Posted in Poetry

Seduction – A duet

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By Noel Ihebuzor and Susan Daniels

seduction is best when done softly, slowly

and yes, subtly–
to lead entranced
an entrancing partner (not necessarily
all that innocent – intent and consent in a closet slightly ajar, and ever opening)
to fascinate, to suggest, but all so quietly
to the point the seduced
owns it as their idea, not yours

when it seeps slowly into anxious fevered body,
when the pores, the ears, the eyes, the lips, all sip it,
inhaling its suggestive velvety boldness like ripe brandy

Armagnac, please;
or perhaps something scented
of late summer; like pear, apple,
blackberry, but intoxicating
and strong, sweetness with heat
swimming into mind and body both

exhaling and uncoiling
in recognition of joint and multiflavored complicity
saluting coyness and salivating and waiting

yes, art.  art spun by two.
a peacock has nothing on us, love,
fanning feathers to dazzle, but that’s all he has.
you bring and I welcome that drunkenness,
that reeling magic we stumble inside

and going with the flow, each new seduction
increasing flush, gush..and rush,
cascades beckoning and willing rowed to

seduction is best when done softly, slowly

*** Just back from a one month vacation where I visited family and friends in the UK and Nigeria. Back to base in Dar, it was fun to get to chat with my duet partner, Susan  and to exchange views on life, literature and living with her. This poem, a duet,  came up in a spontaneous manner during our chat this afternon on facebook, completely unplanned and we agreed to upload as is – hope you like it.  Susan is italicized, and my words are bolded.

Posted in Uncategorized
Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

So You wont to write….! A must read. Mind your ribs though!

Trent Lewin's avatarTrent Lewin

 

 

Here it is, in no particular order, although the list is numbered (keep in mind, this is all meant to be sarcastic):

1.  Listen to lots of music while writing.  The rhythm of your words should definitely come from an external source rather than from you.

2.  Drink alcohol, at least two glasses of wine and never less than one glass of scotch, because inspiration originates in a bottle.  Or can.  Or whatever.

3.  Read a multitude of bad writing so that you can feel invincible while also lowering your standards.

4.  Read tons of good writing, so that you can feel crushed under the weight of your literary heroes.

5.  Spend several hours determining the best place for you to write, because in the end, it’s the setting that makes the writer doesn’t it.

6.  Write when you’re most tired and are really dragging it, because tired…

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Posted in Uncategorized

Juanita During

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By Noel A. Ihebuzor

If my tongue does not move to mourn you

it is not that I am now dumb

sorrow like a furnace has dried up the dew

that freshens this soul, now numb

inside me all is dry, parched

save moist eyes from whence sorrow

tumbles down to an earth drenched

in the blood of a suddenly closed tomorrow

 

Juanita, if you could hear me

broken now, forlorn me

my wooden tongue stuck to my palate, me

throat dried, cracked and broken, me

 

If you could decode my silent sobbing,

you would sense my inner voice,

linked with a thousand others, hurting

wailing and railing at failed social services

in a continent that is yet to learn to rise and live

mourning a star departed

on the morning before her arrival

 

***** I got news yesterday PM of  Juanita’s death. Juanita was/is a colleague, friend, soul mate, poet and one with whom I shared several intellectual coffees and visions for inclusive global development. Now, she is gone..and what pains most is that this death could have been avoided! Sleep well, Junaita…Juanitissima as I would tease you! 

Posted in Uncategorized
Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

a critique of violence as a response to crisis!

Susan L Daniels's avatarSusan Daniels Poetry

your fists
shatter mirrors
punch holes in walls

& you with
bleeding knuckles

slam your own face
into a door
to prove

what

(?)

that what breaks you
inside
to sharpness

is your heart
breaking
& you must
keep milling it

to the point
you suck pain
from an acid tit
& go look for more
still hungry

you grind

that glass core
further into flour
your daily bitter bread
that cuts
when you swallow

unmaking yourself
while trying to shake
the world
into something
as damaged as you

the doors you kick down
will never
open to anywhere

you want to be

so stop trying

***here you go, Jeremy.  Inspired (sort of) by Jeremy’s poem on violence, here.

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Posted in Poetry

Voice over waves

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By Noel Ihebuzor

Voice floating over land and waves

flowing, fluttering, humming 
bearing floral images, scent
fresh mint-rosemary blended,
taste of ripe berries, full juicy
ears gently caressed with
smiles laced with flavor
of melting vanilla essence

voice calm cooling,
oozing mature sweet port like essences

on antennaed ears
soft tenderly touching
across long miles in singing
warming particles,
stirring longings
even longer
and rising
 
with every drop
Posted in Poetry

“party activists”

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By Noel A. Ihebuzor

 

Simmering rancour lumbers, raging

opposition mutates to 0-positions,

zero sum games, zeroing and leading

to blame game, verbal joust sodden with vitriol

ugly and promising to  balloon to violence

 

spiralling envy enlarges greenish, swelling,

smelling fevered phlegm

stirs red hate, hot pepper in café latte,

the yellowish-red eye, blood shot,

poisoned, clouding sight,

vision blurred and blinkered

linked to clogged blocked ears

occluding the voice of moderation

 

ambition binds minds,

asphyxiating the voice of reason that wails

strapping and shackling it

in dark airless dungeons,

the empire of  fulminant rage,

where barbed tongues uncoil

splattering venom,

drumming discord deceitful

 

as envy limbers, driving transient pursuits

smear paints, tar taints, stirs, tears and sears

the other, in forms grotesque,

deforming and defaming

galloping ambitious feet fixed

on a chosen route to attain gain and fame,

ultimate twin goals

 

and the people, poor souls sandwiched

matter between hammer and anvil

hapless, malleable

caught in hurting, heating up and hitting dispute

and cut to pieces as peace shatters

in the hard, hurtful hands of haters and hatters

 

**** written after following very ugly exchanges on Twitter on the 14/15 July during and after a guber election.  How badly the strident voices of a belligerent few pollute the political space.

Posted in Poetry

Haiku Prompt – “First”

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By Noel Ihebuzor – three haikus

1.

First always resides

in the past but conditions

present and future

 

2.

First sings best where souls

script rich lines in shared colors,

that merge past and now

 

3.

First hands etch deep marks

on soft canvas of fresh souls

marks that free or freeze