AWAKE
The light has won its fight against the dark,
The moon and stars are not smiling,
They whispered to themselves saying;
Will the dark ever come again?
Can we ever behold that moment,
That moment when humans stared at us smiling and singing songs of wishes,
Will that dark moment ever come again?
Behold the white cloud,
Behold the morning dews,
Behold the risen sun
Driving us to new dawn,
A dawn with no silent,
No nightmare or fear,
Indeed, a dawn to behold.
A dawn to embrace the pen,
Penning defaulters to justice,
Defaulters of the rule of law.
So wrestle your weakness,
Awake from your nightmares
And walk to your dreams,
Dreams of changing the world
in one short of an eyelid.
Awake men of clear sight,
I say; wrestle your weakness,
Awake from your dreams
And walk to realities.
Be awaken all you consumers of night,
Traitors bought by the calm breeze of night.
Awake all you who prefer slumber,
Than to be awaken to face your fear.
Awake them who need to be awaken
And let those who prefer slumber sleep till the morning dews turns into ocean,
The sun, rise and fall fencing their sight with blur vision.
Awake!, Posses your pen and paper;
For in your slumber, inks are frozen,
In your slumber, the pen whoop,
In your slumber, blank pages bleed blood,
In your slumber, those with the sword rule the world of words.
Awake poetic prophets of pen and voice,
Be awaken cause true poets don’t grow cobwebs in the realm of empty sleep.
Awake! Awake!,
Let’s together write these men of sword and rule our world of pen,
Cause the pen is beautiful than the sword.
©2021
METAPHOR
Little do i know about
the beauty that engulfed my birth,
but I am thankful for the things
we have, for the things we never had
but will soon be enough.
Thankful for the sonnet of wisdom
in the holy scripture that kept us moving.
Thankful for the age of sensibility
when emphasis was laid on emotion and pathos, though, there were lot of boorish attitude.
Thankful, for the true love that does
not thrive on material heritage.
Thankful, for the joy of mother and siblings.
I am thankful for the peace that was not bought with shackles of silver or Gold.
Thankful, for the appearance and reality of subsequent development,
that was a masterpiece of dramatic irony.
I am thankful for finishing a race of three-hundred and sixty five days again.
Crystal E Poet
ARIKANKI VILLAGE (Sound of silence)
The birth of a new moon
twinkled to me like a tiny little creature
That overslept valuable memories
Today, daylight is bidding the darkness farewell
And i thought the sun has barely graced the skies.
Life in reality is indeed a race
Perhaps, for those who run it with wisdom
And for the fools, it was the sound of silence,
That keep calling them at one side
And chanting of Noise from another
Should i say, they were far away?
But i was told that, not
Every moon belongs to the sky
Or should i say the sky was
Painted in indigo and the moon
Could not walk in it?
Well, i pray
Mother of nature, Please!
Beckon to me with whistle of hope
Arikanki village needs spring for the future
Ilu Awon Akoni need more hands to norture
The generation to come.
Please, mother
Do not allow the fools’ sound of snore
To drowse the crowing of the cock at dawn.
Give us the grace to paddle this canoe
In the right direction.
Echoes of Trouble
( A Duet)
As the morning breeze
Smiled gently at me
And the sun began sheding blood
I walked aimlessly on the oceans
The pain from the howling water
Overwhelmed my competence
Over the mountains, I heard a loud shout
I quickly left the troubled water
And shouted Mama! Mama!!
Proud mother of the coming age
What was the mountain saying?
I approached it with a fast track
Disappointment shattered my hopes
It was nothing but a song of dirge
The mountains mourned for murdered conscience
The moon has burst into tears
Our lent vigils are not as solemn as the goldsmith’s silent a conscience
I kept climbing, ignoring the noise
I wished I hadn’t climbed
As fire like candles burn through my marrows
My shackles was tied to the waves
My tongues bleed with flames
I cannot withheld the rain pouring out from my eyes
The oceans isn’t safe
The mountains were troubles
I wonder if the overseer sees this
I doubt if he truly exist
Now, earth has stopped breathing?
As the given report from the shadow that has passed earlier
With a dilly foreshadow.
©2020
Birth, Growth & Month
When I can read my title clear
To mansion in the skies
I will bid farewell to every fear
Even when i asked death for a favour
It gave me a favourite kiss
That brings my dreams alive
Wiping away my weeping eyes
And cares like a wild deluge come
Showing me how human beings
Can be easily read from the heart
In tenderness, he sought me
And washed the bleeding sin wounds
He poured in oil and wine
And whispered to assure me
Back in his fold again
What a wondrous grace
That brought me to the fold?
I’m sitting in his presence
While with adoring wonders
His blessings bathe me
How do i count the stars in the sky?
How do i capture the wind in the atmosphere?
Spare me the gist of abstract
I know I am a product of grace
Sweeping through the streets
Of Jerusalem.
The short comings facing Our culture & Bride price
Bride price or bride token , is money, property, or other form of wealth paid
by a groom or his family to the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride price can be compared to dowry , which is paid to the groom, or used by the bride to help establish the new household, and dower , which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. Some cultures may practice both dowry and bride price simultaneously. Many cultures practiced bride pricing prior to existing records.
However, it’s of no doubt that in parts of Nigerian society , a traditional marriage ceremony depends on payment of a bride price to be valid. Infact, in some societies, marriage is delayed until all payments are made. If the wedding occurs before all payments are made, the status is left ambiguous. The bride price tradition can have destructive effects when young men don’t have the means to marry. Despite the goods that comes with our traditions and the bride price, there are still lot of shortcoming overwhelming it.
We painfully lost a friend to suicide because someone else married the girl he wanted to marry due to the fact that he was unable to afford the bride price they gave him. In my own opinion, I think something need to be done on this bride price issue. We have to revisit this bride price thing.
There’re some tribes in Nigeria that their bride price is so lengthy that it will even take you 6 hours to finish reading them and some tribes own are longer than punch news paper.
Why is it so?
I’m not here to contrasts tribes and their bribe price list but can’t those tribes revisit all those list? That why many girls are not married Untill they are 30 plus.
Yes! We know how difficult Nigeria is today. Someone will graduate from the university with good grade, after spending 6years for a 4years course, Infact, some even spent 7years including their NYSC serving year then he will start roaming about the street looking for a job. A times four years down the line, he hasn’t gotten any, so he will decide to take whatever is available.
Trust me many graduates are drivers, okada raiders even clerners, that is pathetic. So this people start from whatever is available so that they won’t result into crime and hoping that something good will pop up along the way.
However, with this my calculation, if that person was 25years when he graduated then he/she will be 30 by now. There was a guy who is dating a lady, they love themselves so much and they felt they should start a life together and build a brighter future.
Oops…. Our father would say “Two heads are better than one” and the scripture would say ” He who finds a wife, finds a good thing”.
You see, maybe their union is the beginning of their blessing, then he approached the family of the lady and asked for her hand in marriage and the parents brought out eight sheats of papers as the list of the bride price. I tell my self, who knows maybe that’s the salary of the guy in the next 8years. Won’t the guy pay bills, rent, transportation, accommodation and even micellanous. How do this young man marry this girl?
Well, we know people have various reasons for not marrying these day but after conducted a random interview in a community where am currently serving, I find out that this bride price issue is the majoy cause.
Its time the leaders of different tribes seat together and revisist, consider the situation of the days we’re now and rearrange the bride price to suit our economy today.
Further, I know well that when our fathers sat down to put this things in place then, Nigerians we’re mostly farmers. There were so much fertile land then. So when you save hundred tubers of yam then, so when go save 6 golds, 20 gallons of palm oil a d so on, the people can easily meet up the expectations. Getting those things are nothing to them. I pray the elders will buy this idea because I know fully well that the elders has their own share in the bride price.
Oops.. That’s why some men treat their wife anyhow, after they have paid exhubitan money and countless materials as bride price.
Lolz… Sometimes the father-in-law will say “Do you know the amount I spent on her throughout her school year?” I laugh when I hear that. Does the groom not trained by his parent to? Was it only the bride that was trained? Funny people.
Finally, this same parents, when they are getting old, its this same husband and wife that will be sending them money and they will collect it. That same man you collected heaven and earth from.
Its time will reach the level ground, if it cant be entirely changed. You as a father, when a guy came to ask for your daughter hand in marriage, call your daughter and ask her question too. Would the family of the man able to afford the bride price?if they can’t but have a good family background and your daughther confirm the guy is hardworkimg, then look for a way to get the level they can afford and help them out.
Please! The economy of today isn’t like that of old, Nigetian population today is billion then gradutes were like hot- cakes. when you graduate and job is waiting for you, even some job comes with house and cars. Elders revisit our bride price.
Crystal E Poet
©2020
Of Moon & Glory
She came in all her glory
Pouring her light over me
As faint lies of yellow light
Spackle across the virgin land
Throwing a silver glimmer
On the rolling desert before me
Her map showed in the middle
Of the desert made me thirsty
The tight was like a sun dried meat
That changes the golden bars
And down crept
At last, the eastern sky
Became faintly red like
The cheeks of a girl
Then I laid down and
Soon sunk in deep sleep
With my snoring spirit
Paying tribute to the gods.
Crystal E Poet
©2019
HOLY WATER
In our Synagogue furnished with mullion & gable
Quest of a fugitive love eroded Gullible sheep’s
As holy water(Salvation) ran mournfully murmuring by,
I wept in its waters for sympathy
Gullible Sheep searched for an eddy that suited the deed
Altar fornicated for a parcel of cowries
And posed in pretext fashion of beguile
Innocent souls of the wimps
They gazed on crowd with panniers & paints
And ensnared their psyche in vile wile
Integrity touted on the name of holy water
Penitents’ dresses are now seal-skin
As odour of Sanctity’s robbed in sable
Not a jest or humorous story
Will I ever tell before you, gullible Sheep
To be chidden for explaining,
When you quite mistake the meaning.
But the the centre is an alter of judgment
Where we’ll account for our deeds.
Crystal E Poet
©2019
An icon of African Culture(Wole Soyinka)
When the sun from the North,East,West,South
Accompanying by the evening breeze depart
And the world was taken by moon
When the tired flowers of ijegba is in gloom
Beneath the melting snow of OLUMO ROCK
.
*
A green light embrace the stream with joy
Happiness, gladness and kindness awaiting
the giant to pop out
The atmosphere was filled with great cosmic relief
The air now a painter tale told in subtle abstraction
Man of war, Ijegba, elegba (Okunrin Ogun, the Ijegba man.
*
Ambassador of Ogun Inire (Ogun, God of Iron)
The mystical meaning of the giant was unknown
Until the lazy night bow for the morning breeze
And it a new day, a new month, a new year
The lazy night is wrapped in myth
The passage of moment that will never return
*
The endowed host could no longer bear
The force of fission held within her care
And multiple fissions started to blast.
The uncontrolled sum of the reactions compaction.
Finally overcame their gravitational attraction.
And then burst forth in a great cosmic cry.
And gave birth to the new GIANT
*
And we all ran helter shelter celebrating the birth of the giant WOLE SOYINKA
Children chanting WOLE SOYINKA
Elders dancing WOLE SOYINKA.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mentor (WOLE SOYINKA)
Crystal E Poet
©2019
Crystal Poet Arena 