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Best Poems Written by Olufunminiyi Salawu

Below are the all-time best Olufunminiyi Salawu poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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A Smile of Tears

A SMILE OF TEARS
I wish I could catch a star 
was the voice I heard as I sat on the grass
I look through the meadow
	all I could see was her shadow
Walking up close 
her mouth ajar, I could see her white teeth
A gash on the left side of her face 
she touched, felt with a loud wail.
Her heart bitter
	I could see its emptiness
Sickly, she stole a glance at me
	like a dog peeping through a window
All tears, she shook bitterly 
	even though her eyes were hard as flint
Sitting next to her, like a couple on a date
	I hold her arm and lo! Soft was its feel.
Sullen, heartbroken, painfully
	she smiled at me sweetly
On the wet grass sitting  
together arm in arm we gaze into space
the air cool, calm
	even though it was covered in a haze
face clouded with tears, gay with life
	I could see smiles setting on her left cheek
Happily, I smile back knowing
	I had enkindled the hope she had lost in the murk.

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Fond Memories

FOND MEMORIES
My thoughts brown
Even though they’ve watered through a period
Of bloom
A period of greens
Not until when the final byes were said.
In my sofa I seek answers
 Taking a cursory sweep down memory lane
When we sat laughed, danced and drank
Today all is but history
Save for the large frame on the wall
Telling me that you are very much with me.
In it I see your smiles,
Your feminine gait
So full of live
This is what keeps me alive
You will always remain part of my world.

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The Other Side of Death

THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH
I
HELL’S GATE 
Life is a quagmire
Life is a mystery.
Starring through the gates of HELL on earth,
Confused, I pick up my pen
My thoughts diffused,
I seek out a name in the sands of pain
To describe what I feel,
But on every try all I see is delusion and insanity
And I ask myself what is really sane about life?
I try to find meanings from the demented man on the streets
But all I see is his darkened teeth,
Mouth ajar, pouring out some meaningless words
A perfect blend of incoherent giggles 
And a strange guttural sound called laughter.
II
Life is a mystery.
In my solitude, I bring out my Bible trying to sing the beatitudes 
But my voice is mangled,
Life dangling, heart tickling like an hour-glass
I have wasted a great deal of ink scribbling meaningless words on paper
Yet I am left without a meaning;
Clueless, everything seems gloom.
III
HEAVEN’S GATE
Life is a mystery
Starring through the gates of HELL on earth
 I pick up my rosary
Hopes lifted
The sun high up shining brilliantly well,
I see an HEAVEN of bliss lying yonder
I see the diffusion of some rays called hope 
In a meaningless big big blob called world.
I am on the Celestial plane
I feel the Cherubs and Seraphs singing through my ears a soft loud song;
A song of HOSSANA
In my world of obscurity, in my world of pain
I sing a new song
A song of HALLELUYAH to the LORD
Now I know the other side of death and that is LOVE
Love conquers all.

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A Poem For Ife

The flames of passion cannot be quelled
Even though they were watered in a
World called cruel.
Searching for the word called fame
I seek out your name 
In the pages of a book called flame,
Attraction, magnetism, together floss
A light called love is ignited.

Deep deep in the starry night,
The darkness yields to the consuming vital essence of 
This light
Death a story
Life a reality…
Ties that bind
Love’s the tie,
Even though it seems non-existent,
For many don’t believe in it
And have lost faith in it.
Confused, they trod about life aimlessly
They sought for meanings
In the pages of books to define their lives,
Yet the answers are non-existent
And even if they are,
The answers fritter away in their very fingers.

Let’s not be blinded
Let’s not be fooled 
True love exists somewhere
Waiting for us for us to grasp it
Let’s open our eyes widely to it
For it pieces hearts together.
Loves defines, love gives meaning to life
Heart pieced in unison
No matter how hard we try,
The bond keeps resurfacing
That’s the price of unity.

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Bullets In the Soup Pot

BULLETS IN THE SOUP POT
I
BEFORE THE MIRROR
Sometimes, I sit on my sofa
Pondering on why war, poverty, hatred
and anguish has become a comforting bliss.
They say life is an unending quest; is it?
They say true love lasts forever;
Is there really anything called love?
Is life’s race really for the swiftest, the wisest or the dumbest?
I rake up my head to frenzy
yet no answers are formed.
Looking at the mirror, all I see is the same confused old look.
My lips charred, my hair falling
My face an ugly mask of wrinkles
Is this the real me? If it is, if it isn’t, then what is real about me?
In the distance
I hear a church choir singing that “God is Love”.
If God is love, then why is there so much blood, hatred and filth in the world?
Too many questions without answers.
II
I draw open my chest of history books
And I begin to wonder why Lumumba died and
Why Mobutu Sese Seko became president.
Flipping through my history books I see how the Europeans
came to Africa.
They claimed to be on a so-called civilizing mission
But it was only a cloak for their real intent- Exploitation.
With their collaborators; Africans themselves,
They subjugated and dominated Africa so easily.
Flipping further through mores pages, I see the same trend
Life is a story of betrayal and trust.
Every major event in life is bordered on trust and betrayal;
Everything might seem to be real on the outside, but on the inside it is vain.
III
BEHIND THE MIRROR
I draw open the window panes trying to find answers.
Gazing at the stars and the moon I remain clueless,
But in the dark blue skies I see something;
A world divided between two lines- Good and Evil.
Whatever line one chooses is a matter of choice,
But choice most times eludes the most enterprising
and most determined individual.
Many end up becoming monsters,
Many end up becoming what they are not
Not because they are blind, not because they fail
to make the right choices,
but because they have bullets in their soup pot.
IV
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR
Many try to find peace and true freedom.
They seek; they ponder, but are left without answers.
In their desperation, they become lost in the dark
clammy cesspits of time,
Their lives become miserable.
Whatever is real is real because it is real
Whatever is fake is fake because we’ve not allowed ourselves to feel it.
If God is real, God is real because we feel his presence in our hearts;
If God is love, then love is real for it lies in our hearts.
V
Life has so many unanswered questions;
Questions without answers
Nothing can fill the vacuum created by unanswered questions,
Except one thing;
One thing most people have locked out from their hearts,
and that is love- True love.
In life we make so many choices,
yet let us not allow the choices we make destroy what we are,
rather let love make the right choices for us.
Love is why we are here, 
Love why we are what we are
And love will take us to the place of our dreams,
So let love fill our hearts and overwhelm us with its warm
cool gentle feel as we ascend the windy staircase of life.

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Black Beauty

BLACK BEAUTY
One sunny afternoon
Mooching about the streets to kill time,
Lo and behold! What did I see?
A damsel
A very pretty damsel walking the streets alone.
She had dark oily skin which glittered conspicuously
Under the espy of the hot sun
Her skin was without blemish and
Was as smooth as the sands of the Sahara.
She was nattily dressed in a blue-black gown
And a necklace of pearls was dangling from her neck.
She walked daintily about like a springbok
And had long graceful legs
And very piercing eyes.

By Jove!
This pretty damsel was the cynosure of all eyes
Even a sightless man would have been thrilled by her beauty
A monk would have forgotten his monastic vows
And fall for her charm on sighting her
For her beauty was beyond words.

I was held spell-bound by her beauty
She put me in a state of perpetual delirium
And immediately I wished she was mine
But then she was somebody elses'.

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When My Mirror Speaks

WHEN MY MIRROR SPEAKS
We loved we cried
In the rain arms in arms;
 Cuddled like Siamese twins
We sang a song of unity
Hoping for better moments together.
Young hearts
We never understood what love is
It’s gentle feel, nor its overwhelming feel
Reasons why you had to leave me for good.
Memories of you fading in my heart
Save for the mirror on the wall
In it I see your pretty face
Telling me that our love can begin anew.
You might be long gone
But my heart belongs solely to you
The mirror says it all.
You never wanted to leave me,
It wasn’t just you
Now I see the new you, 
Spelling out my name in a sweet sonorous voice
Telling me we can soar the heights of love once more
I will love you once more
Again, again and again.

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Poetry Is My Sanctuary

POETRY IS MY SANCTUARY
I 
DEPRECIATION
There was a time when the pen ran dry
For years, hibernated
She wallowed in poverty
For I had lost touch with her
Confused, sad, clueless
I thought of discarding her.
Of what use is a pen that has lost her quintessential essence?
She becomes worthless, useless and valueless.
She wallows in the cloaks of obscurity
For that which is meant to set her up on the rungs of fame and fortune
Becomes lost in the recesses of time
But dry as she seemed to be, I could hear her crying 
Crying in a soft gentle tone
That she shouldn’t be discarded for she still had a long way to go.
I give the silent words emanating from my pen a rethink,
Then I realized my problems;
My pen was full of LIFE, but I was empty of LOVE
I begin to foster new thoughts…
DENOUEMENT
II
In my moment of obscurity, in my moment of desolation
I try to heave out my pains, my sorrows
But it seems so difficult.
Confused, empty of meanings to explain my state,
A pretty damsel emerges from the blues,
Speechless, in my confused state
I try to cook up words to express how I feel seeing her, nothing forms,
Save for the incoherent giggles coming from my mouth
Then I remember she who gave me hope before I lost all hope-
my pen, my one good friend
I pick her up, and miraculously she is gay and merry with life.
Clutching her in my palms I could feel the warmth I never had
Flooding all over my system
I scribble out the following words on paper and in verse:
I LOVE YOU!
I LOVE YOU!!
Passed the piece to the damsel standing in front of me
Perplexed she was at first
Then dimples began settling on her cheeks
And before I knew it, she pasted me with a flurry of kisses and hugs
And my joy knew no bounds
Then did I realise that poetry is my sanctuary
And I definitely will write to glory.

COMPETITION: POETRY ABOUT POETRY
DATE: 18-01-3013

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Molly's New Dress

MOLLY’S NEW DRESS
She was the fairest of girls on 
the hills called Westland
Young as she was, in her rags, she glowed
	like Alice in Wonderland.
Humble her family was
	yet she was always with a smile
Christmas came, Christmas left
	yet the smiles never left her face,
Always gay and merry
her looks ravishing
Country folks wishing they had a daughter like her
	never ceased praying
Dreaming of better days, Mama woke up one morning,
	stealing glances at Molly as she danced merrily, she saw her eyes twinkling.
Tears flooding her eyes, she said
	“I will buy Molly a new dress.”
The New Year came, Mama peeped into her money bag
	the money was enough to buy a new dress.
Happily, she walked down to Uncle James’ 
	the only store that sold clothes on Westland,
Buying the most beautiful dress on display, 
	she walked back home smiling, gave Molly the new dress,
It fitted perfectly.
	happily, Molly ran the entire Westland in her new dress,
And the whole folks knew she had a new dress, a brand new dress,
“What a girl”, they remarked,
and they smiled happily.

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Where Love Lies

WHERE DOES LOVE LIE?
I
Where does love lie?
Many are clueless, some go paranoid
Trying to seek out meaningless solutions
And answers in the pages of a book;
They consult mediums and spiritualists
They even go the extra length seeking answers
From the church and from the mosque
Yet they are left without answers.
They claim to know God
Yet they regard their fellow humans as vermin
Vermin meant to be trampled under the feet.
In their confused state,
Love is but an elusive concept far beyond their reach.
II
The rich also cry
They accumulate so much wealth and riches
In their brazen destabilized state
They seek for happiness
They dole out a large chunk of their wealth
To the Pastors, Imams and Herbalists
Thinking that they can buy love
They fail to realize that love lies with them
But it lies elsewhere.
III
God is an epitome of love
So the Bible and the Qur'an says.
Every religion preaches love
Yet love seems far beyond their reach.
Many seek love, yet they fail in their search for it.
What many fail to realize is that- if God is love,
Then we are an embodiment of love
So love shouldn’t be beyond our reach
Rather it should be with us.
IV
God is love
Love is God
Money, riches and evil cannot buy love.
Love lies in a cool calm place,
A special repository designed by God to welcome LOVE
That place is no other place than our HEARTS.
Those who seek love are sure to find it
For it lies in their hearts
Waiting to be harnessed, waiting to be discovered.
It is elusive because most persons have failed 
To open up their hearts to welcome and feel it
Open thy hearts to love today and let it love flow unhindered.