…from prison…

I wrote this poem one night, thinking about the light that illuminates the prison cell. You may never have been behind bars but you may have been imprisoned in the cell of isolation not solitude, desertion not retreat, anger not love, fear not confidence, despair not hope and servitude not service. Indeed, from prison have emerged some of the greatest characters in the world - Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka and Angela Davis. You can make great your prison experience and come out as a great character to illumine the world...

… are you stranded…

… looking for the way…

… out of the prison cell…

… out of the mountain of torture…

… I was once a prisoner…

… maybe, I’m still one

… perhaps, not as heroic as Mandela…

… maybe, not as infamous as Anini…

… but from the cell…

… I garnered bits and pieces…

… of information to better my life…

… knowledge, no other place was to better offer me…

… in the cell…

… the prison guard stripped me…

… leaving me naked…

… as he sprayed tear gas in my windowless cell…

… branded as a felon…

… I suffered brutalities…

… and more than the cell’s indignities…

… I suffered desertion from my loved ones…

… indeed…

… in the cell…

… I was in the lone…

… and needed someone as a backbone…

… only few…

… few persons remembered the great years of yore…

… those were my soulful friends…

… who knew the virtue that took me to jail…

… day by day…

… as I pass through one ordeal or the other…

… I needed no philosopher to tell me that…

… that there’s a spiritual reality in the universe…

… I needed no one to tell me…

… I saw the lines of truth…

… buried deep in layers of history…

… that spirits dwell in bodies…

… it was from the cell…

… that I grew tall in understanding…

… the art of living…

… and from the most-dreaded, I became the most esteemed…

When the World says No

When the world says no

And for all I know

I have a dream to live

A dream more than sheer belief

When the world gives me another dream

Like a running stream

I take another route

To create my dream’s layout

When the world says never

I say never will I say never

I will strive to be me

And not any he or she

When the world says die

I will live to fly

Even if with a stranger for a friend

I will walk and work until my end

When the world says no more

I open my heart’s poetic door

And cry out my soul’s news

In simple rhythms and blues

When the world says have no stance

I speak out my heart and dance

‘Cause I’m breaking away from conventions’ cage

Embracing the truth with no rage

When the world steps on my toes

I smile to confuse my foes

As I go on writing my lines

Abandoning my enemies’ beelines

When the world with its tweets

Hold a machete to my poetic feet

I keep jumping across in silence

Hibernating until I get a balance

When the world says I’m no good

I remain quiet like a dogwood

Only to later shout against falsehood

More than the blabbing in my childhood

When the world says no

I say yes in credo

Because I’m the only one who knows that part

That part of me that is called the heart

When the world presses hard

I retreat to my library where like the bard

I strengthen myself with books   

As I straighten out the hooks with books

O! When the world says I’m deceiving myself

I live to bequeath my bookshelf

And let posterity judge

Whether or not I live to be me

A Room of My Own: Cave Rules

A Room of My Own: Cave Rules: Borrowed from Tammara Webber and I am sharing it in an effort to remind myself how to write a book. I hope you get some bits and pieces of the writing adventure...

As a New Year Comes

As a new year comes
Look at tomorrow's stars
And forget yesterday's scars

As a new year comes
Look at the beautiful cloud
And embrace love's clout

As a new year comes
Look at nature's hibiscus
And always be focus

As a new year comes
Look at your room's wall
And never hinder your growing tall

As a new year comes
Look at the rate of death
And never forget the purpose of your birth

As a new year comes
Look at the mechanics of nature
And work ceaselessly for the future

As a new year comes
Look at your friend
And see a glimpse of yourself

As a new year comes
Look at a shining glass
And inspire a mass

As a new year comes
Look at the rarest

And wish for all the best

Singing, Blessing and Aiding

Life runs for only a time

Do the best you can to be in line

Doing maybe just a kind deed

Helping those in need

To live fully each day

Let your light freely shine along the way

Even as days roll and roll

You may heal a sinking soul

Lovingly stand

As you offer a helping hand

Lifting even but a traveller’s load

As you travel life’s rugged road

Let your life

Float as you hold a fife

Singing, blessing and aiding

The children, the young and even the ageing

Live Gently, Happ’ly with One Another

Can I liken life to eternity?

I ask you all this brightly calm morning

Even as things pass by like a sherry

Coming and going as we are ageing

I’m wondering as I look high above

Is this how someday we will all depart?

Yes, day by day, we will go like a dove

But life remains like a beautiful tart

We will fly and soar like the birds on high

Just like we will go, returning to earth

Today let us with gentle love not pry

But let us with great kindness like a firth

Live gently, happ’ly with one another

As we sightsee through life with no anger

FOCUS

Looking back at my yesterday can ne’er change my past

even my getting anxious can ne’er make me ever steadfast

as distractions and interruptions come and go

‘cause I need only pursue my goal like no bozo

Oh! Life is delightfully short and long

I need only embrace it faithfully as I travel along

often rising high and low like a rollercoaster

listening to my inner voice like a no scrounging cadger

Oh! It’s my own choice to make

and I needn’t delay it

lest I die of heartache before daybreak

achieving not my goal and at the end quit

Oh! I have a goal, I have a dream

though I often slip and fall on the trip

I have to always strive with eyes agleam

achieving my goal without a flip

It’s time to let things go

and to lovingly embrace my goal

following it like a maestro

achieving it with no loophole

IT'S A BRAND NEW DAY

A new day has broken

So the morning breeze whispered to me

And I can see our faces beautifully brazen

More than I can see in any alley

Oh! It’s a new day

And I’m seeing all things new

Shining beyond the sun’s ray

As we join the day’s crew brightly as blue

Oh! Pals in all locales

Jump down happily from your bed

And begin to sing melodies like chorales

In tunes never in history said

Oh! Forever keep smiling

It’s a terrifically nice day

Super and marvelously blooming

Clearing life’s bushy crossway

Are we not seeing it

It’s joy everywhere I see

Anybody there to admit

I can see reflections beyond the acme

Yes! I’m seeing it

And you are seeing it

We are all seeing it

We will forever continue to see it

It’s going to be an all-through wonderful day

I can hear us saying yes to that

As we walk gingerly like on a breezeway

Encouraging one another even with just a pat

It’s the newest day

And I know you are all happy

It’s not a mere hearsay

‘Cause I can see you not blowzy

Let’s keep on pals

And make the day not a doomsday

Let’s all have decals

And begin to shout hip hip hip hurrah

Oh! Kano of Blood and Bile

Series of blasts invaded us yesterday

Some of our lives were cast away

But we continue to bray

Before we end up never keeping them at bay

Like the lost of the famed groundnut pyramid

We were left insipid and crannied

But like a whizz-kid not wicked

We will not remain pallid and torpid

We’ll fight for our right

Even as things are not aright

And we are not alright

We will keep fighting until things are brightly right

Oh! Kano of walls and pottery

Embroidered with simple gaudery

We, you people, have been left weary and teary

In no lapidary quandary                  

We are truly in disarray

Dismayingly in dismay

As we run to lands so faraway

Leaving our land in decay

Like the Kofar Matar Dyeing pits

We are dying as the blast hits

Who are the culprits

Who have left us in the dark not lit

Peace and tolerance we pray

In our land full of clay

Lest we continue to slay

As each other we betray

Oh! To live in harmony we yearn

As crisis with one another we forever adjourn

Never again to each other fight and burn

But to live in unity, northern and southern