Witch Hunt by R Bennett Okerstrom Defeating the evil that takes away life is more difficult than it seems. [165 words]
Sanguinary by R Bennett Okerstrom The blood continues to flow in this experimental preface followed by poetry. [128 words]
Influence by R Bennett Okerstrom How influential can a demon of the night be? [218 words]
Attempted Suicide by Rowan Davies NB: Don't read this if you're suicidal. In fact you probably shouldn't read it if you're a fa... [143 words]
The War: What Next? by Musaum War! [37 words]
Rising Angel by Stuart Eric Longridge Its not a being its a consciousness/materialism. [114 words]
The Airforce Of Nature by August Nyghts - [151 words]
Night Life by August Nyghts - [176 words]
My Birds In Paradise by August Nyghts - [45 words]
In The Morning by August Nyghts - [81 words]
He Says by August Nyghts - [118 words]
And Then by August Nyghts - [86 words]
No One by August Nyghts Been single for awhile [157 words]
Afraid Of Buildings by Peter Rivendell Written one unhappy morning, but I got a poem out of it... [132 words]
Lagos by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A poem about lagos, the commercial nerve centre and former capital of Nigeria. [158 words]
Sarcophagus by Peter Rivendell Grief and betrayal in a bleak landscape. [204 words]
Heaven Is Hell's Fire by Jeffrey (George) Winter - [108 words]
Tease by Tessa I was recently told that I'm a tease- I guess I kind of am because I've stayed single and abstinent for o... [216 words]
Your Own Shadow by David B Doc Byron A poem about Vampires, man! [79 words]
Waterfalls by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A poem about life. [134 words]
Waste by Tessa Saw a picture and got mad again. Hate having him in my thoughts, so, I tried to write him out. Shall I re... [20 words]
Transient Love by M I Chulkova - [103 words]
They Called Them Black by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi - [115 words]
The Year's 1st Rain by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii The title explains the theme of the work. Ara- in line 8, is a Yoruba (South-Western Nigeri... [74 words]
The Harmattan by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii This is about the harsh weather conditions endured by Nigerians and some other Africans during th... [60 words]
The Creator by The Birdman Things in life can be interpreted either good or bad, determining this can only be excepted by you. [79 words]
The Chimera by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii This poem is about the rejection the writer suffered from a girl who was his dream. [73 words]
The Book by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii The last line of the poem summarizes its theme. [61 words]
Stolen Kiss by Tessa Thinking about this and reliving a nice, stolen moment... [214 words]
Steam Heat by Judith Goff A little something to warm a winter's day? [20 words]
St Valentine's Curse by Rowan Davies Love is weird. [144 words]
Soaked In Deja-Vu by Stuart Eric Longridge I was just wondering. [130 words]
Skins by David B Doc Byron - [105 words]
Secret Place 2 by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii This is a cry of desire of God’s transforming presence, which is encountered through earnest pra... [83 words]
Samarkand.... The Market I Searched For by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi Dedicated to nigerian nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. A meditation on his ... [413 words]
Sacrificial Lamb by Judith Goff - [94 words]
Reverie by Judith Goff - [100 words]
Psychedelic Travels by Ryon Smith A journey thru the mind of a man with endless visions and inspiring quests... [91 words]
Propaganda Bait by Stuart Eric Longridge The great media movie, we are all finally famous. Yee-ha. [170 words]
Predator by Judith Goff - [84 words]
People's Voices by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi - [40 words]
Oh What A Dream! by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii Using the archetype of furniture making as style, the writer writes a book in this dream. He w... [120 words]
Of Love And Of Thy Compassion... by Reagan Rothe The story of a past relationship I had best desribed in this poetic masterpiec... [94 words]
Mezmerized by Judith Goff Oh, the lure of the darkness. [165 words]
Lily The Dog by August Nyghts My roommate's dog. [152 words]
In The Eventide by Judith Goff - [100 words]
In Honor Of Columbia by Amy Poet This is a poem I wrote in honor of the Columbia Astronauts. [138 words]
Illumination by Tessa Hmmm... Salvation was already taken... Ah, well... [119 words]
Her Wares Wither by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A haiku. [8 words]
God's Nature by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii This poem is a mirror of God’s relationship with the author. [85 words]
Furious by Tessa Still so angry at an ex-boyfriend that turned psycho stalker on me. He put me through hell, caused me t... [151 words]
Epilogue by Judith Goff - [35 words]
End Time Rhyme by Stuart Eric Longridge - [81 words]
devil In Us by Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin Ii This explains that God is an expert in removing the evil (here dubbed: ‘dEVIL’) or the devil (which... [51 words]
Daddy Ain't No Man No More by Rowan Davies Figure it out. [99 words]
Come What May by Stuart Eric Longridge Easy life. [239 words]
Cabin Fever by August Nyghts A thought that came and went. [23 words]
Bang!Bang!Bang! by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A meditation on the bomb blasts in Nigeria in jan 2002 and feb 2003 [78 words]
Auba 'varcity by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A pantoum. [139 words]
Africa My Africa by Toris Okotie History has taught us it's lessons, but the pain of those slaves still leaves a mark on us. [122 words]
A Prayer To Gaia by Stuart Eric Longridge We have a lot of explaining to do. [107 words]
Dance Floor Snap Shot by August Nyghts changed the title - sounds better i think [54 words]
I'm A Pharmacist,Not A Poet by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi - [78 words]
Why Me by Mine Able Being loved. [96 words]
Why I Got High, Ran Away, And Just Generally Screwed Myself Up by Pearl S A thought that popped into my head today. I thin... [34 words]
Unending Rain by Peter Rivendell Crime doesn`t pay. [76 words]
Twenty Children Can't Play For Twenty Years by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi The title says it all. [95 words]
Transformation by Judith Goff I know, I know, vampires again.... [152 words]
Traces Of You by Judith Goff - [99 words]
They Set Us Free, A Collection
The Real World by Stuart Eric Longridge I wrote this for my dad,whose last older relative passed on. [80 words]
The Great Pyramid Decoded A Bit.The Principal Facination Part 2 by Stuart Eric Longridge Just trying to show that the ancients had techn... [400 words]
Thats Entertainment by Stuart Eric Longridge - [105 words]
Storymania by R Bennett Okerstrom What is Storymania? [97 words]
Soul Of A Dove by Judith Goff - [73 words]
Sequence by Peter Rivendell Playing and losing a game with fate. [202 words]
Saddam Hussein by R Bennett Okerstrom I was bored. Therefore I write. [39 words]
Prayer by Tessa Trying to save myself... [195 words]
Player by Judith Goff When the player tires of the game.... [57 words]
Pissed by August Nyghts - [112 words]
Pierrot by Peter Rivendell A love letter, after a fashion. [196 words]
Pic Ka Beat by August Nyghts An oldie. [156 words]
Phone Poem by Desmond Swords A snapshot style poem about identity. [254 words]
Pause by Sylvia Browne Columbia. [138 words]
Our Relatives Are Familiar Strangers by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A poem about modern day slavery. [90 words]
My 4th Grade Valentine by August Nyghts - [71 words]
Lord Of The Rings by Stuart Eric Longridge Where it ends it has begun. [72 words]
Listen To The Wall Geckos Singing From A Balcony by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi Tale of a divorcee. [90 words]
Know Your God by Stuart Eric Longridge Materialism / luciferianism. [125 words]
I Can't Be Mad by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A poem about a mentally imbalanced guy. [139 words]
Honeybloom by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi It's about the kid no one prays to have. [96 words]
Hoes And Bitches by August Nyghts Dedicated to all the pimps, creeps and wanna be playas. [237 words]
Heaven Bound by Judith Goff As did Sylvia, I felt the need to express my feelings on this day of national tragedy, and as she ... [124 words]
Haunted by Tessa And still he whispers... as I try to hang on. Temptation... can sometimes get the best of you... but I'... [118 words]
Guitar by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A haiku. [8 words]
Gele by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A haiku [8 words]
Death Lives Nearby by Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi A haiku. [8 words]
Dear Mother by August Nyghts For my mother, I wish I had better things to say. [85 words]
Dear Mister Keys, by August Nyghts My first Epistle Poem. [239 words]
Celtic Warriors by Stuart Eric Longridge The mess in N.Ireland. [99 words]
Catch Me If You Can by David B Doc Byron Jack The Ripper, one of the infamous serial killers in history, leaves a calling card. [404 words]
Bob The Banana's Magical Acid Ride by Drew Schroder Bob takes a magical ride.... [93 words]
A Tragedy Of Love by Parker Short little poem. Please review, thanks. [111 words]
Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 [137] 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163
| |
TITLE (EDIT)
They Set Us Free, A Collection |
DESCRIPTION
A collection of poems:
1) they set us free
this is a poem about freedom from racial oppression
2) motherly love
this is a poem about mothers’ love
3) good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere
this poem talks about college prostitution
4) AIDS
this poem talks about the killer virus
5) i am the last man standing
this poem talks about standing for righteousness against the tide
6) temptation
this poem talks about breaking free from temptations
7) my town don’t get no santa lazybones
this poem talks about the difference between two towns
8) the man and the sea
this poem talks about mental illness
9) lamentation
this poem is dedicated to the poet frank Stanford who died in 1978.His gothic style influenced this poem
10) when two grasses fight
this poem refutes a popular belief
[1,214 words] |
AUTHOR
Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi |
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
-
[September 2003] |
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL ADDRESS
to4ogunlesi@yahoo.com |
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (23)
A Bridge Passing Under Many Waters (Poetry) - [43 words]
Auba 'varcity (Poetry) A pantoum. [139 words]
Bang!Bang!Bang! (Poetry) A meditation on the bomb blasts in Nigeria in jan 2002 and feb 2003 [78 words]
Death Lives Nearby (Poetry) A haiku. [8 words]
Fission (Poetry) - [61 words]
Gele (Poetry) A haiku [8 words]
Guitar (Poetry) A haiku. [8 words]
Her Wares Wither (Poetry) A haiku. [8 words]
Honeybloom (Poetry) It's about the kid no one prays to have. [96 words]
I Can't Be Mad (Poetry) A poem about a mentally imbalanced guy. [139 words]
I'm A Pharmacist,Not A Poet (Poetry) - [78 words]
Just Tuesday (Poetry) - [69 words]
Lagos (Poetry) A poem about lagos, the commercial nerve centre and former capital of Nigeria. [158 words]
Listen To The Wall Geckos Singing From A Balcony (Poetry) Tale of a divorcee. [90 words]
Our Relatives Are Familiar Strangers (Poetry) A poem about modern day slavery. [90 words]
People's Voices (Poetry) - [40 words]
Samarkand.... The Market I Searched For (Poetry) Dedicated to nigerian nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. A meditation on his poem "Samarkand, and other markets I have known". [413 words]
The Miseducation Of Nigeria's Future (Essays) An essay about the pitiable state of education in Nigeria. [1,077 words]
They Called Them Black (Poetry) - [115 words]
Twenty Children Can't Play For Twenty Years (Poetry) The title says it all. [95 words]
Waiting And Waiting (Poetry) - [63 words]
Waterfalls (Poetry) A poem about life. [134 words]
You Deserved It All (Poetry) A poem about anger. [143 words]
|
They Set Us Free, A Collection
Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi
THEY SET US FREE
You n me know why
The caged bird still sings, ’cos
It is a crow. black absorbs all
The heat of hate
Black absorbs all. even our wings got Energy, raw
Like coal so we can fly when buses scream:
Only cattle egrets allowed. no room for your wings
Is what they mean. our wings spread into Iroko branches
We watch wingless warders from outside
Prison walls. Angel Rosa set us free to soar
Above buses mired under the weight of bullets
Labeled with their dreams for us.
We have learnt to dream for ourselves, n weave
Our own bullets from Angel King’s dreams
MOTHERLY LOVE
we three queens
of orient are
clothed in loin
but our hearts
are naked
as our feet
browned by the sun
wading
through brown paint
someone spilt
on the sky
n our huts
in search
of our children,dissolved
as brown sugar
we will sieve them
bowl by bowl
till each bowl holds
pure child
gurgling
ma mi ma mi.
GOOD GIRLS GO TO HEAVEN, BAD GIRLS GO EVERYWHERE
Friday nights
Are when we relive
Fairy tales
>From an innocent age
We don need no charming
Princes, goblins and golliwogs eligible
So long as the broomsticks we’ll ride
To town are charming enough
We float to kokodome n cotton in convoys
Don’t have to be home by twelve
Seize our only chance to getaway
>From the small boys who bore us
All week long with baby talk n
Crumb lined pockets
We flip the pages past
Lecture notes n dry weekdays
Poverty rations from home n restraint
To Friday nights where stories happen
In full color n we live
Happily ever after
Till next Friday night
AIDS
Every trip to the neighbourhood
Barber is a death for me n
Every visit to the clinic
I watch syringes dangle
Above my head etching circles
Of death telling me I may be looking
At my clean blood for the last time
Why wasn’t I born
In the eighteenth century
When plagues wiped people
Out in the twinkling of an eye
This God-forsaken one kills
In slow motion, laughing
At heaps of tablets you swallow
>From shrunk fingers
Stamps your soul with an expiry
Date faint enough for you
Not to decipher, then you both
Watch you waste
My list of taboos is growing
No hugs n kisses, no
Handshakes n sharing seats
With strangers, no falling
In love except I see your
Blood test, no going to parties
Without my own cutlery
No haircuts I prefer afro n
For once I think Jehovah’s Witnesses
May just be right.
I AM THE LAST MAN STANDING
At the last stop
On the outskirts of Sodom
Waiting for my decision
Like a late bus, to arrive
Everyone else left long ago
Clambered aboard the 1:45
They all left me, she too
The cankerworm I married
They seek the fortunes
Buried within the famed tunnels
Of king Sodomon’s mines
So I continue our journey, alone
I think my mind is made up
To break free from the herd instincts that tug
Before the Negro fingers of night
Catch up with me
Already I feel the strangling
Breath of their closeness, in this place
Where 21 inch reflections of the lake
Of fire crowd the night sky in ghastly motif
Where foxes spoil vines and souls
Fire flaming on their tails
Bearing ashen tales
>From the first Sodom
Where camouflaged sidewinders
Offer a no-win choice
Between forbidden fruit in endless variety
And generous doses of scalding fangs
I hurry to leave, catch up
With an itinerant star, the one we knit
>From discarded wrapping paper and nativity tales
One cold December night long ago
It beckons
To the narrow path that winds
Through needles’ eyes, emerges
In the Light, the Kingdom
Within us
TEMPTATION
Voices trail me
Like a schizophrenic
Even into the comfort of dreams
Sowing surreal solomon’s songs soaked
With sensual sensations
To entice me, Hapless Elephant onto
The Royal mat that conceals graves
They call me for a ride
All expenses paid, on spacious buttocks
To Hades, where red hot red carpet receptions
Await.
You put juju for mouth I spit, sniffing
Their perfumed breaths as if I know
What juju smells like. They laugh
At my innocence, naivety
Who’s talking about mouth when down
Below we can give you heaven
They say, ploughing my fertile desires
With their eyes. I know
Where all this leads to
Many have prologued uncompleted pages
Of their lives with ‘a se ori mi o pe’
How many chapters have I written
That I will be thinking of concluding
I have to fade, but just before then
I must see the faces that torment
So I can tell the world to run
But while I yet look I forget
What they look like
They roll off my mind like wornout adhesive tape
Even their voices sound like movie effects
Go away fly away
Join your mates in Italy, anywhere
Where busstops brim with souls
Waiting for free rides at the speed
Of lust.
MY TOWN NO GET NO SANTA LAZYBONES
You say you get santa
Who e be?
Just an old baba
Who’s too ‘fraid
To work during the day
Wishing behind curtains
He didn’t have to work night shifts
My town don’t get no cowards
No potbellied pensioner doling
Toys for friendship
We got masquerades
Whose souls live in heaven
Brandishing whips God wove
>From Adam’s hair, treading
Day n night in Absolute
Authority .policemen melt
Into the crowds n little
Children search in vain
for their tantrums
Dont even talk of women
You cremated the alfa and you are asking
Where is his beard
Husbands have tied dem down
To bedposts ‘cos Egungun
Mustn’t set his eyes on them
Dem get Incantations
That work, poems to thrill you
To your misfortune
Santa only get plastic toys n
Stocking fillers
Toys that cant turn guns
Into hot n cold water faucets
Or learned men into salivating
Imbeciles
Our Egunguns march through the earth
In daylight on their way back to heaven
Baba santa tiptoes through the night
In white men’s towns on his way
Back to his dainty cottage
To sleep all day till nightfall
THE MAN AND THE SEA
Everytime children plunge
And paint the stream brown
With naked feet, they ruffle
Neatly ironed thoughts
Of a man across the seas
When shadows begin to grow
Into Negro giants, they cook tales
To serve their waiting parents
On the way, they tidy the thoughts
Of a man across the seas
He finds himself again,
Before anyone finds out, flicks
Absent dust from the corners
Of his mind
But how long?
The rains approach fast to share the stream
With boisterous kids celebrating the energy
Of summer and the village idiot
Just back from sabbatical, who combs
Swollen waters for fish n chips
A hurricane will blow this time
Ravage the meticulous shelves of the mind
Of the man that lives across the seas
Render his thoughts homeless
Fugitive spirits that speak fluent Queen’s English
LAMENTATION
He knew how to ride
He told her to race after him
Chanting Expertee! Expertee!
She begged him to teach her
He thought she would never learn
She was sillier than a goat
She thought tricycles were easier
He laughed her aside
She ran after him, afraid
She would lose him
She ran far
>From her childhood, till it became a maze
Of footpaths pasted around the maize farms
Behind her, like carcasses of the worms
She is always vomiting.
He told her not to worry
He would win tour de france one day
They would be rich
She wouldn’t have to wash
Dirty feet every night
She would escape quizzing parents always
Wondering why did she stay till after seven
He rode into a deserted field
That dozed by the banks of River Auba
She lost him in the skyscraper grasses
And sank into the claws of midget weeds
She sprouted into elephant grass, rustled
Against the others like a colony of overcrowded snakes
He sped past and plucked her
Tore his palms, till they bled bad
He would tell them he fell
They wouldn’t believe him
He never fell
She was finally learning to ride
He stopped at her gate
He thought of what he would tell them
They stood outside and counted
How many stars came home before her
She withered
WHEN TWO GRASSES FIGHT
When two grasses fight
It is elephants that suffer
Dried blades glint like a wafer
Of gold, sharpened by razor light
Of an afternoon sun
They will strike, like chickens racing
Through the rites of foreplay, lacing
The air with sparks that run
And race frightened tusks into the arms
Of merchants waiting to harvest ivory farms
Animal activists will stare
Too tongue-tied anything to dare
“cos underdogs have pulled the wit
from under pounding feet
|
READER'S REVIEWS (1)
DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"I am in awe ... there is beauty in every poem; your words flow like molasses on a summer day and I cannot for the life of me, choose a favorite!" -- Judith Goff.
TO DELETE UNWANTED REVIEWS CLICK HERE! (SELECT "MANAGE TITLE REVIEWS" ACTION) |
|
Submit Your Review for They Set Us Free, A Collection
Required fields are marked with (*).
Your e-mail address will not be displayed.
|
|
Submit Your Rating for They Set Us Free, A Collection
|
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2003 Toluwalope Olugbenga Ogunlesi |
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
January 2003 |
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
2369
|
|
