstructing the reflection of dawn’s light
Howbeit take a life jacket
Never walk alone
Of a truth nothing would the eye see in total darkness but through the walls the hand can feel until the candle stand comes to sight.

Sure a stranger in a tunnel lying in the middle of nowhere
Call a friend
Though sanity be raped a million times divinity will come through and would you like a baby wrap with his blanket of love.

Ebube
© 2022

Redemption Memo

It began like this…

Clad in purple and linen, cat-walking with stiletto strapped feet,
I miss my steps

Fall into a gully of mud
Stumble into the midst of men mouthing profanity

Stench ooze from me like box of putrid egg

I become crafter of maleficence, of deeds done in darkness

Yet, I am of tender days than to perpetuate impurity
You, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.

Lord, seems mother said you do not appose your eyelids like the sons of men?

But why are these befalling me
Or why should I be falling?

Like Martha, this is how I feel:
Lord if you had been here, my soul would not have been ensnared in the tempter’s trap

Now I come with a bunch of sins, my back bent into a hunch

Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy and vanquish this vile!
Let these things cease, like when you stilled the storm

Will you discard the memento of your purchase?
The one you stamped by your blood on the tree, like Rahab’s scarlet cord hung over the window in Canaan?

Up till now, the spies are over the gate of my soul, watching, waiting to devour & divide me as a spoil—this moribund mortal

But the redemption of my soul is costly,
And in it, you promised sin shall not have dominion over me

This is why tonight, I recite to you the memorandum of my redemption
I hope you heed my cry and help me.

Ayooluwa Olasupo Ìmísí
©2021

Wheat

I have never seen Everson but my brother he is
And he’ll never sin on my scene, never bother with it
Young Charles and the step-fam would be arguing things
But they tried to eat and clean mouth so forked in our things
UC typing with no network
Cast your words and let’s work
Electrifying verses versus, we wrote culture shock
That reminds of Godswill on the LinkedIn thought
When I write nowadays
I’m Kendrick in my brain
When I’m emotional, I’m Drake
I give UC catarrh like Wayne
I should learn to edit
Ed, Edd and Edit
Today I was writing slower, with no beat when I read it
And yet I found no timing like I used to back ’13
I feel the neck of Nonso pendulum-ing in reprimand
I read my counterparts and there’s no doubting, I understand.
No buts about this, discipline, I need to robot; Oh God, the speed is messing with the taste of the yogurt.
Uh
I’ve known the height and yet the might was not the way I reached it
No poltergeist, I’m hunting light and all the ways to reach it
Beyond delight, in day or night, I sought to not be rigid
To please the wise and, like a kite, be gliding high in reason
Back
To
Work
One week of intermittent prayer
Constant in the fact that you will see me there
No foul play, I am not a Layer
The season is for harvest so I’m switching gear
Trousers and Head gears
These were the past cares
And don’t get me started on a vaccines being scares
Plans of the antichrist, I’m laughing past tears
I thought of saying it earlier on my family group
But they’ll call me disrespectful and I’m getting in soup
As long as souls are told the gospel, I am cool with the loop
Light is always gonna win, when it’s dark imma stoop
Make dem no go use me shine, “Sorry” no be control-z
I’ll be studying all that time, Me and Mine be on the beat.
We’ll be praying and researching, from the back to front row seats
Then I’m studio-ing it all, yeah it’s QuChi and the Wheat!!!

Niel
©2021

Light


Sometimes I feel like the world is an unlit candle, watching my lighter’s drama.
I was taught the word is light, I guess grade school didn’t teach us to speak in brighter grammar
Cos these twilight thoughts often leave my tongue twisted.


Who ever said talk is cheap, never valued the tongue he was gifted.
Still, light has never met a darkness it could not chase.


And even when words are too heavy for lips to lift, I can still hum amazing Grace.
Until I can flip my can’ts to can dos.
Until I can speak Sparks to these candles.

Ini Brown
©2021

Not Perfect, Worthy

I’m human.
Trust me, I am.
I wear my pants one leg at a time.
And, believe it or not.
I cry. I fall. Yes, I even fart.
Ew.

Sometimes I feel worthless.
Like collateral damage. Expendable.
But, come on. All said and done.
We all know an Old Shot’s a Nigger.
Once every day; twice on Sundays.

Barbarians and Predators
See them threaten to Terminate us.
But as imperfect as we are,
Our God don’t use no erasers.

Perfection is not me.
I’ve never claimed it.
But He who called me?
Come on. Dude’s on Fleek.
Faithful. Holy.

Nonso John
(C) 2021