The Fortress

I stand here, witness to a shelter God shaped
not from stone,
but from the quiet, patient ways He mended me.
A refuge lifted from the ruins of every moment
His mercy refused to let define my story.

For years,
I mistook strength for silence
but even the softest prayer can rise like wind,
and mine learned to swell
because God understood my trembling
before it ever touched my lips.

This place, His making
isn’t just somewhere to hide;
it breathes with the memory
of battles I thought would end me
yet left me standing.

Its doors hold the imprint of fears
my Father pressed into the past.
Its watchposts lean into the sky
because He has guarded both my midnights
and every new morning.

Do not call these walls fragile;
they were shaped by the One
who refuses to let my soul collapse.
Every beam carries His assurance,
every layer His voice
reminding me that surviving
is not disgrace, but grace.

I learned a fortress isn’t meant
to keep the world out,
but to remind the heart inside my heart
that it lives under His covering.

So I turn the lock on doubt
and pull wide the openings
where His Spirit enters,
letting courage breathe its way
through every hidden room of me.

So, If you see me standing higher than before,
it isn’t pride, it is gratitude.
Gratitude to the Most High
who raises me, and keeps on raising me.

For even iron can falter,
but the life held in His hands
learns to rise again and in rising,
His stronghold becomes my freedom.

UbdaPoet
©2025

As bold as a lion

Me: But we’re meant to be sheep, meek, lowly, tamed, unconfrontational, peace-loving – quiet. How do you juxtapose that with “as bold as a lion”?

Him: I am The Lion and the Lamb

Me: Lord, that’s you, I could never be you.

Him: I have called you to be like me. You are part of me.

Me: But I can’t Lord, I can’t be bold, I am frail and weak, I show no strength. I’m easily tossed about. I’m constantly seeking the peace and the quiet but everything’s loud, sl loud.

Him: In this world, you will have trouble but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Me: The world you sent me to is sucking the life out of me.

Him: I am the Way, truth and life

Me: It is flooding my heart and my mind with irrepressible thoughts of inadequateness, incompleteness, emptiness, and frailty.

Him: I am your joy and your strength.

Me: Then why can’t I fight back? Why do I always have to suppress those thoughts, hoping they can go away, but you know they never do? Why do I just cry and cry and hope no one sees me crying and then I cry some more? Why does it feel like I’m failing you? You’ve put so many things in my hands, and I can’t juggle them to perfection, and it crushes me to think that I’m a failure in your sight. I want to run away from everything, I don’t want any of it anymore.

Him: Be still and know that I am God. I’ve been through everything you’ve been through and more, and that’s how I know you can be as bold as a lion.

Me: How?

Him: Because I haven’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

Me: I don’t feel like that.

Him: Walk by faith, not by sight.

Me: But I’m failing you!

Him: Did you ever hear me say that?

Me: Nope.

Him: So why do you think that?

Me: Because I haven’t met my goals for the year.

Him: Who set those goals?

Me: I did. I needed to. Otherwise, I’d be lazy and complacent.

Him: Then you should have asked me for strength and grace when you needed it. You should have committed your ways to me, and I would have ordered your steps. You shouldn’t have looked away from me and focused on yourself. You are frail, but I am your strength. You can’t accomplish anything outside of me, and guess what? I never leave you. I’m right here. Always here.

Me: Lord…

Him: When I say that you are as bold as a lion, I mean that because I am with you, you are as bold as a lion. I am the lion and the lamb, I strengthen you and keep you humble. You just have to trust me.

Me: 😭😭😭😭 I still have those thoughts, I can’t seem to stop them.

Him: Sing a new song to me. Take a walk through my words. Talk with my Spirit. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. My yoke is not heavy. It’s light. So, don’t take on what I didn’t give to you. Bask in my presence, take in deep breaths, and take a slice of heaven wherever you go. Only when you do this will boldness, joy, and strength always be with you.

 IfiokAbasi Okop
©2024

Words for My Father

Baami,
For the times your words enveloped my fear,
Times your voice echoed courage into my soul,
And you became strength for my arms,
When the weight of the world became too heavy for me to bear,

Nna,
You built an image our lives could reflect on,
And carved words into pointers to guide us,
As we journeyed through the world,
You denied yourself of pleasures,
So we could afford the luxury we desired;
A price you’d pay as long as you had breath in your lungs,

How can I forget the touch of your rod,
A few lashes to straighten us when we went wrong,
How can I forget lessons enriched in respect, integrity and diligence,
Lessons drawn from the scenes of your life,
Lessons we could hold in the palms of our hands,
Lessons that moulded us into the men we are today!

Abba,
I choose to count my flowers while the sun still shines upon your face and the wind gently caresses you,
When the air in your lungs still warms up your chest,
And your heart still beats,
Today, I choose to celebrate you for being nothing short of a father!
Happy Father’s day Baami.


And to those Father who has gone beyond this world,
We choose to remember you and say you live on in hearts!

Olaoye Adeleye
(C) 2022

Chasing Shadows


Men search all their lives for what has been right in front of them.
Trashing gold and chasing Shadows
Could it be the difference in font sizes making their mind choose superiority over relevance?


How shallow can man’s mind be???
A desperate quest for a test not given detesting all it has been equipped with.
Ohhh……comparison, man’s self constructed blind fold kidnaps him to a dump where pumps no longer make sense until it releases a shrieking sound like that of Ngozi.
Forgetting Zee sounds in no way like Y neither does it come before it but leaves words incomplete with it’s absence.


My heart can’t cry more than the king of Glory’s as he hands another years waited mantle to handle.
If you don’t handle that mic it will be given to another.
If you don’t start speaking now another is right behind you to take over
If you don’t start and see less of how imperfect you may sound and focus on strength from Calvary nothing will vary when another takes your place.
Start!!!


Ebube
© 2021

Inner strength

The task is enormous like Mount Horeb
But the strength inside is small

Looking for strength for the task
Searching for strength for the mission

Stumbled at a gym center
Thinking with it I will gather strength I need for the task

But that only helped to build my physical muscle for bodily profit

Went to the rich and highly placed for strength
But feebleness is what characterized them

A voice came and said, “I am the strength you need.”
Heh! “Strength is now a person not a feeling or force”, said my soul.

A brother also confirmed once that, “he can do all things through this personality who strengthens him.”

My strength must be Jesus Christ, Him alone the very strength I need to move mountains and subdue the earth.

Brightobong
©2021

EVEN IF FOR A SMILE

As I gaze the blue sky with my tired eyes
Swimming in the ocean of my mind
Word draining and words building
My tired soul in complete disarray

Will I rise again like these ocean waves?
Renewed with strength that won’t cave in
But this weary soul needs some hope
My tired mind, helpless as all look lost

Would you like some pie sir, a whisper?
My eyes alight with a new glow at the smile
A petite brown haired girl with green eyes
With the brightest smile I ever saw

Yes please, little smiling one I croaked
I stretched forth my tired hands
My grieving soul a teary-eyed. My wife and
My little girl will not return, alas

Oh what a pain untold to lose your world
But this smiling one renewed my hope
Not to end it on this deep blue sea
But to start all over again even if for a smile

Galatians 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith

Ajegbomogun Olufunke
©2021

Now we know

For we are not ignorant of the devices of the enemy
With all the vices going on in various parts of the world
We are firm in the promises of the Lord in His word

The scriptures contain the truth we need so we search
It helps us guide our heart with all diligence all the way
We keep on with the fight of faith for fear is a defeated fellow

Now we know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood
This war we fight neither with swords nor physical strength
But the weapon sharper than two edged sword; the word

So we let not our hearts be troubled for He is with us
We put on the breastplate of righteousness in all
And walk with our heads high in victory parade always

Lady Nancy
© 2020