Posted in corruption, governance, Moral conduct, Poetry, Politics

Good bye to sense by Noel Ihebuzor

Notes scatter, flung high above the heads of the celebrant, come falling down like boozed butterflies in disordered clusters to the unclean floor, gradually being overrun by notes in disarray. The more affluent hurl bundles at willing shoulders, some other bundles are thrust into welcoming arms by photo-savvy gifters

The long arm of the law looks on, powerless, the law has been long settled, sorted, and so now is broken, breakable

The space knows no balance, this place knows no balance, peopled by hollow souls with no restraint, who know no restraints, know and respect no limits, the leash on the impunity of the rich has no limits, so we ball on, big ballers kicking restraint, morality, conscience, common sense further down the slippery road of riot, ruin, and rot.

Posted in hope, disappointment,, Poetry

Song in December for Decembers gone

By Noel Ihebuzor

December is here. It caught me in a hotel room in Monrovia. It sent me on a time travel to those dry cold days when naked trees stood mournfully by haze draped roads & tall grass cackled and swayed all the way from Abaji to Okene to Ewu as bushmeat raiders commenced their hunt

Why do the trees not run away after sacrificing their leaves to the gods of time? Why wait for the yearly cremation when hot flames will lick their thighs and arms and frightened rabbits and bushmeat become easy meat for lovers of lean meat? I still can hear December sing.

December’s songs still sing slowly and soulful but not like before. They sing and sound different. I hear them with my eyes, I hear them with my nose and I feel their painful taps on my tympanum. The laughter of children has now been stolen by our toothy Grinches full of grouses

December, a time of plenty is now a time of penury. Mr Grinch has stolen the jingle bells. Child suffering soars, hunger hooks children’s thin necks like tight bow tie, tummies are naked as the naked trees that used to announce harmattan….and I sit in Monrovia mourning incompetence

The road to Abaji is in mourning, the Ewu junction wails, the road past Uromi is red with grief and the bridgehead has lost its swag…I hear it singing that there was a Christmas but not any more.

NAI

Monrovia, 01/12/21

Posted in Poetry, Politics

Visions and Selections

by

Noel Ihebuzor

What you saw

You say you saw

patterns heave and dance

you say you saw them

Weave and leave

No one else says they saw

what you say you saw

just you, with your diamond

periwinkle eyes

at the three quarter corner of night

when straggler angels

flee the light of the returning day

Yours was a vision

Filled with emptiness

Where bleached blankness

Empties all other visions

New Jungles

The jungle always,

half dormant

wakes up and a new day

dawns, slowly

Sounds soon crowd out silence

prophets see dimly

but their rising voices

Soon outdo agberos

In this space,

a life is worth

three sparrows

In this place,

men combine religion and region

creed with breed in the service

of a contest fuelled need

and sustained by greed

Locked in their frenzied contest

the wrestlers have locked out sense

the present overwhelms the past

drowns the future

and yesterday’s smiles

Wakes up in today’s

tired sheets

Uncertain saints

Self beatify, uncertain of outcomes

as uncertified foul odor

floods the present

overwhelms the air pregnant with hope

nourished by dope

stunted elves dance and sway

waving a medley of signs and symbols

crescent, cross and stars

and I sensed I heard the moon howl

Predators now prance like Simba

the lion king

the story teller casts

his charmed beads around legs, heads

hips, feet and heels held by hope

but fettered by dope

Posted in Poetry

Two Poems by Noel Ihebuzor

Poem 1 – What you saw

You say you saw

patterns heave and dance

you say you saw them 

weave and leave

No one else says they saw

what you say you saw

just you with your diamond

periwinkle eyes

at the three quarter corner of night 

when straggler angels

flee the light of the returning day

Yours was a vision 

filled with emptiness

where bleached blankness

empties all other visions 

hollowing vision and vision

Poem 2 – New Jungles

The jungle always 

half dormant 

wakes up and a new day

dawns, slowly

Sounds soon crowd out silence 

prophets see dimly

but their rising voices 

soon outdo agberos

In this space, 

a life is worth 

three sparrows

In this place, 

men combine religion and region

creed with breed

in the service 

of a contest  fueled by need 

and sustained by greed

Locked in  their frenzied contest

the wrestlers have locked out sense

the present overwhelms the past 

drowns the future 

and yesterday’s smiles 

wake up in today’s 

tired sheets 

Uncertain saints

self beatify, uncertain of outcomes 

as uncertified foul odor

floods the present 

overwhelms the air pregnant with hope

nourished by dope

while in stained corridors,

stunted elves dance and sway

waving a medley of signs and symbols

crescent, cross and stars

and I sensed I heard the moon howl

Predators now prance like Simba

the lion king

while their dibias cast

their charmed beads around legs, heads

hips, feet and heels held by hope 

but fettered by dope

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized

Living is loving and learning

By

Noel Ihebuzor

 

Living is loving, is leaving and
is learnng
from our falls
from our risks,
full of leaks,
from our hopes
which the snarer
the abuser, uses
as dope
to rope us in,
unwitting accomplices
to confuse,
to reduce, misuse
and abuse us

Soon we learn
from our pain,
our enduring gain

Hurt, wiser
we pray,
we strain
to live and love
and not fall or fail
or be fooled again

we step out
to live and love
fresh protective foliages
wrapped around our tender parts
screen protectors
for our fragile feelings,
from smashing
from fleecing
in the maddening den
where to live is to love
to love is to hope
and to hope is to risk
and risk is either
win or lose, even though

sometimes the choices
are between
empty, half full and full

between fleeing,
flying,
floating
and falling
or all
or none
of the above

Posted in Literature, Aesthetics, Poetry, Uncategorized

Spring Song

by

Noel Ihebuzor

 

as with the season,

so, with the poet,

seasons come

and seasons go

seasons that freeze

seasons that free,

seasons that foul,

season that flower

 

seasons for sowing

seasons for sewing

seasons for saving

seasons for singing

 

The season of singing

Voices springing

Moon winking,

Grasshoppers jumping

Kids bleating

Blades rustling

in the gay glades with

crickets chirping

the sun smiling, greeting

the happy season

which sings its coming

 

listen now as

songs well from within

they spring forth

at the first ring of spring

as poet, pen and

keyboard warm

to the rhythm and reason

of the season of renewal

to sing songs

that unfurl like a corolla

awakening, unfolding and stirring

drowning unhappy pasts

in their awakening and renewing

melodies

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized

Lust and Love

By Noel Ihebuzor

(an instant reaction to Boomie Bol)

Lust, another 4 letter word
like other bads, bad,
badder, baddest,
for 4 letter love is the best

yet without lust, without it
all love is cold
without heat
with no hold

lust alone
ls but hollow bone
heat with no soul
hurts lips,hips and sole

give me love with lust
great loves know lust
for not all lust is physical
not all physical is bad

Spare me from
lust with no love
spare me its tears
fears and my tears

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized

A song for Susan

Noel Ihebuzor

Something touches a key.

The touched key comes alive and moves,

humming stroking and caressing,

 

Soon, it blends notes and nuances,

nudges other senses to move and dance,

like alija, like nubile hips stirrred by ngelenge,

 

suddenly the soft shadows of a new song emerge,

fleeting inchoate,

some gentle touch by the potter,

and the new song explodes,

 

reason, rhythm and rhyme join hands

skipping along, spraying flowers,

red roses sing along

softliest and are heard most,

 

purple hibiscus, furl and unfurl,

hum shyly and wave

Rosemaries, Queens of the night

Explode and lather the awakened day

 

The aroused frame

whetted ears and noses aflame

with message laden bouquets

 

dripping deep messages,carousing

that caress our aroused eyes and ears –

with the beauty of Susan’s Poetry,

coated in the dazzling polysemy of an engaged voice.

 

****This is a piece I scribbled for Susan Daniels, my duet partner on Feb 15, 2013. Saw it in my archives this morning. Long may she live. Long may her poetry flourish!

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized

When are we going to see again

by

 

Noel Ihebuzor

 

When are we going to see
she asked, her dreamy voice
dripping with desire
and he replied
his voice sober and still
When the sea sings
and seals swim rapids
in slow sweet sync
when the slowest miler
becomes the sweetest smiler
and the time keeper
beckons on Air clad snails
to breast the tape
for the diner of the famished to commence
Yes, when the sea ceases
her never ending swim
in circles of seamless curves
after mermaids hang their laundry on ropes in the sky
And the sky empties its
voice into the willing  sea
We shall see, and sing and swim