…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