Writing Prompt 3
Need a story starter? Here is an easy way to get one – go out. At the mall, or even in the grocery stores, sometimes at the gym but most probably everywhere you go; you are most likely to overhear somebody else’s conversation even without making a deliberate attempt at it. Write down whatever you hear today even if it doesn’t make sense. When you get back home, think about it as something your main character would say and create a story about why he/she said it.
Mental Pabulum 3
Saving pennies doesn’t make you rich but it gets you on your way.
Writing Prompt 2
Pick up a newspaper or magazine, open to any page. Pick a headline. Randomly open to different pages and pick 3 – 5 random sentences. Using the sentences as the beginning of your paragraphs, write an article for your chosen headline.
Writing Prompt 1
I find that using writing prompts can sometimes help resolve a writer’s block. So here’s one to give you a push if you need one today.
Pick a favorite song (contemporary or not) just regular song from any genre or even one from a hymn book and write another verse to it.
Thinking of Michael Jackson
The recent death of Michael Jackson reminded me of this poem I wrote a few years ago titled If I should die (see below). When I dug the poem out and read it, I could see why it had come to my mind
Michael has indeed accomplished his life’s work and left his and ideas as legacy not just for those alive today but for generations of people who are yet unborn. We need not weep for Michael but celebrate his life for this is one man who went empty - to the grave giving to life all he had to give.
So here’s to Michael who had given so much to our world – Rest in Peace and thanks for not being selfish. Thank you for giving all you had to make the world a better place.
If I should die
If I should die this day
Roll out the drums and celebrate
Let no eye be moist
Let no tear drop
For when I die
My life’s work is done
Many came in the world before me
Others came when I did
Lots have come after me
And many more are yet to come
Millions have died unfulfilled
Pregnant with ideas
They were laid to rest
Life and purpose dead and gone
Buried under cold stone slabs
This prayer did pass across my lips
Lord let this not be my lot
Give me the strength to run my course
And A sense of purpose
For focus each day
God faithful as He is
Promised me grace to run the race
Thus if this be the day I die
Weep not for me I say
For when I die
I go empty to the grave
Every one of my dreams fulfilled
My mission fully accomplished
My vision and ideas as legacy I leave
For those who are yet to be
© 2001 Ibitomilade Adejuyigbe (aka Tomi Akinyanmi).
Mental Pabulum July 18, 2009
You can never change a person, you only change their thoughts and you don’t really change their thoughts you merely subdue one for another which means the subdued thought can resurface at any time.
Mental Pabulum
I’m adding a new category of posts called mental pabulum which in everyday English means – food for thought. Watch out for the weekly posts and leave your comments.
Here is the Mental Pabulum for this week:
People who are envious of you will always try to put you down. They never recognize your successes instead they magnify your weaknesses. They would never let you forget your failures. The reason for their behavior is this: the only way they get to feel better about themselves and move past their own failures is either by putting by on the same level as themselves or by putting you beneath them. What you need to do, is to flee from the company of such people otherwise you’ll only end up seeing yourself as a failure all the time. Pause and think on this.
Tell Father I cried
I cried for the loss of a father
For the loss of innocence
I cried for being made to grow up in an instant
For being told not to cry
I cried because I knew
It would never be the same
I cried for the loss of counsel
That only a father could give
I cried for children like me
Whose silent tears were never heard
For being made a shoulder
Whence indeed, I needed a shoulder
I cried for the burden of a mother
So young and timid
Her silence so loud, I could hear it speak
Agonies of her heart, no one would know
I cried for him
Death came too quickly
I cried for my tomorrow
With no father in it
I cried for the songs in the night
That only I could hear
I cried with all my might
Perhaps I might bear
The loss of a father
© 2008 Aderinola Onokpasa
Jungle Justice
Ingrate’s men are wailed the tree
I give to him the air he breathes
I shelter him in the storm
Yet grateful to me he wouldn’t be
He cuts me up and drains my blood
My limbs he uses for his fire
Ah such agony he gives to me
For to my children he does the same
You think that agony says the sea
I give to him the clouds he needs
I bear him unto distant lands
Yet with dyes he poisons me
And perhaps you haven’t heard
How he from the cradles my children snatches up
A murderer him I would call
How he loves you both says the sky
I shelter him from the sun
Dangerous gases I keep away
Yet my face he does not want to see
Thus with smoke and gases he chokes me up
And all because he has the power
An oppressor that’s what he is
Shut you all up says the land
What of I who hold you all in place
I give to man a stepping stone
But what does he give in return
Large holes he digs into me
And my innards he exploits
My liver he uses for a chain
My spleen for his earrings use
My heart uses he for his fuel
And now I hear you all cry out
What more agony could be
Greater than this
Aye all you call man that he is and more
A destroyer that’s my name for him
What do we they all cried out?
For we can see he respects us not
I will began the land
Refuse the holes in me to refill
“And I will……” he also says
Under the sea hide my face
Then…. said the sea with glee
I will flood all his lands
His poisons I also will
Give back to him for his drink
Then the sky says to them
I will roll up my skirts right away
And let the wicked gases have their way
As for me says the tree
I will no children bear again
One day none of me he will find
To build his fire then he’ll die from cold
How then they clapped and rejoiced
A way out…… they all had found
To deliver justice unto man
© 1999 Ibitomilade Adejuyigbe (aka Tomi Akinyanmi).
Will you be there
Sometimes I feel all alone in a world so cold
Sometimes I’m afraid to face tomorrow
Sometimes the Sun refuses to shine on me
Sometimes the world turns it’s back on me
Sometimes I look for shelter from the storm but I find none
Sometimes friends become fiends
Sometimes pain makes my whole day
Sometimes I feel lost in a world so small
Sometimes I ask myself if God is not but a name
Sometimes I feel roads lead nowhere
Sometimes I search for love but I find none
Sometimes I feel the world is not a place to be
Sometimes I search in vain for a shoulder to lean on
Sometimes feel I just can’t go on
In times like these will you be there for me?
© 2000 Adekunle Adejuyigbe
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