I speak of love also

I speak of love also

I speak of the times

I speak of silent rooms where tears know soil and pain knows heart

I speak of prayers that are said out of instinct

Because we are human, we can’t help it

And when I shut my eyes

I dream of a freedom to stand pure from our regrets and self-torture

To see for a fact that Nice is great and Love is light

But the clouds soon gather beneath my sun

A celestial mask to mislead me

But I know better

I know of a love also

A love that I must not see to believe

I know a brotherhood that my sacrifices can inspire

I believe in the virtue that my thoughts shall erect

And the dance whose music I can begin

And in all these

I speak of a love also

I speak of a life

I speak of a happiness that to which I can pray and drive

I speak of will and wisdom

I speak of peace

I speak of love also.

Dreams of the Little Child

I taste the world with my little eyes

In sweet amazement of things I would soon know

I taste the world with my little tongue

In wild excitement of the flavour’s of life’s river flow

I feel the world with my little hands

And I’m arrested by the fluid energy of her silent history

I witness the world with my little mind

Trying to find myself and the place I was told I have

I’m lost in the twilight of my innocent breath

The colours and thorns of this little wreath

I was born a secret

But soon to be revealed.

How earthly are my feet

How earthy I want them to be

And my brave heart; little zeal

Soon I would learn to walk

So I could walk into places that feel of life

Of sweetness; of pain; of wonder

Soon I shall learn to speak

So I could reveal the simple mysteries of my heart

And tell you all the colours I love to think

Perhaps someday I shall fly

To heights where my kind do not reach

Hear the voices my kind do not hear

See the colours my kind do not see

And feel the world here so beautifully

Perhaps...just perhaps

Like in my dream,

Someday, I would live.

I would live great and free.

Oju Iwe Ile-ife [The Pages of Ile-Ife]

The ancient city of love

Where humanity and peace still call home

After Idonre where mountains kiss the heavens

And friendship lasts almost forever

From this soil, stories sprout

Of sweet yesterdays and sweeter tomorrows

There isn’t a chair for greed or fury

Nor a thought for bride or bury

Ife-the sweetness of my dream

On their lips of candid lustre

There would never be lips nor envy

Though their hearts be concealed their homes would always be open

Ife-the warmth of friendship

Frutis and flowers, all so simple

Brilliant sunsets and brighter sunrises

Giving birth to innocent, stringer days

Days with greater realites

And nights with more fascinating dreams

From the most of my hear undead

To the magic pages of Ife yet unread

I confess, Alabukun ni e funmi

And by this I mean, Mo fe ran re

The Ekpe Virgin

At the Ekpe festival I was torn,

Bruised by the beauty of  a sour virgin

In a sweet flash of fire in the air

I beheld that little glint in her eyes

The darkness surrounding was powerless and dead

As  I reached for the dancing silhouette

In the dark night of the great dead

Ekpe zoomed past with his priests

Dancing, whipping, jumping, stealing the day

His might was perfect, but he was blocking my way

In no further the travel of our moon

Ekpe was out, dancing again but far away

The majic was gone

The glint, the spark, the fire, the graceful one

I searched and searched but she had varnished

Left to trouble, my love on emptiness larvished

I sought to drown in liquor and tear

In pain, regretted my lady wasn’t here

So drowned further, forgetting the day

The night, Ekpe’s obstructing my way

And I on my way home to Emelu,

When a strong scream came from the thick of green

In my panic, I thought I dashed in

But the truth is, I felt myself staggering

Still I zoomed, until there she stood

Waiting amongst the flowers

My virgin, my graceful sugar tower

Closer I went, “This time no Ekpe power”,

Hoping she would forget to disappear.

Instead, she laid amongst the flowers

And the last I could remember was nothing

But drowning in the scents of the wild petals

Drenching in the subtle rays of the blurring moon

Following that was a long, undisturbed darkness,

Soothing peace, helpless weakness

The next I knew was the sharpness of the grass on my rashed arm,

The scourging sun on my nude back,

The blurred picture of an Udala tree

And my clothes soaked in urine and male slime

Neither the moon nor flowers awaited my wake

Nor the night nor my virgin for love’s sake.

I gathered my strength and tried to zoom

But it failed so I resorted in helplessness

To staggering home, again, to my dear Emelu.

Choking my throat was the great shock

I met the doom at the crowing cock-

The virgin I saw was one who died,

Long ago, lost in the dead of Ekpe’s night

Raped by the ‘gods’ until the heat of day light.

Found in her shame, a lonely corpse

Void of honour, pride and purity.

Her face had become the mask of shame

For every maiden who dared Ekpe’s name.

“But I..I thought I laid with her”,

I confessed at home to Emelu

He laughed and knew my liquor took me far

My sanity and confusion gradually returned

This time on my bed  beside Emelu

A loud scream from the thick of the green came

And I beheld that little glint in her eyes as she basked in the subtle moonlight flame.

Beni Perhaps

 
Let’s forget valentine colours and Christmas bows

Let’s forget all the nonsense that we ‘should’ know

And let’s drift some maggi into milk

Let’s use some sugar for egusi

And nibble some okra with ketchup

Hmmm...Perhaps Be ni?

Perhaps not.

Let’s start a whole new parade

Of Christian girls and Muslim boys

Playing okwe and drinking kunu with nkwobi

Be ni Perhaps?

Perhaps? Perhaps.

Let us make KJV Arabic

And roast masara in the open

Let’s celebrate those Be ni moments

And Lets forget the difference between Daudu and David

And understand that Hussein isn’t worse but only slightly different

Let our lips sincerely say Be ni

And let our hearts agree

With rib-cracking laughter when Yusuf and Ikenna misquote Shakespeare

Let’s help Zainab with her ijab

And help Funke sustain her gele

Let’s teach Nma the bridal dance

And let us let Edikan marry for beauty and for love

Perhaps Be ni?

Be ni  Perhaps.

My first bloggy and just saying

Good day and good year it has been. I am crazy about God ,life, happiness and challenges He has given to me. I am totally inclined towards creativity and I'm hopeful that the warmth and God that is within man is the best thing that has happened to the human race. I am in love with beauty that laces the faith I have in God and humanity and energy that transpires within. I am open to good relationships and I simply respect driven individuals. In the light of this I am taking this leap to discuss as much as matters to me through lines of thought, poetry and short stories. I am not one to write because I have to but because I have been deeply inspired and led to. So there it is nnannaikpo.blogspot.com. Inshallah, I'll be as honest and clear as is safe, sweet, spontaneous and possible.