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”