Timileyin Gabriel Olajuwon

Timileyin Gabriel Olajuwon (TGO) is a Nigerian poet and a literary critic. He is an international multi-award winner –Awarded the World Poetry Ambassador to Nigeria {Canada} 2013, nominated as Inspirational Poet of the Year by World Friendship Celebration (Pentasi B) Philippines 2013, won the Write Share Be Read Second International. Poetry Competition with his poem “REMEMBER O’YE GODS”; as one of the Top Five Poets in category A and was published in First Female online magazine, United Kingdom 2013, placed in the top ten in the Rabindranath Tagore Award – International English Poetry Competition (India) 2014. awarded the World Poetry Cultural Youth Peace Ambassador Award 2014, awarded Creative Writers Association of Nigeria Poetry Literary Award 2014, ranked third in Anchors Bible competition 2014, nominated for El-Hibri Foundation Peace Education Prize 2015, nominated as director of World Poetry Movement (Mexico) 2015 and 2016 Pentasi B universal poet of the year (Ghana). Gabriel is the founder of World Poetry Peace Zone (A subsidiary of World Poetry Canada and International) where writers from corners of the world ink to propagate peace and constructively criticize works of their fellow writers respectively. He is also a member of international groups and organizations like World Poetry Canada and International, Splendors of Dawn poetry Foundation, Pentasi B World Friendship Celebration, World Poetry Movement and many more. Most of Gabriel’s works have been featured in many international anthologies and journals: He is the brain behind Muse for World Peace Anthology (An anthology of poets propagating peace) and finally, he is a published author with his first book entitled “Call for Retreat” 2013.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/olajuwon.timileyin

Email: legendtgof@gmail.com

Read more about him @ http://worldpoetry.ca/?tag=timileyin-gabriel-olajuwon.

BIAFRA

"The end of a war

Is the beginning of another war.."

From forced famine and fighting

Cannibal of naked souls sailed,

Across, to the sea of hope,

trending upon thorns and pebbles.

The roaring sea echoes

Chants from the depth of our hearts.

While the land retreats over our fate,

We hide by the sea side, in order not to be late.

Where does a runner go

Whose baton is handled by the merciless ones?

They that bring home a dance,

But who is to dance it for us?

Should we call on our deceased fathers,

Whose skull were hung on the roof of our tattered hut?

Or should we place a call to our spirit mothers,

Whose blood were made as sacrifice for the unborn?

The brave one in battle is no where in sight,

They have faded away in the dimmed light,

Of last night “Bight of Biafra” fight,

Now let us alone, to suffer the rising plights.

By the sea side

Can we regain our ascribed right?

To be late, could it had better be a great price

If our spirit will not be revived at Niger - area?

The war has ended

But the war still lives with us!

ABIKU

"Abiku so Ologun deke" - they say

My breathe shall cease away

Like the twelfth hour of time again.

In vain shall be the reviving spell,

And the jointed metal cones bell,

You cast upon my soulless aged body.

The ashes put on the soil of my face

When you are chuffed to lay me to the grave,

The necklace and the bangles cast around my neck,

And the scary knife you beckon to make marks on my chest,

Will have no hold to my squirrel teeth.

For every season, I will come

To chastise my mother with plague,

I will suckle like the flesh-birds,

And wet the ground with tears from her eyes.

My spirit will come and go

Like the rain in a rainy desert,

And like the flash of eagle,

I will visit you with lotus of scars.

Seven goats’ blood and palm oil

Shall be for libation to redeem my soul,

Cowries from several seas shall be laid on my grave,

And only, not again that you have peace.

For I am Abiku

The spirit of the living dead!

11

Save me from birth fear

And again, chastise not with plagues

Please, spare me the unending tears

Come again this season and stay

Seven seasons, seven graves

I have seen sweetness in life, full of pains

Seven goats in seven days for seven years

Likewise, oil price for libations have no grades

Every season, same shame stories

Written on the wall of my chuffed smile

As the ears of mocking birds hide at bay

To share your stories as tales.

But how best will you hold this land a desert

And let its water flow through the cheeks of its face?

How long will you hide your spirit deep into the ground

And let the wind of time mock my wearied eyes?

Will you please hold your squirrel teeth

And hide not behind the bamboo trees?

Your cowries and prices again I will pay

Only this time, come to stay.

Come to stay, come to stay

And do not sway away

Into the wilderness of the dead

To choke me with pains of no end

But as time ride upon the time of time

Let me feel as a woman in her prime

As I hold you in my arms

Forever, as long as death spare my life.

..............................................................................

Abiku refers to the spirits of children who die before reaching

puberty; a child who dies before twelve years of age being called an

Abiku, and the spirit, or spirits, who caused the death being also

called Abiku.

ASABI

Asabi;

Again the moon has whispered into my ears

Like an ebullient girl to her lover

With her fingertip dancing in the clouds

She has drawn your image in my heart.

“Omo to dara bi egbin

Abi ewa tutu bi efo etido

Eleyinju ege, oni iwa funfun bi adaba

Arewa ti gbogbo okunrin n wari fun”

Asabi;

Your beauty stole the silence of the night

Your smile broke the darkness of time

Like the star above the world so high

You have set my heart on love’s ride

“Omo to dara bi egbin

Abi ewa tutu bi efo etido

Eleyinju ege, oni iwa funfun bi adaba

Arewa ti gbogbo okunrin n wari fun”

Asabi;

You are my shadow

The hope of my tomorrow!

“Omo to dara bi egbin

Abi ewa tutu bi efo etido

Eleyinju ege, oni iwa funfun bi adaba

Arewa ti gbogbo okunrin n wari fun”