Skip to main content

THE POET'S PEN by Miriam Etim

#365daypoetrychallenge
#Advocacyandsocialchange

Day 2

I fell in love with these lines:
'Let your heart bleed
Let the ink float and make it stain every sheet'
Inhale!

Most times I talk while I walk
Because I'm so stuck in my thought
Countless times my brain gives up!
What my Doctor calls seizure!
Damn!

But my teacher once said "you've got to talk"
And if you can't talk
You've got to push the pen
 I asked...
How can I push the pen
When I know not the powers of the pen?

Mightier is the pen
To the sword of men
Birthing liberation and salvation
When intent is judicious
Libelous and seditious
When intent is malicious

Consecrated to the freedom of kingdoms
And the faith of legions
Painting portraits of fictions
And predictions enclaved by visions
Of innate decisions
Enslaving generations unborn
With the most deadly weapon
A single creature called
The signature
Damn!

My country got liberated
With the power of the same pen
Putting the colonial masters in suspense
At the expense of the pen!
Then I knew every floating pen
Was the bleeding heart of men
Restless at heart to condescend their ideologies
Into specimen of technologies
From the tablet of our heart
To the 'micro-mini' tablets note pad I have
Then I knew what made Steve jobs
The man that saw the future
Because his pen drew him a picture.

How best can I push the pen
I asked my teacher in suspense?
He said, "let your mind think
Let your heart bleed
Let the ink float and make it stain every sheet
Like the molecules of your brain
Drawing lines and signs
Because those are the signs of a great poet.
For we are all poets grasping for change"


Miriam Etim works with CRBC TV as the 
Producer of Good morning Cross River Monday show, Presenter for Youth Concern and a Video Editor.
She is a Peer Educator at a non governmental organization (HIV/AIDS reduction programme in the Niger Delta (HARPIN)
And a 300 level student of university of Calabar, studying English and Literary Studies.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LESSONS FROM TWENTY SOMETHING(s) by Veralyn Chinenye

1, Stop Counting people's blessings ~ It is interesting to admire your friend's success, but don't try to compare and contrast, you're different persons and your paths have been mapped out. When the temptation to compare especially on bad days fingers my eyelids, I pull out my gratitude journal and write out five things I'm grateful for. It could be as little as being able to keep to time or even for being mentioned in a good will comment by a friend. Being grateful opens us up for more. 2, Try Leadership and Politics ~ I think there are two different things, one is seen as good and the other is seen as bad. The mention of the word "politics" get us grabbing our bags, and the mention of "leadership" gets us spreading our clothes in the open. My involvement in both has impacted my life and my dealing with others. I see both as siamese twins. Politics makes good leadership and Leadership makes good politics. You should try it! ...

Miles from Independence by Tydale Bassey Abigail

Day87 #365daypoetrychallengeforadvocacyandsocialchange Our cloths have torn Our hairs grown bushy Bones emaciated and legs swollen Muscles displaced And our vision discouraged... The path behind us looks abandoned by haggard legs, Bushy as if untrodden See, our babies have died Our kids starved Our boys imprisoned Our girls raped Husbands and wives betrayed And the aged disappointed... Yet the eyes of our polity bulges like the blind statues of Nok Culture We used to have hopes, But they are now tired in the arms of abortion The promises of independence have become stillborn; Mutilated with the bamboo of corruption. Even the wishes that once painted our eyelids Are beginning to wear away Yet the senses of our constitution have breathed only heat on the sore skins of our destinies The song of the national flag has become the loudest noise sung by toothless leaders; A pirate declaration to our unity in diversity Our capital cities are plinths...

A VANGUARD SPEAKs by Oche Celestine Onjewu

Day72 #365daypoetryforadvocacyandsocialchangechallenge Let silent lips speak the loudest Of what the birds need sing, Roar it to the mountains What good news we bring Let the weak raise feeble limbs And every wet eyes dry, You no longer have to bury your dreams, Or behind the male do hide For our dream were shattered, Because it was a girl’s Maybe we are born and bred, To piper low and live in fear Just like a bird we were given wings And told not to fly, We are to wait for a messiah On whose feet we must lie Tell it to the girls in the east, And to the girls in the west, It’s time get on your feet, And live your dreams to your best Your daughters no longer should shrink, To make themselves smaller, Girls too can reach that zenith, For success has no gender . Oche Celestine Onjewu is a Physicist, Poet and a Writer.