Home » Poems » Best » Ijalana Afolabi » Best Ijalana Afolabi Poems

Best Poems Written by Ijalana Afolabi

Below are the all-time best Ijalana Afolabi poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

I Saw You Dance

I saw you dance.
I saw you, tilting your gracious body rightly
To every direction given by the beat.
I saw you, twisting your gentle body in step
With every instruction from the reign of the song.
I saw you, wiggling your soft waist,
Circling it to send wind to wipe my sweat of
surprises.
I saw you, whining against the watching wind
Like a yam stem around the stake.

I saw you dance.
I witnessed your steps, rooted deeply in the heart
of the music,
And still here in my heart, I feel them.
I heard your voice, sonorous like Angel's,
And still here in me, there's a whirlwind of
ecstasy
From its wondrous work.

I saw you dance
I beheld your magical style.
Then, I resigned there are more to your beauty
than what you've fed me with.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

Eji-Lola

She smiles,
The day gets loosed from the long closed door of the night
The sun shines in an extreme gentle manner
The proud trees bow to the regal walk of the wind
The flowers blossom in the dried end of this season
And the dead land abounds with peerless fertility

She smiles again
And I see her "eji",
Beautiful as a bouquet of flower that attract a flock of
tourist
Sparkling like a mountain of gold in the unimpregnable
darkness
And gracious like the galaxy of stars that adorn the darkest
sky

I call her Eji-lola,
Around her I lavish in the wealth that comes with true
beauty
She's a pure Eji-wumi,
Diamond, not comparable to the expensiveness of her
cheerful laughter
Eji-yemi, I hail her,
Even in her angry state, where her "eji" is hidden behind
those elegant lips, she's still as gorgeous as the Nubia

Eji-lola
Wa Damilola
Pelu oju re to gunrege bi Ododo eti odo
Wa f'okan mi toro bi omo af'owuro pon

Eji-lola
Seven kegs of palm-wine I took in the drinking contest
Yet, unshaken in my balance like Apata Idanre
Unlike the one I had from your pleasing eyes

Eji-lola
My muse, you are
The sound of your voice, a perfect food to my soul
My place among the stars
The crown I long to wear about forever like Alase
Eji-lola

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

I Will Pound For You

I WILL pound for you
with my arms
filled to the brim
with the strength of Africa.
With my breath,
pure like the crystal sky,
in its unperturbed hour,
I will pound.

I will pound for you.
I will trek the pot-filled path of Akoko
down to Ikare
in search of a pestle.
I will traverse the thickest forest
like OgbojuOde
down to Ekiti
in a quest for the procurement of a mortar.

I will pound for you.
Three seasons, I'll work and watch,
with sweat and sweet mind,
the tubers breed the yams.
Three times, I'll keep you at the edge of the seat
with rhythm of the pestle and mortar
as they press the yams in heartless manner
and fill your belly to its protrusion like Olori-aya.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

Home

From a-far,
I heard the rhythmic voice of the pestle and
mortar,
compelling the yams into formation.

From a-far,
the sweet smell of palm-wine
came with verve to knock the door of my nose
and resurrected the thirst that made my throat
abode.

From a-far,
in the cradle of dawn,
the crow of the cock
brought the pretty face of home.
HOME
       where the rain walks at a gentle pace
and the sun wears a friendly gaze;
HOME
      where my skin dances to the tune of the careful
breath exhaled by the tall trees.
HOME
         SWEET
HOME!
        How gracious would it be to lie in the belly of
your innocent water
running endlessly from the tireless mouth of your
mountains,
and behold the eternal beauty of greenest field!
         How gracious would it be to dialogue at your feet
with the moon and stars in attendance!

HOME,
For ye, my heart yearns.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

Peace, Be Unto the Dead

I placed plea on the pinnacle on the Peace
An offspring of one of the Peace
To ride far to the realm of the Dead
And dwell with them.

"Peace, be unto the dead
Those whose names still tick like sleepless watch in our
hearts
Those who'd carved an empire in the small corner of our
mind of minds
Those whose gracious grin still green like a plant in its
buoyant moment on our head.
Those whom our memories will never be man up to open
the way out for
Those whose touches would forever permeate our all and all
till we pop our clogs"
I say "Peace, be unto them"

Peace!
Peace!
Please,
Be unto them.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

Oreke

OREKE
Oreke!
I've seen the brightness that comes with the sun
I've witnessed the moonlight defeat the darkest night
I've dined with the breeze exhaled by the ocean
Travelled on the back of the walking river
And fought and triumphed in the bloodiest war
But never behold a beauty like Oreke-lewa

Oreke!
A Nubia, she's beautiful
A lily, she graces the valley
An imagination, yet so real
A beauty-full part of God
Oreke-lewa
Precious like precious stone

Oreke!
She's not a soldier
Yet, around my psyche she lays a siege
She's not a sorcerer
Still, I feel enchanted by her magical gaze.
She's the aroma
That wafts from that delicious meal
That Rent the air and ride on the senses.
Her touch,
Like the sweetness of the intact-palmwine in the morning.

Oreke!
Let me end this race with you
Firewoods, I'd hew and split for your parents.
I'd be at your beck and call
I'd fetch and carry for you,
Oreke!

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

Let It Rain

Oh Heaven,
We call on thee
With voices beaten by the unrepentant soldiers of hotness!
We call with our hands
Clasped tightly
In pleas for the comfort
That dwells only in your tears!

Heaven!
Heed our supplication,
We pray thee,
And topple this endless reign
Of the tyrannical dryness
Let it rain

Let it rain
The land longs for the touch of your soothing hands
The field craves for its greenest
The birds want to ride upon the back of hot-less wind
Let it rain.
Y

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

I Am African

I am an African,
Africa runs in my vein
Like an endless river.
Like an African, I eat.
I reason like an African.
I fall asleep under the auspices of the melodious flute
And rise to dance to the hailing voice of the gangan of
Ayangbami.

I am an African
And like an African
I gulp down my palm-wine
From the beautiful calabash.
Under the mango tree
When the sun has set
I vie for supremacy over the "Ayo-Opon"
I am African
Though twenty wives like
Ikubolaje my great grand father
I do not have,
Thirty children to till and sweep different farmlands
I do not imagine,
I thread with my agbada flapping in a pompous manner

I am an African.
My path has been carved
to dance to the beat of the foreigners long before I
journeyed down between her thighs from the house of
Olodumare.
The western ink and the lengthy feather that lie in front of
my lamp,
To African glorification I pledge to use.

I am an African
A man in my house
No equal of woman
That I'd provide shield for
Under the hostile gaze of the pricking sun and the biting
cold.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

We Are At War

We are at war.
Though, no sound of cannon
To announce its trauma
No blind bullets
Sacking the preyed places
No lifeless bodies
Littering the silent streets
No flying fires
Sending smokes to rule the sky,
When you stare us in the eyes
You'd see we are at war.

Details | Ijalana Afolabi Poem

The Man and His Shadow

He whistled as he coasted down
The lonely road
The passing wind tugged at the tail of his docile cloth
"You see that, Shadow?" He said
"They are jealous of our company"
The shadow grinned and patted him
"I'm with you"

He flipped his fingers
To the accompaniment
Of the rhythmic sound of his steps
As he surged forward
The travelling birds
Chirped above in the sky
"You heard that, Shadow?" He said
"They don't like our company"
The shadow grinned and patted him
"We're together"

He hummed to appease the fear
That stood with the night in the offing
"Shadow," he said "don't panic.
He'd grant us a pass"
"Man," voiced the Shadow
"It's getting dark,
I've got to leave you"