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Best Poems Written by Godwin Ibrahim

Below are the all-time best Godwin Ibrahim poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

The Pieces of Peace

The pieces of peace were handpicked
Picked in the heart of the night 
Shredded for an aspiration 
To clutch the lone torch contained by the dark
A glimpse for some unusual rank

Then comes the arrival of time  
With the angst that grow by day 
Comes the fast ticking of time 
 Hastening all; unnerved in the bay  

At this moment 
Love was censure by lust
In the euphoria of the game
Featured by despair and shame   
The eventful spar between the dogs and the baboons

And then comes the contest of blood
The Spartans, the spectators all flood 
Melancholy yet to befall 
 
Then it begins 
Passing through the span of day
Scotching rage of the sun
Little rain, little dry, little sounds of gun 

But the dogs and the baboons 
Tailback in fear; scowl 
And little by little 
Comes casting and counting  

And after a little while
Anger was unshackled 
Accompanied by lament 
Yet, not enough raison d'être to toss away the tot and the bathing water

Then comes the voice of command 
We were deprived!
It is our time!
Kill them anywhere you find them!
Rigging, rigging, rigging! 

Peace was shattered
Broken into pieces 
Like a bowl that fail out of safe 
And pandemonium overtook all

After a little calm 
Scores of guiltless essences met their Waterloo  
Mostly in the cities they ad-hoc  
Like those trapped for a catch

And their figures continue counting 
Some unassumingly lost to the swampy woods 
Searched by trained dogs and their masters 
Into the depth of the swampy woods  
Bled; death; covered in mud.

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Change

Do you know that giant of Africa yesterday?
That great and well-fed West African Elephant?
Whose offspring’s are pot-belly, lament-less and relieved? 

 Have you seen that giant of Africa today?
Whose leaky walls are infiltrated with turmoil and malevolence?
Yet couldn’t hear; couldn’t see and couldn’t say?

Have you seen a thespian Nigeria?
With over-blown inflationary rate 
Uncontrolled exchange rate 
And a despicable insecurity peril?

Wherefore is everything that was there before?
The favourable exchange rate 
Manageable security and controlled price 

And where is everyone?
The Obasanjo’s, the Jonathan’s and the Yar’adua’s of blessed memory

Whose hands of revulsion are we in?
Where nothing is something 
Only hunger, malady, dearth and communal cleansing
With yesteryear better than the crinkled arms of tomorrow 

See the boulevard, the drifters and the indigents
Permissible and impermissible whores    
Imperceptible horror and terror 
With rage in everyone’s smiling faces 

When will CHANGE be ‘CHANGED?’
 That which we bargained with our lives 
Traded in sorrow and grief 
And forsaken afterwards 

Does CHANGE mean hunger, marginalization and communal cleansing?
Does it mean power outage and general price hike?
Who can CHANGE the CHANGE and
 Not pick the pieces of discord.

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Woman

WOMAN 

The cruelty of civilization has failed the society
That coyness and awe matter less to bear  
Left in nowhere
Discarded by modern evolution
The carnage of life; by the life we live

Life was modest; living adore 
Even after the chastised glory of the body 
Which was later covered in wool from head to toe
And left nothing to be seduce of friend and foe  
 
And here comes a ballistic civilization
That pockets’ modesty for arrogance
And changes human living to inanity

Nothing is as bravura as an African woman 
Whose curvy nature left no doubt in mind
Created to crack mans’ incessant campaigns  
Yet found in the midst of civilization
Where reticence was surrogated with arrogance

But do you know how meaningful is blatancy?
Hmm! to others is modesty
It is the absurdity in nudity 

Even, the whites in their nakedness 
Cannot be as seductive as a clothed Africa woman 
Whose creation was done without blunder 
In the perfection of natures’ order

Though evolution fought the pride in her 
A force to make over even upon her dark pigment 
And scrounge from the hairs of carcass  
To look like an Indian mermaid 

A lot was lost to lust 
Beauty, respect and pride 
Like the traditional African attire 
To piece of rag from the western world 

And as it still remains the myth of creation 
The whites alter creation via engine 
The noise, the breast and the buttocks 
That which is found in every new born African woman

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

The Muttered Cry of Our Kids

Hear the muttered snivel of our kids  
Puked away to gloom, twinge and disease 
Wrecked by creeds
To fulfill an antique mores 
Whose ruin is beyond scientific darn 

See the boulevards and the creeks  
Before sight are male Mal-nourished toddlers 
In rag togs, blistered feet, beseeching alms   
And ingesting the remnants
From the poorest buffet

They toil in tackle capacity 
Inversely allied to their weight
From sun rise to sunset
To earn much less than you

See the boulevards
How they stir; bunched  
On the trot to any kind of dub
To good and to evil  

Death becomes a familiar friend 
At first light and at dark 
From toil, food, water and sleep 
Such a despicable way of live 

But then the espoused antique mores, woes
Regenerated by ills of the society 
To the blanketed vision of the moneyed
To plunge empathy and impious reliance of all

Can this be our way of life?
Trouncing fortunes to antique mores?
Reticence to rascality? 
And nationhood to meanness?

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Hard Decision

Life longed in my youth 
Longer than a century 
Full of fortitude
Fortitude unbear
Masked with resilience
But reaping failure by day 
Then comes a day 
When stride took me all a lone
In steps of defeat 
I walked royally into the clustered forest 
Deepening deep; fetter by pains 
Then i heard the gentle sound of the wind 
Like though a virgin wind 
It blows compassionately
Caressing the cardinals of the earth 
And alternating  
Singing in muttered voice 
Suddenly i heard 
The sound of a loosed gripe
Of four unripe mangoes that mysteriously failed 
Each with tears 
The plight of a dashed hope 
Close to my feet
Which was already cold?
Defeated by what i couldn’t pull off yesterday  

Sorrow had long remained my bride  
Married in disguise; without love 
Taking all i got 
And all felt i wasn’t prepared to be 
Married to the reborn myth
After all that was said about me

With my hands on my check 
Tears dropping side by side
Flowing slowly wetting my sleeve
I said to my suicidal mind 
You can do it!
You can turn every wrong to right! 
Earn freedom and free others alike! 
Like the words of Maya Angelou 
I just did it right

Before i could knew it 
Night failed without recourse
Fear loosen, courage summons
I turned as royally as i came 
Cutting through the tick darkness with myth 
And before the early cockcrow
All i lost was gained 
And nothing to be sorrowful about

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Epitaph On the Tombstone

A quest for solace took me to a well-kept garden 
Where the only trouble is the breeze that blows 
Touching the hearts of the trees 
Then the rustling sounds of the leaves
The dancing inch grasses 
And the unrivaled scenery of silence 

Then i imagined 
The calmness, orderliness and respect 
Each was quite; minding his nap  
In his six-feet long grave  
Bought with blood 

But then; the epitaph on their tombstone
In ingots of gold 
Lowered to the edge of their feet
Tells who they were
A strange expression of lives 

And when I took a long gape within the confines of my sight
I saw the arrangements 
Soldiers; rank and file
Laying in standing order
Order of ranks and heights
Nobly attired 

Then it crumb my wits again 
Gain of such solitary confinement
Of fallen martyrs
Ruined by the gaffe of the state 
Dozens deaths; slate 

On the epitaph; were 
Names, numbers, dates of birth and dates of death
The quote; ‘He gave his life for the Nation’ 
Took my thoughts farther away  

Then comes the reward for the death 
An orchestral band 
In flattering attire
Singing sorrowful songs 
As we wine and dine 
 
It goes on and on 
Till the lowly arrival of night 
Knowing that the death felt animate again 
I hugged and bit farewell to each  
As they walk nobly back to their graves

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Man

MAN

Man is man; the plight of another man 
Who bullied our conscience to perpetual pains
Off the coast of peace to the lands of regret
And to myriad antiquity of life 
That all we are is a life in the Sub-Saharan plains

Which is our pigment; the dark or the darken-dark? 
That all we could think is nothing but doom
For not all who desires hears us when we bark 
And thought we knit our hopes in the grass that loom
  

And man being man; where did you sleep? 
And toil to nothing all day and night?
How did you manage to recreate the ills of life
And shower the earth with mockery 
That nothing was formed

Man O Man; look how you came to be 
You were a butterfly and now a bee
Recreating the creation that all shall ruin 
Not only to foes where you ceased to rain
 
Let the sun; let the moon; let the rain 
Unchain the shackles to the feet of the earth
Let the streams; the brooks; the rivers that carries the rain 
Flow in unity; flow to the mother sea 
To recreate awareness to those buried by your sea

Something is not missing; the face of anguish
That clouded the man; pride far extinguish 
Yet strive, strive and strive  
For a fervent man desires a fervent strive.

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

Them Say Them Say

Nothing flies faster than ‘them say’; ‘them say’
Mystical wingless words
Weaponised within democratic state 
Such freedom to incapacitate the state  

Them say; them say’ 
A malicious tool   
Against one; against all
Idealism against truth 
Built within human wits 
For hatred and threats 

Do you remember what they said? 
And they said
Yes; No
Hmm…! So I heard 
Said by none

And it kept flying without wings 
To nooks and crannies
Changing taste  
Just a baseless propaganda 

Na who talk em?
A common say to say 
So I hear em; Na them say em 
And confusion confuses all 

The last was so strong to hold  
Hmm, it horrified the loins  
Them say e happen the way e happen 
And we were all thrown into mystification

Details | Godwin Ibrahim Poem

The Message

I saw the sun at mid night 
Up in the skies 
The clouds, stars and the moon
Dismayed 

They all gathered around 
In silence 
And in a bit of time 
There was melancholy 

Then the sun brightens and brightens and brightens 
The stars and the moon ran away
It brightens more 
And more and more 
And agony raged 

Then came a blast
The sun! 
Yes! The sun blasted 
All was thrown away 
And the earth shocked in fear 

And then in trembling 
I looked up to see
I saw the blasted sun 
Like a piece of cloud 
Walking towards the right
In colours of light 
Yes light!
Like those light of the Christmas tree 
Beautiful beautiful shining light
 
Suddenly the piece of cloud turned to hundred of shining lightening doves 
With the Christmas light on both wings
Which flown in their numbers to the earth 

They hover round and round and round 
Then settles upon the roof over my head 
Hmm!
I saw the their beauty 
An incomparable beauty 


Then those consumed by the soil 
I met all fit again 
I saw this and that and that
I saw the faithful who later became doves 
Hover a while and vanished away 

The message was quite received 
It was brief 
That not long from now 
The Son of Man will come