New year new faith

Penspeak Communities across Nigeria have recently taken up Freestyle Fridays hosted by The Godzniel. This is a collection of poems from Penspeak Community UNIZIK freestyles in January 2025.

Our very own MC Wisdom set the Christendom ball rolling,

Ladies and gentlemen,
Listen up, I’ve got a message for the masses
To the ones who think they can hold me back, I’ve got a few words to amass

This is not another new year, new me
And to everything and everyone who dissed me
This year you better receive sense, so free me

I’ll rise above the noise, I’ll shine like the morning sun
On every stage, I will stand my ground, call me the chosen one

So, to whom it may concern, listen up and take heed
I’m the MC WISDOM not to be reckoned with, my voice is a thunder that comes with a lightning decree

I’ll speak my truth, I’ll stand my ground
I’ll be the change, I’ll turn things around

So, watch me rise, watch me soar
I’m untamed and unstoppable, so sit back and watch out for more “MC WISDOM”

Just as we were still in awe of this grace, Delight came and gave us;

SCREENSHOT OF FAITH

In a world that judges by value and birth,
To us…the dreamers and the doers,
What shall we say to these things?
In a world of scrolling, tapping and clicking,
Where moments pass like a flash, never quite stopping.
There is one thing we capture, though abstract even to the believer.

You know,
The Youth today are chasing dreams
Like flashes on a screen…
Flickering fast, chasing fast, but what does this mean?
One wrong step, one wrong foot…
And you are back to square one questioning your truth.
Faith, they say, is the light at the end of the tunnel.
But what if the tunnel’s a mirror, a reflection of your struggles?
Like a dog chasing its tail, we run around in circles,
Dreams dangle like carrots, but we can’t even find the hurdles.
Irony lives here, right here in our struggle to rise,
The higher we reach, the higher the price we pay.

We keep chasing this lady ‘success’ just as she waltzes away,
More like the sun which rises but still sets at the end of the day…
We live in a world where everything is loud,
Where the pressure to rise feels like breaking the crowd!
We post, we hustle, we strive for the spotlight,
Trying to make a name in a world full of wrongful rights.
We keep chasing followers, likes and applause,
But the real faith is not about these shallow laws.

A screenshot of Faith is the courage to start.
It’s trusting yourself when the world says ‘wait’ …
It’s finding your power even when the world system says it’s too late.
It’s not about the speed or how fast you fly
It is just the courage to leap even when you can’t touch the sky!
It will tell you to walk, and then vanish from your sight
Leaving you wondering, “Am I wrong or right?”
So trust me when I say this one can’t be saved to your gallery… it’s not a picture, it’s more than a name.
It is the belief that in time we all shall find our flame.

We wrap up our freestyles here. It’s always an honor to be part of this. See you next month.

Authors
MC WISDOM
DELIGHT SHEKELS

God or Yourself?

Who told a lie
God or yourself,
You’ve been told
You could fly

If your heart masters
The art,
To be still and just
Fly.

Who told a lie
God or yourself,
Since your wings
Soar not

And your head
Lift not,
Who told a lie
God or yourself
For the mountains that
Move not,
And the storms that cease not
For the wealth foretold

And the beautiful future
Unseen,
For the health promised and
And the peace assured
For every promises
Unfulfilled,
And every delay suffered
SUE YOUR UNBELIEF. 

Ebubechi
© 2024

Tell gravity

Tell gravity I defied it
Tell the birds I too can fly
Yeah, you can’t deny my finesse
Heaven bound, yes I’m the “flyest”
Ever since I met his Royal highness
I got lost in his presence
So, I don’t want to be found
No more going round in circles
As his word has boxed me in
All you see is the definition of snow
My dictionary doesn’t know what sin is anymore
So I ain’t afraid to fall
I will land on solid rock
Meditate on his word
All my troubles I just lost stock of
Got to preach of his second coming
Tick Tock, say the clock
So I’m racing against time
But It’s not by power or might
I might still wrestle with life
But now I’ve got GOD in my corner
So I can’t lose that fight
Joint heir with my king,
See me rocking my crown

Uba Isoje
©2021

Are You?

Behold the cloud
the train of our King
the procession of heavens host

hear the blasting sounds
of trumpets
calling for the assembly of saints
dead and living

gathering at the table
feasting at the Lamb’s banquet
joy is the wine
in unending glee to dine

but feel the gnashing of teeth
the regrets of ostrich-like men
who missed the flight

are you transformed to fly
or heated to cry ?
Are you?

Josh’ Oloyede Oluwafemi.
© 2020

A No Man

A no man,
Found in imperfection,
Of a world full of pressures
Weighing side by side;
By beliefs, he’s tied,
And No!, he wouldn’t fly.

A no man,
came sitting at the tip,
Watching his legs get licked
By the foamy sea’s tongue,
Taking what nature gives;
Trying to see the world from new eyes.

A no man,
Lived and worked and bred in the richness of lack;
Caged in own mind,
Where dogs lick his wounds that life’s caused on him;
And No!, his end wouldn’t start now.

Times always happens,
When it does- standstill,
Believe in the maker of times,
Don’t go crying, don’t go pity-partying!
It’s really a no man’s business

TM Sungs
© 2020

Why do You fear the stars

I do NOT fear the stars
I fear the sky’s span, its depth and breath, its embrace that swallows everything my size and yours and makes them disappear into insignificance.
Do you have the slightest idea what the sky does to you, mortal man?
That scape up there, it makes you marvel. It lifts a smile unto your face, drives awe into your heart. Your feelings twinkle with the stars. You feel fly. Fly like a firefly, a little dot of light persevering in a dark world. You feel like a peacock, strutting its gaily colored stuff. Just before it gets slaughtered.
The sky’s beauty is a stolen garb woven from a trillion diamonds, the stars that hide the cold, dark, unfeeling universe beneath its ‘skin’. The rule of that universe is selfishness, its path is self-preservation, its goal is self-elevation. And no mortal has ever won against its brutish march.
Neither will you.

Neither will the stars.
Like you, millions have tried to soar past the skies. They pierced it with towers, crossed it with rockets, coursed about it with satellites.
Like you, trillions have burned bright, over eons unfathomable. They gave light and life to worlds innumerable. They were the suns of their age, the stars that stunned our forebears.
Today, they are gone. All of them. All shredded trillion bits, devoured by the same universe. And the sky, this pretty mask of a cold dark monster, keeps its sunlight front, its fraudulent smile.
And the world keeps spinning.
I do not fear the stars. I fear the wretchedness they hide.

Ikenna Nwachukwu Alexander
© 2019

Fry-day

Last night, i got laid
Doubt came to me in my dreams
And had an intercourse with my mind
I am five months gone
Carrying these thoughts around
Hoping to abort this abomination
So, let me break open my insecurities
Hoping to make an omelet
Because today is fry-day

Shots fired
Fear has breathed its last
I am shut fire
Ready to explode at last
This is suicide
I die to rise, call it Easter
Fear skews sight
Jesus fixed it, Bethsaida

I love a meal of eggs,
Egg-xactly omelets.
The way we can whisk two together or maybe more,
Like the intercourse of minds, like the grind of spirits.
And isn’t beautiful, the wet and slip of waters, the freshness like a new day, the way it all becomes familiar and new?
As we sit at tables set before enemies ,
Fellowshipping with sips of living tea and chewing bread alive, making alive,
That the omelet served is faith, the abortion to every doubt.
Isn’t it beautiful, the sparks that fly as iron sharpens iron, and ideas are born for the time they arrive?
Don’t you just love a meal of omelets?

Olaoye Adeleye
Ezeonyeka Godswill
St. Davnique
© 2019

#Fry-day
#FreestlyeFriday

Letter to a beloved brother

Behold!
What is ahead beyond all holds
A glory not far-fetched
With a little-more stretch

Behold, Courageous and be bold
As you trend this road
Again! do NOT be told
Of the whale-sized Mack on the road

Along the aisle
Never give yourself to wine
Never bargain your mirror with Mammon
Unto the higher calling-press on!

Standards will rise
Beat up your wings: fly high
When ye fall
Let the strong man stand tall strong

Remember Christ graced your weaknesses
Even in the bashings, crashing and crushing
Take His word ever-bracing
That your bones be strengthened!

Remember Christ the song
For the lost but found
Your help to come
With whom is NO doubt
And upon His wings, you shalt mount

Beloved! in all
Beyond my beseeching lyrics
Rhymes, structures and schemes
Guard up your heart against all ill-schemes

Flee from vices
Against the fears eyes could see
Let not your heart be as the wavering boat on the sea
To your Samson, guard against Madame-disguises

Selah!

Tunde Micheal
© 2019