I see pains, sorrows I see a golden spoon turn to clay Greenish leaves now brownish A royalty feeding with a pauper All brings shame and mockery But my tears won’t drop My eyes are swollen Filled with an ocean of waters Shining like the early sun It glitters beyond...

Bloodstain in the sun Evil has eaten deep into our fatherland Taking away souls strand by strand Killing people with an invisible hand Tears have run dry in our eye Watching innocent souls as the die Bitterness flows in our throats Our men being slaughtered like goats Where is the...

I flinch from our gullibility; Made vulnerable by our love for sentiments Who forced us down into This putrid water to swim? We, the people who elect To elect and empower them – bigots to shepherd us We are the drummers And the praise singers Why then do we scorn...

Empty hopes sunk in bloody impoverishment Battered, brutalized by ‘GeePee’ tank bellies They escort the gold to fatten their pulse And package poverty to bless the shallow forks Boko harms Nigerians, slaughtered as rams Parents are orphaned, children made childless R.I.P becomes an anthem, fear floods the green fields As...

Listen closely to this conversation, Between a father and a son, In Africa’s most populous nation, Son: Father please resolve for me this equation, For I do not understand how, Oil, mineral resources, and fifteen million people, Can equal: hunger, poverty and a dry nipple, For when I added the...

Fellows, We too have danced To this painful throb Shed rain, sweat and blood, Some did paddle through farmlands Only to watch green sweat Slouch to ocean sides, Some groped in liquid darkness Wrestling the Wilds with fears and qualms But water is water, and land is land He who...

I Much have we traversed this bleak terrain, With jaded winds bathing our eyelids And sand grains from once-lush fields Lodging within the caves of our hearts; Hearts, dense with crimson tears Shed by eyes scarred by inequity; Hearts, scorched by black lies Told by tongues of today’s truants. Little...

Winners have emerged in the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2014. Several poets from all around the world heeded the call for submissions with poems of top quality, touching on every aspect of social change. After the second round, the following poets emerged winners: 1st Prize N20,000 Winner ‘PETALS IN THE MORNING SUN’ (by Darlington Ekene Ogugua)...

All around me I see the faces that are hurting I hear the hearts splintering under the weight of your betrayal Everything once shared fast withering into nothingness Visions of a future with you teetering on the precipice of expulsion I feel the trust – once so priceless – disintegrating...

Proud I am of the Pride The family inspiring poetic literacy Terrace of study where ignorance dies Hearts of knowledge that murder sins Paradigm of peace, achingly pleasing Here will my lust and lost will be sought And my Achilles heel be cured of its wound Words Rhymes And Rhythm...