Of God and “Hard questions that crack the teeth”: Five Nigerian Poets
Posted: April 7, 2012 Filed under: Abubakar Othman, English, Helon Habila, Nike Adesuyi, Sunday Ayewanu, Tony Kan Comments Off on Of God and “Hard questions that crack the teeth”: Five Nigerian Poets_____
Helon Habila
(for the unknown child)
.
They say souls of the dead
Sometimes turn into birds
*
In the still morning
Metal rings against stone and sand
*
The men in a semi-circle
Display minds in flux
There is no sadness here:
*
The morning offers only greenery
Rude petals distract the mind
With sudden beauty.
*
Petals that wither
Like a child’s body
Not having lived to sin
Not having sinned to die
*
Birds in bright feathers
Fan out behind bushes, fresh, like hidden fire
Roaring suddenly into flame
Into life, into maturity…..
*
They say the souls of the dead,
Small children, often persist as birds,
To strive further, not to return empty
To their maker.
*
Not having known sin and growth,
The doom, the antidote.
_____
Tony Kan
A Prayer for a Good Death
.
Dear Lord,
I offer this prayer for a good death
May I never fall from a Molue on a Monday morning
May I never know the hard feel of asphalt’s bite
On bare skin
May the road and its ogres never bare their fangs
when I tread the pathways
*
Secrets have sprouted tendrils
And like the spider’s feet they spin
A web of fear around my mind
I stutter, I flutter, I flutter like a candle
In the cold embrace of the wind
I find empty solace in silence
*
There in the cloying warmth of the womb
The unborn child suckles silence
Weaving toneless ditties
From the sad monodies of nascent dreams
*
Why are we born? Why do we die?
Hard questions that crack the teeth
Hard questions that eclipse answers
Drowning them in the penumbra of their beginnings
*
So I circle the pregnant gloom
I reach a febrile finger into its depths
I finger its rancid entrails
Exciting worms and maggots
I feel the osmosis, the kinesis
The end of life’s ultimate synthesis
*
So I offer this prayer, dear Lord,
On this morning of death and renewal
Having tasted joy and supped on tears
And having seen that man fall and die
I, who have known love and heartache
Sweet passion and its after-glow
I beg of thee, Sweet Lord,
May I not lose my head in the urgent dialogue of
tar and tyres.
_____
Sunday Ayewanu
God’s Voice
.
The servant was startled
To see his master at the door,
Staring at him
*
What! He thought aloud
I should be cleaning the rooms
And dusting the tables
I should be washing his clothes;
Those clothes, soiled
By the spoils of high society
I should…
*
The boy stopped his morning meditation
And put his bible aside
*
“where are your roots?”
The voice was calm,
Was clear enough
*
“The streets, my lord. You picked me from the streets
As I walked through the valley of the shadow of death”
The servant answered tremulously
*
The lord said nothing, but rather
Cast a cold glance at the bible
Beside the poor boy’s pillow
“Who then is your God?”
The servant fell on his knees
Raising his hands as if in supplication
Blurting
“You are my God; for you provide me shelter
And give me my daily bread”.
_____
Nike Adesuyi
The New Testament
.
I walk the coasts of Ibeju Lekki
White sands, a blue sea and a
Happy sun distil putrid visions
*
I run into the winds;
A kite buoyed on the wings of fun
*
I race the wind to an infinity of sands and shells
Until my feet are shocked by the magic of Mammon**:
Asphalt scarifies the polish of the sands like tribal marks
*
Beyond the billowing wrapper of the sea,
In places secret to the coastal eyes,
Principalities and powers are violating
Our maiden of mercies
*
In Ogoni** the fishes are fevered
From the typhoid of crude
Oil paints the sea black
And all the waters mourn.
.
** Mammon – wealth or greed as a deity
** Ogoni refers to Ogoniland in Nigeria,
where The Shell Oil Company vastly polluted the Niger River Delta.
Abubakar Othman
The Dual Call
.
Hayyal al salat, hayyal al salat
Hayyal al falah, hayyal al falah
*
Awake my soul
Hearken to this call
The first call of the five chores
When the dawn is falling down
Over the dull slumbering town
Awake my soul
*
Al salat hairun min al naum
Al salat hairun min al naum
*
But an incubus clad to my bosom
Weighs me down in the cozy embrace
Of another call
The intimate voice of her throbbing heart
Mixes with the distant voice of the minaret
In the sensuous ears of my soul
And I am lost in the dual call
*
Awake my soul
Awake from the cozy embrace of a siren
To the real call of the distant minaret
Awake my soul and say
*
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar
La ilaha illallah, Allahu akbar
_ _ _ _ _
Translation of the poet’s transliterated Arabic:
Hurry to prayer, hurry to prayer
Hurry to success – to salvation
*
Prayer is better than sleep
Prayer is better than sleep
*
God is most great, God is most great
There is no God but Allah, God is most great
_____
This compilation © Nigerian poet and editor Toyin Adewale
Zócalo Poets 