Out of the shadows
I’m coming out of the shadows
long has my face been hid
now I push aside the veil of doubts
reaching out,
I embrace the light of truth.
Risk is a normal part of life
failures too another norm
he who would in life succeed
must learn to put doubt and fear
in their place
far behind his eyes
that he may see his dream
and fight to make them real.
For ages fear held me in its grips
and terrified that I should fail
I sought solace in the abyss of despair
too scared to take a risk
now that truth has shed its light on me
i have courage found
to take a step and dare to hope
that my dreams are within my grasp.
Though doubts and fears lurk still
in some corners of my mind
if the shadows will be no more
I must be strong and move ahead
a step at a time the way to go
then I am certain to attain
that which I now clearly see
right before my eyes.
© 2009 Tomi Akinyanmi
When will the sun rise
The sun has set
And darkness covers the land
With it, all the elements of the night reign
The moon, beautiful in its radiance,
Shines but a feeble light which makes no impression
On the night’s thick armor of darkness
I hear the lonely wolf’s dismal howl in the distant mist
Lost hounds bark hopelessly in search of a way home
And I begin to see how much like the night- life the human life is
I hear the lonely child weeping silently as it searches for a friend
I see travelers become wanderers in the woods of life
I feel the pain of hearts broken in separation as lovers get lost in the dark
And I ask myself how long we will survive in this unrepentant darkness
I fall on my knees and
‘Oh God’, I pray, ‘comfort us in this present darkness ‘
But deep in me I ask the lord
How much longer shall we wait
For the Sun to rise again.
© 2000 Adekunle Adejuyigbe
A change
When I started this blog, I meant for it to be a poetry blog but I am now convinced that it should be more. So I’vte decided that from here on out, it would be a literary blog . I will feature not only poetry but different topics related to writing and the literary world. Posts would include poetry as well as tips on being a successful writer and author and hopefully, book reviews.
The Transformation
Ring the bells
Let the people gather
This moment the unbelievable has occurred
The ice maiden
Aye the very ice maiden
Of many our young men’s dreams
Has at last been thawed
It’s not by the heat of the sun
Nor was she set on the boil
It took but a mere arrow
Shot from cupid’s tiny bow
Now her once frozen eyes
Light like the stars
The icicles that were her limbs
are forever gone
Wait on the balustrades
Watch her walk with her lover on the street
Behold for yourself the power of love
It’s made a woman of an ageless stone.
© 2000 Ibitomilade Adejuyigbe (aka Tomi Akinyanmi).
The Minstrel
I come from a family of poets so you can be sure you’ll get to read a lot of poetry from my siblings on this site. However eventhough we are a family of very cool poets, this site would have poems from my friends and poems submitted by readers as well. My promises are to bring the coolest contemporary closet poets and poems out of the shadows as well as to convience the world that poetry is fun. For now, here is a poem by my brother entitled the Minstrel. I think it is perfect for the first post on this blog.
The Minstrel
In a land far away
In a time long gone
There it happened
Listen to my tale
I am a minstrel
The son of a minstrel and
Rumor has it
That my great grandfather was one
I sing then
Of tall trees in the forest
Of birds singing
Of water bubbling in the brook
So I sing then
Of a man in love
With his lady and
His music
And I sing
Of a town with few people
And fewer good people
Of a tragedy waiting to ‘appen
Of the man making the wrong choice
And his lady going to another man
Too late he realized
His music was not all
Of the burning of the village
By one so selfish
A world of luxury
Was all he wanted
Alas the poor village
Could not satisfy him
So men, women and their property
Fell to a man’s lust
Still I must sing
For the selfish man and the broken man met
The selfish for the opportunity
The broken for the consolation
To the city they went
The selfish to make money
From the music of a broken man
So broken he didn’t know nor care
Their first performance was a huge success
And the selfish man was already seeing
The wine and the women
Alas it was not to be
For the broken man
In his music heard
His own tale being told
And whatever had till then supported him
Was shattered to nothingness
No food he would eat
No water he’d drink
For as he often said
He had nothing else to live for
His friend begged him to no avail
For so soon his dream was fading away
Of wine and women
The man was dying of a broken heart
To no avail I said
For one day his friend woke up and
The man was dead
Of a poor choice and a miserable heart
I wish I had the words
To describe his pain
Or to make you feel for him
But I don’t
Listen then to my story
The son of a minstrel
The options are many
Choose right
The options are many
The paths we tread varied
Each step is a choice
To go or to turn back
Your steps go different ways
For each one of us there is a path that is right
A purpose to be fulfilled
Still I’ll say it again
Choose right
In a land far away
In a time long gone
There it happened
Listen and learn
From my sorry tale
© Adedotun Adejuyigbe (2000)
Introduction
Well, welcome to minstrel where I discuss contemporary poetry. Poetry is not bland, poetry is not dull and it is certainly not boring.
A lot of people have a misconception about poetry but I personally believe that such people have not come across the right kind of poems. Perhaps if they were to be told that a lot of the music they hear started as verses of poetry they might start to reconsider thier views on poetry.
Anyways here’s what I hope to achieve on this blog: Bring different kinds of poetry to my readers in the hope that they would come across a poem that would mean something to them such that they would start to pay attention to poetry.
So if you have a wonderful poem to share, send it to takinyanmi@gmail.com. I must however say that not every poem I recieve will be posted. I reserve the right to choose what I believe would be right for my purpose and my audience. Your comments are always welcome of course.
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