Best Igbo Poems

IS DEATH AN IGBO MAN?
Quietus: ‘Nna Grave, this is Quietus 
from Vaults and Sons International.
My containers don arrive?’

Grave: ‘Yes Oga Quietus. From:
—Cairo—Syria—Boston—Kangan—
—Somalia—Monrovia—Sudan—
—Iraq—Afghanistan—Pakistan—Congo— 
—Russia—Yemen—Israel—
—Ivory Coast—Rhodesia—Burkina;  
but some of the goods (carrion)
were mutilated, 
and left for Vultures.’

Quietus: ‘Ok. I get business for Kangan(1960).
Oga at the top
has...

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Mother


Better lose the saddle than the horse’.
Every mother’s voice echo these 7 words 
To her child, not just out of love, 
Not entirely for love but for joy.
The joy of motherhood.

This life will be hard (they say)  
Nwa m, ma o ga-adiri gi mma
She...

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The un-clouded blank sky says it all
As no smile nor anger is expressed  above 
The withering grasses express the pain
As the foggy air attests to its harshness 
The drying streams hope for wetter days
As the birds have to travel far for just a drink...

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I am....
An Ashanti warrior A Bantu dancer 
I am a Yoruba royal clothed in my Asooke 
Dancing Adowa and kpalogo to tunes from wulomei and masekela  

I am proud Masai 
Standing around manyattas, 
Jumping to melodies from the olaranyani
Eunoto is here and today I...

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Mma (Beauty)


Izunna Okafor dere ab? a


Kere kere ka ? na-egbu
?b?nad? n’anya onye ìsì
Onye chi ya g?zìrì
O were nke ya, mebe ngàlá

Mma ad?gh? n’ótú ?n?tsha
Maka na ihe d? ?t? bu ihe d? ?k?
? b? ezie na e nwere ad?gbòlója
Mana ihe a gba n’aka
E jighi ènyò ele...

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We all saw the lousy fearful storm,
Up the sky of our newborn town,
Everyone thought it’s a summer’s dawn,
Where there couldn’t be heavy rain nor storm;

We closed our ears to the weeping sky,
Even when the cloud was right in our eyes,
The suffering sky kept yelling in...

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Chuka Nnabuife: Nwoke Na Mma


(Ab? p?r? iche maka mmemme ncheta ?gb?gba ah? iri ise nke Sa Chuka Nnab?ife)


Izunna Okafor dere ab? a


A s? na mma nwoke b? mpempe akw?kw?
Mana nke ah? b? maka nd? ?j? akw?kw?
Maka na onye g?t? akw?kw?, ma o kwegh? ya
Mgbe ah?,...

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We all saw the lousy fearful storm,
Up the sky of our newborn town,
Everyone thought it’s a summer’s dawn,
Where there couldn’t be heavy rain nor storm;

We closed our ears to the weeping sky,
Even when the cloud was right in our eyes,
The suffering sky kept yelling in...

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The feeling-cheated Igbo of Nigeria
Now judges her a worse malaria,
To keep celebrating Donald Trump
While bemoaning his angering dump …

But plans he to start smiling at Biden,
For one should often one’s options widen,
When at stake is life-transforming Crude oil,
With huge pipes channeling it to far-off soil.

The...

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Igbo words for the feared mostly high tone
Perfectly  matching what rattles The Bone
Her lexis for Death, Python, Snake - Fire
And it’s like speaker screaming, pitch higher!

So also Poison’s, Madness’ - ‘The Unpleasant’
Anger’s, Bullet’s - one can’t call The Pleasant 
A Language quite tonally consistent...

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Held as captives in a ship
Chains binding us together 
Hunger, but we could not starve
Tears but we could not cry.

We were warriors of our land 
Children of the soil
May the gods forbid that our ancestors would look us in shame.

And so together,
We ambushed our captors
And...

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