HOME MEMORIES by Sunsamapul Egwu

Naked bellies round with last night's yam
Rise up from thread thin mats
Like stubborn goats pulled
Each step dragged to welcome an intimidating sun.

Tobacco coloured teeth
Greets in flashing black smiles
The earth moist from dew
Palm fronds wave shrubs from tall views
Beaming smiles as sonorous sounding birds' sing
Here, every member is a king.

See the afternoon sky welcome
Khaki bags follow sons of the soil
In his pockets, palm nuts to catapult his lizards
As catarrh ports to his chest,
Onward he trots to father's heart
To fondle mama's slippers-like  breasts.

Bright light dull as fireflies
Skinny frames gather round papa's bulb
To welcome the august visitor's electricity
Watching buzzing energetic dances from flying insects.

Pounding sounds accentuating 
Tonight’s food will have no lump
Swallowing, stealing pieces, smiling
Bare buttocks kissing cold earth
To listen to tales of ancestral birth.

Mud houses, thatched roofs
Planting seasons

Harvesting baskets
No day is ever the same
These sweet scents of home
Closed in every open game

Are memories I won’t forget

Sunsampaul Egwu Philosopher is a poet, prose writer, instrumentalist and blogger, he blogs at citadeloflife.blogspot.com. He was the winner of join me write poetry contest.

I REMEMBER HOME by Sunsampaul Egwu

I remember my lovely home;
how mother cuddled me and refused to leave me alone,
how she pressed me to her bosom
and makes my soft tender mind blossom.

I remember those nights
when father will call us out under the moon light,
making us learn many lessons from his folk tales.
I remember how the clever and selfish tortoise trailed without a tail
in the tales.

I remember those lovely smiles of grandmother
that made me to always ask
why she found pleasures in singing me melodious songs.
I remember how 'hide and seek' made me sick
when that poisonous scorpion stung me after dodging Daniel's stick.

I remember how I shivered like a little boy under the rain,
when Uncle returned home,
telling us he was going soon,
how his eyes were clustered with tears
that brought me lots of fears.

I remember home,
how it made me learn my lessons without ceasing,
how father's cane designed zebra crossings on my back in the name of
discipline cause' my ball broke his new car's windscreen during the
raining season.

I remember how sweet those nights was,
when grandfather will tell me not to fight
but to always kneel and pray, so that my life won't be trampled upon
when I play.

FREEDOM FROM DUNGEON by Sunsampaul Egwu

As the captured air accelerates into breath;
Breath that was placed in bad health,
Like those animals in the zoo,
Reacting like they live in the loo.
Where their rumbling stomachs kill their hopes
To hang crucifix on them with ropes.

¶¶
They need to taste the aroma of freedom,
Cos they've been tormented with boredom.
A war fought different wars with spittle,
Graves died since they were belittled.
Indigenes become foreigners in their own land,
Their futures have been covered with sand.

¶¶¶
Stones blocking the air in tombs,
Many with no life in their wombs.
Trekking to an oblivion near abyss and purgatory,
Like they suffered the life in evil dormitory.
Their heads were used to break the alabaster,
As they were flogged like the last bastard.

¶¶¶¶
When freedom is summoned,
Their two hands go wide and murmured.
Their faces talking with breeze,
Mouth open like volcanic eruption without ease.
As air of freedom sleep in their brains,
Just as the sun cried out rain.

¶¶¶¶¶
Their tears turned blood,
And their eyes become blur.
They were spat on as if they were weak cats,
Same way they were trampled on as if they were spread mats.
Smile seize to jubilate with them,
As they pray to witness death.

¶¶¶¶¶¶
They need freedom from this dungeon,
They've suffered even more than a surgeon.
Their faces have been clustered with stripes like tribal marks,
Canes created zebra crossing on their backs.
The only song they want to hear is that of dirge;
Yet death refuse to come.

©Copyright
#Sunsampaul d Philosopher
Sunsampaul4globe@gmail.com
+2348180861170
22-04-16
12:00pm

SAVE THE SLUM by Sunsampaul Egwu

They're suffering.
They passed through excruciating pains.
They were beaten, battered, shattered, scattered, and battered.
We always say they're leaders of tomorrow.
But they're living in sorrows.

¶¶
I'm tired of waiting
for the melancholic news,
our tears and blood has failed to break.
Our truncated imaginations failed to trace
their agonies that split at dust.

¶¶¶
But turns our eyes to oceans of sorrow.
Our homes a graveyard to mourn our daughters.
As scatterings of stars all over nation watch night race.
Our closed-open eyes harbour the sorrowful stories of sambisa gods.

¶¶¶¶
Let placards embellish streets and shrines to bombard squares.
Let the echoes of our voices not be held by hiccup.
Let not our drop-down tears,
fall on deaf ears, so they won't say they didn't hear,
all because of fear.

¶¶¶¶¶
I'm optimistic that I'll fight those
who steal sleep out of our eyes.
And even though my dreaming-sleepless night,
refuse to achieve its aim.
I'll sail through the deadly moon
of our ancestors, to appease the gods of the lands.

¶¶¶¶¶¶
The slum is where souls eat once in three days.
The slum is where futures are destroyed.
Mentors can't be seen;
yet talents are found hovering in the air
Babies breastfeeding babies
Brothers fighting brothers.
While others are dying of cholera.

¶¶¶¶¶¶¶
We all need to save the slum.
We need to save the lives of our brothers and sisters.
Poverty hijacking their lives.
While the rich are with wealth,
they're been bombarded with bad health.
Sending email as grotesque dust to them.
Their stars are now coal.
We need to extend our hands to save them!
Save the slum!

©Copyright
#Sunsampaul d Philosopher

5 STEPS TO PEN A GOOD SLAM POEM

Penning your own slam poetry isn't as difficult as it might seem. Follow these quick guidelines and you'll have a first draft in no time!

Want to create a truly memorable or powerful slam poem? There are various tricks that you can use to make your slam poem stand out from other spoken work poetry at a poetry slam. Read this cheat sheet to write your own slam poetry—and learn how to wow crowds.

1.  Do Your Homework. To know what makes slam poetry effective, you need to see a lot of it performed. Attend a poetry slam at a local coffee shop or bookstore. If you can't find one, head to YouTube.com, type in "slam poetry videos" and you'll be amazed by the quantity, quality, and variety that you’ll find. Take notes on which slam poems you like best and why they made an impression.
2. Choose a Topic. Identify an event, person, or issue that evokes a passion in you. It could be a trip that changed the way you look at life. Maybe you recently fell in love or went through a bad breakup. Or, perhaps you're determined to do whatever you can to fight animal cruelty. When you're fired up, emotions and words are more likely to flow out of you.
3. Put Your Words on Paper. Use your five senses to create a first draft. Write down what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell when you think about your topic. Details are key when it comes to painting a vivid picture through slam poetry, so always ask yourself: "could I be more specific?" For instance, instead of writing "I drank a glass of water," write "I sipped on an ice-cold glass of water with a pinch of lemon that was so tart, it made me cringe." Craft your words into short stanzas that lend themselves to a natural rhythm and feel free to use rhyme if you feel like it.
4. Edit yourself. When editing, read your poem out loud. If you find yourself stumbling over certain lines that are clunky or too long, that's when you know that a section probably needs to be cut, changed, or moved. It may help to use an online thesaurus if you're looking for synonyms to replace certain words.
5. Add a Little Drama. Remember, you're not just reading your poem out loud—you're performing! The goal is to get the audience to audibly react (i.e. laugh, cry, gasp, snap, clap, yell "yeah!") to increase your score. So look for ways to increase the drama. Are there moments where you can whisper or shout? Are there places where you can speed up or slow down? Can you throw in facial expressions or bodily movements to illustrate your main messages?

After you follow these five steps, rehearse your poem and then sign up for a local poetry slam! Note: Most slams do not require you to memorize your poem, but you might want to. When you don't have to hold a piece of paper, you can look directly at the audience and use your hands as tools during the performance, which will give you a competitive edge.

LET US PRAY by Sunsampaul Egwu

Let us pray
For our nation to have strong hold,
So the venoms of the chitinous wind won't splash on us,
And our lives won't be swept under the rug
Due to the sprayed 33 bullets reeling around us.

¶¶
Let us pray
For the lives of our children
That have no one to care for them.
Most of them been swallowed by grotesque dust that romanced them,
Others went stupor with cholera.
Diseases are now clothes they wear,
Malaria now rhymes they hum.
And for our chibok girls Whom death is weeping for but afraid to grabbing.
More than 700 days we've not seen them,
Even though the sun pout her lip at them.
¶¶¶
Let us pray
For our tertiary institutions
That have become a dungeon for students.
Cultists cutting our future leaders with Cutty.
Making them swim in excruciating pains
As they salivate the ornament of instant death
That finger her nose in front of them.
¶¶¶¶
Let us pray for the heads of our nation.
That they will become good leaders not bad rulers,
So we won't sleep with one eye open,
And our tongues won't engage in combat with our teeth
Like one afraid of death when surrounded with dirt.
¶¶¶¶¶
Let us pray
For those terrorists terrorizing our territories,
Making us foreigners in our own land.
As our heads are hung upside down
While we run from the catacomb that appear amidst us,
And the poisonous poison that are poisoning our surrounding
In disguise of boom boom sound
Splitting bodies to become dust.
¶¶¶¶¶
Let us pray
For unity among us,
So there will be peace not piss.
And we can have justice not just tease
So there'd be no segregation,
No diversity, no hatred, no war;
So we all we live as one to make a better nation,
A better NIGERIA!
NB: Cutty is a slang in confraternity and among cultists that means a sharp cutlass that inflicts excruciating pains that lead to instant death while it cuts
©Copyright
‪#‎Sunsampaul‬ Egwu
Sunsampaul4globe@gmail.com
+2348180861170

TIMLIAN LIKE VILLAIN by Sunsampaul Egwu

Words they love to lambaste
So loud, like they're in fierce combat
They're of different gene
Behaving like they drank dry gin

¶¶
Their hands they used to fall down the cloud
Calling strife while it cry out loud.
Bombarding blunders; their habits
Shooting anxiety like bandits

¶¶¶
They were meant to be gentle
So they can both get the mantle
Here they are vomiting poisonous venom like viper
Their Spittles wipe away human's joy like wiper

¶¶¶¶
Enough of the harsh word Timothy
Enough of the word wrestling Lilian
Live and relate as one
Leave to dine and wine
So you won't become swine but be fine

¶¶¶¶¶
Anger won't do you good
Like you're in the hood
It will strangle you with sword
And fill your mind with negative words
So kill your anger
Before it kills you

¶¶¶¶¶¶
Hug each other and ride
Murder your ego and pride
So you'll smile and be young
Before you get old from being angry

©Copyright
#Sunsampaul d Philosopher
#SettlingQuarrel
#TimothyAndLilian
19-04-16
03:00pm
10minutes poetry