Man of Words Hyeladzira A.B. Shaffa · 1992 They give nightmares, man of wordsThings you do with bales of wordsLying pompous in lairs of thine con-dom And for the boldness of thineschemesWe survive on those crumbs ofpowerThe extravagance from thy word-dom EDITOR’S NOTEFirst published in Citizen, Monday, August 24, 1992.Source: Archiving.
Citizen of Words / Citizen of Poems Nuhu Yarwa · 1992 Citizen of Words Like a capsule holds a substanceWords and wordings are poemAs word preserves and defendsmemoriesEach and every memory:The good, and bad and ugly:Of resplendent words and word-ingsAnd sparkling idioms and phrases;Of connecting simile and metaphors,And palpable mottos and titles:Even record of courts […]
Machine Talk Charles E. Agu · 1992 Do you remember meI am big, tall and newYou should know me. I can print two at twelveThousand per hourWe are two of the same kindBut not twins My sister’s name sounds Vicky!She can print two times twovariegated and she’s fast tooShe’s used to making two piece coatfor […]
SILENT PASSION O. WONODI The springs well out waterdrops;drops from the sky measure the hoursof your undue discretion, hourslost between contending thoughts.And I that brought amuletsstimulated for a dance of nervesstay your many moods and the silence of passionsunspent, slips through rubbing and caressingfar-flung desires back to lifelike bubbles on watersurfaceending at vacant shores. My passions stay in the lay […]
NEW-LIVING SAM ONWUKA Hopping on light feet over twigs over hoes, stretchingTo the wharf I will go from.AH! Hastening as if pursued, hunted by the wiles. The sound of laughterAcross the hilltopThe distant resonance of drumbeats ever receding I come in all furyFollowing the signaturePicking from the heap, time burnished relics. New-living. What then is […]
BIRDS C. ’TUNDE LADIPO On a stroll along the avenueThe time is exactly noonAnd above in the skyBirds of the same featherAll flock together When the day is fineI always watch the timeTo behold their sightWhich is just bright Birds of the skyOf no definite courseThey continue to flyUntil they are caught Editor’s note: First […]
NO EASY ROOST ODIA OFEIMUN Home, a flight of bouldersre-enacting the dire and fermentof rhythms from whichyou have always sought escape; —the sadness of slouching mothernakedin the rain of your muzzled wishes— home; Where, in the dark reachesof a past-drenched will,you find a motive for counting the stars;you write a psalm of untrod futures:“let these grains […]
AFRICA SHALL SING AGAIN SAM ONWUKA GraduallyLike a slow kindling logA tree trunkRaising slowly, unwillinglyFireFor the harmattan. We had waited like the maimedWaited and had waited to the brinkTo the moment of despairAnd all seemed failingTo breakThe chill of harmattan. Editor’s note: First published in Nigeria Magazine, Sunday, March 1, 1970. Source: Archiving.
SLEEP OF INNOCENCE ODIA OFEIMUN Another hawk tears through the wombof the night— gruesome go-crashof a million soulsin the speech of automation,the thrust of a monster-thoughtjolting your sleep; Comes oppressive silence,convulsing the selves in wild sensationsof prostrate-innocence, guilt. Mooning love, do not wakein this filthied hour of soot;don’t stir to share in the burdening swoopof insomnia […]
CREATIVE PROCESS SAMUEL ASEIN Scented ideas floatingin the mind’s suspensioncourt my soul like an evasive ladyon a first appointmentwith love. Mosaic of hued ideastender-lipped wordssink and float, weights and balancesof flagellating conceptslike sperms dazzling vanishing pointsof intermittent illuminationsof glow worms; faint suggestions and rejectionsthe ravished mindin ecstasy; possessed of tangled notionsand messages sievedinto shapes: records […]