Long Iroko Poems

We are travellers on this terrestial plane
where acorns are consumed in tinder season 
oaks fell by angry hurricane 
robust iroko mowed by lumbers greedy saw 
haughty araba viciously murdered for standing 
on progress impatient path
omo...

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EULOGY TO MRS (Ph.D) ALIHAJA, AMINAT OLABOOPO                            ...

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(for: them who are ever there!)

these branches and roots
that cord to the grave ancients
should be free from man’s swords!
both oracle and priest held for days …

I 
Your voice speaks in the silence of the night
To...

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Here lies papa, the bravest warrior

Who turned the cats back to the ground.

Whose mighty sword slain thousand soldiers at a sight

And his presence calmed the snarling hyenas

Salute to the mountainous beast among humans

Salute to the...

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PERSERVERANCE BREEDS SUCCESS

Jss One was an insult, I cried
Like time should hit full stop,
My breakfast was sweet without
Salt,
My parents tasted like this evil
Citrus,
I continued to hide like Air Force
Was only for my seniors.

Jss Two arrived...

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A TRUE AFRICAN

A true Africa believes in hospitality
Not in hostility of his fellow brother
He believes in the sound of drum of
Wisdom in his ears for transformation
A true African believes in obedience to the law
Not in...

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Women are like dogs, but they are not dogs.
Whatever name you call her, that name she would bare.
Should you call her a dog, don’t you expect her to act like a hare
She would certainly give...

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IMAGINE  NIGERIA.
Imagine  Nigeria,
Becoming  a  sweet  fruit
Like  my  orange  juice,
Imagine  Nigeria
With  patriotic  youths
Who  speck  truth  and
Make  my  future  look
Good,
Imagine...

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If tomorrow  never comes
my heart will be kept in your hands
you remember me when sword is seen by
my words will never lie like an eunuch wind
i tried hard to discard those ugly image of...

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That year I read Chimamanda Adichie,
I saw the purple Hibiscus in our back yard,
The freedom that blossom through their leaves.
I became Jaja in my lost world seeking freedom,
Then I remembered father; a cruel and callous...

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"ORDINARY PEOPLE"
         
In a world full of some billion people
Only a trigger of fear and the heart would be rendered cripple
All men alike, are prone to react...

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Give it a title!
They say first love is always perfect
Even when you fall flat in the middle of the story
The last is always the dream we all fight to attain
I won't be your dream love
Neither...

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The journey began from birth
 Since presented out into this life,
 The brow beating experience,
 Gloom besetting this vagabond soul
 Are harrowing like the trail in front,
 The ancestors had proclaim the future
 To be...

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Her flapping wings ceased the troubled storm,
The ant of the dwarf looks like an Iroko.
Toweling my ego towards her fixed feelings
She penned her pride just perfectly to me;
The raw prettiness that bleeds her feminity.
Alas! The...

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Her flapping wings ceased the troubled storm,
The ant of the dwarf looks like an Iroko.
Toweling my ego towards her fixed feelings
She penned her pride just perfectly to me;
The raw prettiness that bleeds her feminity.
Alas! The...

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this is the house we were made.
a house papa and mama’s colors joined together.
we have the map of this building in our palms,
we could not allow it to exile us like the tortoise
who exiled its...

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We once climbed those tree happily
As mum and daddy were at home enjoying themselves.
We sang kpakpangolo ogolo, sang Onye ga agba egwu
Who is in the garden and my grand pa has a big eyes
Those stupid...

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A gallant man of thousand fists
Spirited brave man of Amadioha’s clan
Conversational colonel of the battalion empire
Emperor manned through the honeyed knight
The dialogue of the drums speaks of your strength and might
Cupping the fingers content of...

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Ajoke
  ...... to my Ajoke,  to your ajoke
 
It was at oja ale I first saw you
Your smile that day ajoke 
Robbed me of my timidity
And I forgot of my reticence 

When I...

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It is not our way
To reap from another’s sweat
It is not of the blackman’s norm
To call the breeze a storm.

You see when the elders sit
They can see far ahead of the youth
that stands atop the...

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{For Mareena}
   On the bank of precipice, i stand
   Appealing to impotent gale;
   Not to nudge the dosing hurricane awake,
   Let the aborting breaking wave lull and...

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Giant At 60 

We fought in tranquility,  
For a freedom in our mother's womb,
She cried for our immaturity,
To stand like an Iroko tree,
In the forest full of wild animals. 

In the field of her...

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In our little village Nkporo,
We live in harmony and help each other.
We share among ourselves the golden rules
And nighbours remember their neighbours.
We play hide and seek at our leisure time
Creating kite and building houses with...

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Before I die,
I will write my names on a million pages  
In the heart of history with rows and colums.
My blood will stand as defence to the weak,
And I will make my voice a...

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When Chinua Achebe presented you,
we all marvelled at his powerful gut,
we saw an elephant among mortal men;
he planted an iroko tree in our minds,
he made us see through your eyelid.


Your heels barely touch the ground,
The...

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