The Lover’s Recipe

While everyone around the world was basking in the euphoria of the acclaimed love day (Valentine’s Day), Penspeak Community UNIZIK got busy with their pens and spent the day reliving the nostalgia of God’s love.

The floor was thrown up and Delight blew us away with this piece;

 WHOSE ORDERS?

That a tiny acorn will make a mighty forest 
Wasn’t the loamy soil’s words to utter.
Dear child…I speak in voices as ancient as before.
I gave you gifts not like anyone else’s 
But you chose to be photographed through distorted lenses.
You followed rules written by hands you will never shake
Then ending at crossroads, you asked me “Lord what’s your take?
Those rules were written by hand…
Funny how you are ignorant to the power embedded in yours
You obeyed the “rites” discarding the “rights”
What a perfect mismatch you are!!
You were told to silence your own voice for the sake of the loud…
The loud voice said “conform” but in your heart you felt torn.
Torn between the needs of your soul and the rule you have been sold.
Is it freedom you seek or a cage in gold?
Bound by lines drawn by a mentally distorted ruler’s ruler
They said “follow” and you never asked why
You were wheedled to be fine with “just fine”.
They raised you to be small but your heart beats loud…louder than their expectations.
Dear child…if you would… listen.
The elders might call this rebellion 
But I call it my divine intention 
Your dreams and desires are my design
Your handwritten lifeline, mine to sign
Your steps are earthquakes in their shallow puddles
You are to build bridges where they said walls stood
You are not a footnote in their stories.
You are the headline yet they don’t want to see your headlines.
Prior to forming you, I knew thee.
I know your deepest sleep even your purest glee 
So, whose orders if not mine?

Mc Wisdom came in right after and dropped this;

GOOD FOOD

Just can’t wait until it gets to the plate
Aromas that dance, through a culinary state
Tenderly cooked, with love and with care
Each bite a story, beyond compare

The cutting, slicing, sizzling, crackling, mixing,
 a continuous process that lives you wanting and yawning 

Oh, the joy of good food, that brings us together
A universal love language,
The norming around the dinner table 
The joy and laughter that’s uncontrollable, that transcends this weather, and leaves you warm.

A taste of nostalgia, a hint of home.
Good food that nourishes the body and soul,
Makes you forget your problem for a moment, leaving you whole.

So, here’s to the chefs, the cooks, and the bakers
The farmers, the fishermen, and the food makers
My mom, dad, siblings, friends, family 
Thank you for the feast, for the flavours and the fun
Good food that brings us to the table, as one.

With the floor and curtains intact, Delight waltz in with so much inspiration and gave us;

HOSEA 2🥰

I was once yours, you were once mine.
But in the shadows, you slipped away,  
Chasing after lovers who didn’t care,  
Trading true love for a false comfort,  
An affair with idols, a broken vow in the temple of desire.  
You left me but every step you took, I felt it,  
Every kiss you gave, I tasted it.  
Your heart wandered, but mine stayed rooted,  
Waiting, holding on,  
Gripping the promise of what was.

But love is not blind– it sees the truth,  
And the truth cuts deep.
So, hear me now:  

I will no longer cover your shame,  
I will no longer veil your mistakes, for you’ve turned your back, 
And I must speak of the consequences.  
The gates will close, the blessings will fade,  
Your fields will wither, and your heart will ache,  
As the world you built crumbles beneath your feet.  
But in this silence, in this solitude,  
You’ll hear my voice again and I won’t leave you there,  

For even in the wilderness,  
I am here, I will allure you,  
I will call your name and I will take you back,  
Not as a servant, but as my bride.  
I’ll speak comfort to your broken heart,  
Restore the years you’ve lost to wandering,  
Your valley of despair will become a place of hope,  
Your shame will be washed clean,  
And the shame you once wore,  
Will be replaced with a crown of righteousness.  
I will lead you to a new covenant, A promise of peace,  
Where love reigns.
Where mercy is poured like rain on dry ground,  
Where my faithfulness holds you close. I will be your God,  
And you will be my people,  
And together, we’ll make all things new.  
The name you once wore,  
The name of betrayal,
Will be changed.  
You will be called “My Delight,”  
And I will call you “My Beloved.”  

Forever,  
And nothing will ever tear us apart again.

What a love! What a God! See you next month for another freestyle!

Authors
MC WISDOM
DELIGHT SHEKELS

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

What to pray about

Hello, My name is Niel and these are the ChristaPoet Freestyle Sessions. This year, ChristaPoet wants to give you a special perspective to our freestyles. At first, some of these poems were published as stand-alone pieces. But in actuality, each poem is an untitled part of freestyle session. Each freestyle session is given a topic for the poems to address.

On this particular day, March the 26th, 2021; the topic was “What to pray about”. There was silence in the large Christapoet group, apart from my own prattling about the topic of the day and my reason for choosing it. This sort of silence is kinda normal. But at 8:28pm… Hanna Azubuike wrote:

Pray about your heart to God
Pray about your art to God
Pray about your mine to God
Pray about your gold to God
Pray about your genes to God
Pray about your offspring to God
There would always be a reason, so pray without ceasing

And at 8:35pm, UC Truth retorted:

Pray your desires
My teacher once said
When you feel it you probably should say it
To God

So I come bare when I pray
When I pray I come bare
Stripped of all what God should not hear
I come with screams and silent
I come with words and rhymes like a poet
I come with sobs too
And mutters too

I’ve prayed about the mansions and the gutters too

I don’t know what you know about what to do when you come to pray
But I’ll never want to keep from God
An atom of what I really wanted to say to him today

Yeah. The two of them wrote from somewhere real. You see, sometimes, a topic touches you or reflects your current dilemma or just provides an opportunity for you to say something…

Like what Olufunke Ajegbomogun said at 8:44pm.

We don’t want to bother God
Says man made of mud
So we bottle up what we ought not
Leaving our mind in knots
You receive not for you ask not
What to pray about,” You say?
All things my brother, so you don’t become a prey
Everything my sister, on every blessed day
So Unfriend anxiety
Cast away it’s ray
Put on Christ’s piety
Your armour of faith
Whatever it is
Grand or small
Possible or impossible
Serious or minor
Pray about them all
Yes! In all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving…
So go on your knees
Lift up those hands
Put your hands together
Lie down flat on your tummy
Stand on your feet
Sit on the floor
Whichever position you choose, just shut out the noise
Surrender all
Cast it to God
Receive His rod
Believe it’s done
Make a loud noise
Wait till it comes

Some of these pieces and sessions, I remember like…an old friend. Some are like a stranger that has been sent to instruct me. I didn’t write anything, nor did anyone else, that night. It was all like a long whisper telling us “what to pray about”.

I believe that if you had read any of these poems on their own, you would get a part of the picture. Now you see them together, I think it’s a more wholesome picture. Tell us what you think, and see you next time.

Authors:
Hanna Azubuike
UC Truth
Olufunke Ajegbomogun

Broken ceramics

I have faint memories of my mother
I remember her as a cup
How she always found a way to hold it all together, just before she leaks
Trickles of water falling beside her straight slender figure, ceramic
Till the day daddy pushed her from the table and she broke
Pieces of her piercing little me, till one little pointy mummy tore through my left eye

Now I half see.
Deformed, they think I am
But with what hands would you erase memories’ scars?
With what hands would you race memories cars?
The speed limit of the past experiences dangling in your face before you even make the obvious decision
Those past experiences
Become the obvious decisions and so

I still cannot resist slender girl
Especially when they comment on my eyes
The one blue pupil that’s always learning new ways to shatter ceramic;
Hearts.
My past, present
How I with my fingers have rewritten daddy’s story on many lives.
If they never let go of their past
I’ll always be present, right on time
Before their next decision.

I wonder
If mummy would be proud that the vengeance I sought for her has made me Potter many more ceramics;
Broken
From tables, broken tablets, broken tables of laws
I have become ten plagues walking and everyone wants to chase from Egypt till they drown in a pool of their own tears tricking when they are full.
Maybe we give too much power to all the hurts that have Moses’ed their ways into our lives, dear lions forget about your pride and let his people go!

Finance peace,
UN-till the ridges you’ve prepared to plant hate
Until its roots can’t take in your heart any room.
So that any room you enter.
You’ll leave memories of water. Washing clean from dirt smeared hands, hearts, spirits, bodies, minds. Ceramics.
Set this on your heart
And set the captives free from Egypt.

God has called you, now lead, and let his people go.

UC Truth
©2021

IN ALL THINGS?

We don’t want to bother God
Says man made of mud
So we bottle up what we ought not
Leaving our mind in knots
You receive not for you ask not
What to pray about you say?
All things my brother, so you don’t become a prey
Everything my sister, on every blessed day
So Unfriend anxiety
Cast away its ray
Put on Christ’s piety
And your armor of faith
Whatever it is
Grand or small
Possible, impossible
Serious or minor
Pray about them all
Yes! In all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving…
So go on your knees
Lift up those hands
Put your hands together
Lie flat on your tummy
Stand on your feet
Sit on the floor
Whichever position you choose, just shut out the noise
Surrender all
Cast it to God
Receive His rod
Believe it’s done
Make a loud noise
Wait till it comes

Ajegbomogun Olufunke
©2021

Amazing Grace

Amazing is the grace
That has raised you from the grave
Granting access by the body broken
Of the one who only could have endured being broken
That you would be pieced together
And by the blood
Of the one who could spend it
Just so you’re bought back.

Amazing is the grace
that has called you amazing
And has made to shine, your face
Amidst a world that darkness strive to thrive
You, Grace has lifted and called light

Amazing is the grace
That will not let you fall
It will lift you up your face
High above the gloom
And cause you to behold the looming rainbow
It’ll whisper might to your heart
And endow your night with a starry glow

Amazing is the grace
That has called you
Even more amazing is the one
Who has given this grace graciously
He has called you His beloved
And can’t bear to see you lost.

PearlyThoughts
©2021

Country of our dreams

They say our country is going to seperate,
They say our country is a failed state,
They say we should run abroad because we will never run towns,
They taught us our suffering in silence ensures a graduation gown;
We were just trying to build a roof, but they said we are all bark and no bite
We were just trying to find some food, but they said we can’t eat what they haven’t…

This journey to the country of our dreams will not end us…
I do not pray for some future blessing, or that one day “e go beta”…No!
All we need is in us.
God, each other, tomorrow…

I do not pray for some wave of death, or that our enemies don’t make it to our comfortable
All we need is in us.
You, each other, tomorrow…
Tomorrow is asleep in the palms, three tiers can’t tear what God has joined together.

I pray that we see ourselves in each other’s eyes…children, all trying to breathe between sobs.
I pray that we accept each other’s differences… together, redefining the meaning of color.
I pray that we find each other, unity, and recognize how successful we are to have gotten here.

All we need is in us.
This journey to the country of our dreams will not end us…because Love is our true beginning.
And we’re just getting started.

The Niel Quchi
© 2020