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<blockquote><p>Nigerian poet, <em>Frank Eze</em> has won the fifth edition of Words Rhymes &; Rhythm’s <a href="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/eopp-2016/">Eriata Oribhbabor Poetry Prize (EOPP 2016)</a> with his entry ‘Porcelain Plates’.</p></blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_4264" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4264" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-3.jpg"><img class="wp-image-4264" src="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-3.jpg" alt="FRANK EZE, WINNER ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016" width="500" height="500" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4264" class="wp-caption-text">FRANK EZE, WINNER ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016</figcaption></figure>
<p>Eze, a poet resident of Ibadan, Nigeria, was shortlisted for the 2016 edition of Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize. His poems have been published on Storried, COAL, WritiVision, Praxis and other online journals.</p>
<p>Madu Chisom Kingdavid’s <em>‘Where We Were Born’ </em> and Famuwagun Festus’ <em>‘House of Noisemakers’</em> won the first and second runner-up positions respectively.</p>
<blockquote><p>Eze will be awarded a â¦50,000 cash prize and one copy each of <em>Crossroads &; The Rubicon</em> and <em>Beautiful Poison</em>, while Madu and Famuwagun will receive â¦20,000 and â¦10,000 respectively, at the WRR Literary Festival holding at the University of Ibadan on the 3rd of December 2016.</p></blockquote>
<p>Chair of the judging panel, Kolade Olanrewaju Freedom, while commenting on the results described the winning poem as “being metaphorically poignant and thematically adept.”</p>
<blockquote><p>“It was a daunting task selecting just 3 poems out of about 400 wonderful entries, especially as the poems addressed salient and proximal issues,” he said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_4263" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4263" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-2.jpg"><img class="wp-image-4263" src="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-2.jpg" alt="FRANK EZE, WINNER ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016" width="600" height="368" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4263" class="wp-caption-text">FRANK EZE, WINNER ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016</figcaption></figure></blockquote>
<p><em>Below are the winning entries:</em></p>
<p><strong>1st Position – the porcelain plates <em>by Frank Eze</em></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>i<br>
two porcelain plates<br>
fell from a tall table<br>
each one broke into<br>
two hundred and fifty<br>
fine fragments<br>
like miniature mirrors,<br>
reflecting the rising sun<br>
ii<br>
fragments of the first plate<br>
saw themselves unique—<br>
beautiful in their broken<br>
states, and so steered onto<br>
paths of prodigal princes<br>
who wandered away<br>
with the setting sun<br>
iii<br>
fragments of the second plate<br>
clung to each other like<br>
the northern and southern<br>
poles of two magnets;<br>
their faults featuring like<br>
in ancient walls fated to fall;<br>
but time, the gray-haired healer<br>
filled each fault with its<br>
milky mortar, birthing<br>
a perfect porcelain plate<br>
iv<br>
sunset, and a wild wind came<br>
like a hungry hawk,<br>
sweeping all fragments of<br>
the first plate—dukedoms,<br>
like chaffs into the sea;<br>
while fragments of<br>
the second plate—a kingdom<br>
united in diversity, stood strong<br>
and waxed weathertight like<br>
a castle carved from a rock</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>2nd Position – WHERE WE WERE BORN <em>by Madu Chisom Kingdavid</em></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>I.<br>
Still a clayey Canaan on the claws of crossroads,<br>
Housing the broken thorns of the forest,<br>
Long imprisoned in the prison of penury<br>
Under the rusted roofs of a shattered sky.</p>
<p>There are stretched marks of drought<br>
Hanging on the lame laughter of<br>
Fleshless faces sprawling like a snail<br>
Without shell on our portholed roads<br>
Pregnant with rains and abandoned corpses.</p>
<p>Our neighbours’ children are dreams<br>
Aborted from the womb of tomorrow.<br>
For they sell their God’s temples to wealthy<br>
Don Juans and Gomers. They also play<br>
Prodigal on Cards and Nairabet, drink<br>
And smoke their lives into unripe funerals.</p>
<p>Here, some women are vandalized villages,<br>
Hiding their tears and fears in the laments<br>
Of bombs, holding cobwebbed portraits<br>
Of their displaced kinsmen and missing girls,</p>
<p>Fetching fortitude from the gory images<br>
Of their bombed husbands and soldiers,<br>
Breaking the breast of midnight with long<br>
Groans and tears that will never run dry.</p>
<p>Nights, we hear the dumb moans of bleeding<br>
Hymens in isolated houses and brothels.<br>
The cold cries of bare babies by the<br>
Roadsides whose Mothers were RIP-ed<br>
By bullets of the highway robbers.</p>
<p>Listen, there were loud silences that<br>
Drowned jobless poets in this house<br>
Of hunger whose haunting tropes were<br>
The Millions stifled by the Breath of Fresh Air.</p>
<p>Today, their verses weep for Change<br>
Snailing into chameleon of moonlight tales.</p>
<p>II.<br>
We’re back nude, full of skeletons and storms.<br>
O! The world is now a sleepless night<br>
Carrying the hearts of Jezebel and Alexander.</p>
<p>From chaos-torn Middle East to<br>
America where we dodged bullets<br>
In the streets, houses and churches.<br>
From the sunset living in Latin America<br>
To the dying by firing squad in (Indone)asia…</p>
<p>O! We’re back to where we sprang from the<br>
Coffin of dearth bearing the scars of death.<br>
To fetch water again from taps lying in state.<br>
To watch countless children return shoelessly<br>
From a distant school under a shrivelled tree…</p>
<p>To wake up in mornings from sweaty<br>
Dryness of overcrowded floors, bearing<br>
Tattoos of blood and pain sketched by<br>
Mosquitoes, bedbugs, witches and wizards.</p>
<p>To watch our shacks with watery eyes steal<br>
Away by flood and swallow by eroded earth.<br>
To listen to the dumb roars of growing bellies<br>
Of children licking phlegm in their fathers’ frail arms.</p>
<p>To breathe the sweet scent of gutters,<br>
Garbage-dumps, oil spillages, bomb blasts,<br>
Faeces-filled swamps, crude flare…<br>
Peeling the echoing walls of our systems.</p>
<p>To listen to the threnodies of the ghosts<br>
Of our shamed-pasts and present over<br>
The fat Yams eaten and barfed by<br>
Potbellied goats in the cleavages of power.</p>
<p>To pray and count bead of tears all night,<br>
That “Let there be night forever”,<br>
For here tomorrow is always a raped virgin.</p>
<p>III.<br>
Though we’ve long been in this labour<br>
Of pain and the delivery seems forever…</p>
<p>Someday, the sun shall rise from the<br>
hidden loins of a barren cloud,<br>
Lights shall sprout from the mass<br>
vault of our skeletal pasts…</p>
<p>And new rain fraught with renascent<br>
Songs shall break from our parched<br>
Throats in triumph over our ageless undergrowths.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>3rd Position – HOUSE OF NOISE MAKERS <em>by Famuwagun Festus</em></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>What can be terribly annoying?<br>
A gathering of emissaries,<br>
Assembled for the welfare of the people,<br>
In an Hobbesian jostle for the gavel</p>
<p>What can be ludicrously scandalous?<br>
A noisy session of policy makers<br>
With hit-and-miss strategies<br>
Leaving the masses with hobson’s choice</p>
<p>For four bounty seasons, one harvested famishing 77 fruits<br>
Within ten minutes, the same reaped a laughable 46 fruits<br>
Another has been in the vineyard for a long time now<br>
Yet, no fruit to show forth</p>
<p>A house disorderly<br>
Not devoid of furious fist,<br>
Hot, selfish confrontations<br>
A brawling arena for official rogue</p>
<p>A floor of wastrels<br>
Haven for poachers of public possession<br>
Who earn elephant wages<br>
But delivers not much output than an ant could bear</p>
<p>They adorn the image of worthy servants<br>
Guard themselves with armour of civil defenders<br>
But are clad in robe of corruption and<br>
Tie wrapper of moral putrescence</p>
<p>The peak of misrepresentation<br>
The height of irresponsibility<br>
The zenith of disappointment<br>
The house of noisemakers</p></blockquote>
<p>Eze joins <a href="https://wordsrhymesandrhythm.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/winners-of-the-eriata-oribhabor-poetry-prize-2012/">Nwakanma Chika</a> (2012), <a href="https://wordsrhymesandrhythm.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/eopp2013-the-winners/">Madu Chisom Kingdavis</a> (2013), <a href="https://wordsrhymesandrhythm.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/eopp-2014-winners-announced/">Darlington Ekene Ogugua</a> (2014) and <a href="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/eriata-oribhabor-poetry-prize-nigerian-poet-wins-eopp-2015-gets-publishing-contract/">Ajise Vincent </a>(2015) on the prestigious list of past winners of the EOPP.</p>
<blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_4262" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4262" style="width: 641px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-4.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-4262" src="http://wrr.ng/authorpedia/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FRANK-EZE-WINS-ERIATA-ORIBHABOR-POETRY-PRIZE-2016-4.jpg" alt="FRANK EZE WINS ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016" width="641" height="641" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4262" class="wp-caption-text">FRANK EZE WINS ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2016</figcaption></figure>
<p>The <a href="http://wrr.ng/eriata-oribhabor-poetry-prize-eopp/">EOPP was instituted in 2012 </a>to give the much needed attention to Nigerian poetry and encourage young Nigerian poets to use poetry as a tool for social change.</p></blockquote>
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