Chris Okigbo

If there is one person that inspired me into poetry, his name is Chris Okigbo. I stumbled on a book in my father's little book collection by Sunday Anozie titled Christopher Okigbo: Creative Rhetoric and though barely 12 years then and barely totally understand the full meaning of some of his poems, I was hooked to his works. Chris Okigbo was killed in action during a major push by Nigerian troops against Nsukka during the Nigerian Civil war.

I have reproduced some of his works that I loved below.


The Passage - Christopher Okigbo

BEFORE YOU, my mother Idoto,
Naked I stand;
Before your weary presence,
A prodigal
Leaning on an oilbean,
Lost in your legend
Under your power wait I
On barefoot,
Watchman for the watchword
At heavensgate;
Out of the depth my cry:
Give ear and hearken…
DARK WATERS of the beginning.
Ray, violet,and short, piercing the gloom,
Foreshadow the fire that is dreamed of.
Me to the orangery
Solitude invites,
A wagtail, to tell
The tangled-wood-tale;
A sunbird, to mourn
A mother on spray.
Rain and sun in single combat;
On one leg standing,
In silence at the passage
The young bird at the passage
SILENCE FACES at crossroads:
Festivity in black…
Column of ants,
Behind the bell tower,
Into the hot garden
Where all roads meet:
Festivity in black…
O Anan at the knob of the panel oblong,
Hear us at crossroads at the great hinges
Where the players of loft organ
Rehearse old lovely fragment, alone-
Strains of pressed orange leaves on pages
Bleach of the light of years held in leather:
For we are listening in cornfields
Among the windplayers,
Listening to the wind leaning over
Its loveliest fragment…..



Excerpt of his "Elegy for Alto"

THE GLIMPSE OF A DREAM
lies smouldering in a cave,
together with the mortally wounded birds.
Earth, unbind me;
let me be the prodigal;
let this bethe ram’s ultimate prayer to the tether…

AN OLD STAR departs,
leaves us on the shore
Gazing heavenward for a new star approaching;
The new star appears, foreshadows its going
Before a going and coming that goes on forever…

“In Pursuit of Happiness”

I have always wondered where this phrase – ‘..in pursuit of happiness – come from. I understand a lot of people would say it is from United State Declaration of independence. The expression is credited to Dr. Samuel Johnson in his 1759 novel Rasselas (wikipedia). I have heard it all over this country being used casually and even Hollywood caught the bug with a Will Smith movie, In pursuit of Happyness – nice movie I must say.

The question is what do people mean when they talk of “happiness” or its pursuit? Can you pursue happiness? Is “happiness” a destination or a state on itself? How lasting is “happiness” even when it is has been successfully “pursued”?

I did a little bit of research or lemme call it browsing, on this and I realized that the first public use of this phrase has to do with economic choice of pursuit than ephemeral search for emotional fulfillment. Maybe that tells us more about the use of the expression these days.

I can extrapolate based on the definition and usage of the word that our “pursuit of happiness” has more to do with our fulfillment and satisfaction based on our “acquisition” – Might be love, property etc. That will take me to my next question – Is happiness worth pursuing? I see it from the point that happiness is a means to an end and not an end of a process. Is it worth pursuing? I don’t think so. Why would you pursue a transient state when it is a flow and not the destination? Don’t get me wrong, I am not sadistic or live hating the world, I just think there are other things worth pursuing that could bring happiness as a by-product while giving you more complete fulfillment.

I am not trying to be religious here but I have known from time memorial that the only thing that is what pursuing – Righteousness. Happiness no matter how long it takes is just too risky to be pursued – it is not substantial as a whole point of pursuit – as a by-product, yes, but not the main course. The cost of pursuing it as the lead head and the gain accruing from it just doesn’t worth the effort. Maybe I am wrong…….!

Born in Africa

I was born in Africa, the name they gave my land I was called.
To till the lands my fathers gave me
Not to toil in the baking sun that they so much feared
I am the produce of the land - born in the loin of a warrior
I am the son, his name was Elemeso

Several moons I left my land
Tears, fear ceaselessly flow
Dreams, desires aptly drive
A new world, across several rivers
A place I knew from afar - a land I was called an alien.

What now happens to my generations?
Will they be called by the name they gave my land?
Or the name of the foreign land - Their new land?
Speak in the tongues of my fathers or poetry of this new world?


Will my daughter hums to deep knowledge of Ijala?
Or to the staccato of hip-hop?
Will she ever bath in the cascading torrential downpour?
Or speak in the tone of Ewi?
I wish I know, I wish I can say.

Dare to!

The bright hope is here
subtle and cruising
It is the start of a new month
Another day, another destiny

It is not of a question asked
the gods have no say!

Do I dance on the heels of my wobbling ankles?
Who cares if cock crows no more?
I am on a wild journey of excitement
I dare the streams to look back.

Cry for the Land!

Hold me before I flood the lands
with my tears
I have a torrent coming

I have had enough washing my face
The cool breeze dried them all

Don't ask me if they will come clattering
or ghostly drilling
Can you tell when the stream chuckles?
or its gently wave cascades?

It is for my land, my home
Future soiled, in a sea of greed!

For and against Gun!

The argument about guns and the second amendment right to bear arms by individuals has been raging on among my co-workers and myself for sometimes now. My libertarian conservative co-worker absolutely believes in that right and don't shy away from reminding you that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". The funniest thing is that he doesn't even have a gun but just doesn't think people have to be restricted in their quest to protect themselves. His other defense of gun right comes from the fact that people that legally get guns hardly use it for nefarious activities. Criminals on the other hands go underground to get guns and use guns that are not registered. These kind of guns will be available, he argued, if guns are banned or not. Meaning if you ban guns, you are not banning the illegal guns, you are banning the legal ones. The illegal guns will still be available anyways. The implication of that is that if you don't have a gun you are actually a sitting duck for someones target practise.

My Iranian and Irish-American co-workers have very liberal attitude to guns vis-a-vis "keep guns away from home, street, alley and crevices". Their arguments pointed to the fact that some of the 'underground' guns actually come from the legal guns. How did the Virginia Tech slayer get his gun anyway? He actually went into a gun shop in Virginia and all they had to check was that he didn't have any prior felony charges. They didn't have access to the court ruling that he had to see a shrink because of health record privacy law. In this case, a legal gun was used to commit a massacre.

I found all these argument interesting because both side of the aisle come with different statistics. The ones that compare death from gun to automobile accident every year or the death from gun to Knife attack. Of course, the other side always come with statistics from Places like Australia and UK with essential ban on carrying arms and attendant fewer death from gun. I find some of these arguments very intriguing and I found out that I have a centrist views about all these.

I could understand nobody wants to be in a place where you cannot defend yourself. I am sure a lot of families that live in the rural areas with two or three policemen in a small town do cherish the right to defend their neighbourhood against any marauder. I mean, thinking from what I have seen in Nigeria, a lot of people that had been robbed by Armed robbers in their homes would have fancied their chances to at least give some form of resistance and get their neighbours to do the same if they had that right. How humiliating would it be for a man being helpless when his family is being plundered by some people he would have sent into low beyond if he had the power to do so? But for everything in this country and for every situation in life, freedom and right come with their attendant responsibilities.

As much as I want people to carry guns and defend themselves, so also I don't want a wacko or someone that is fries less of a happy meal go on a shooting spree. I mean how do you know a guy that got his gun with good psychiatric record started degenerating maybe because he develops a drug problem or some underlying problems? There are borderline millions of bi-polar people around that could be homicidal or suicidal when wrongly provoked. I really don't want those running loose with guns.

I think a lot of argument for and against gun in the American public domain are very simplistic and really don't answer a lot of questions or maybe there is really no answer for a lot of questions raised for or against gun. How do you tell a housewife that drives 10 miles in the rural area to groceries not to arm herself or protect herself? In the same vein, how do you keep guns away untrained kids in the inner cities and 'hoods without infringing on the right of the other lawful citizens? I think this is an argument that will go on across generations in this country.

For my co-workers, the one with the Italian heritage will not talk about that subject at all though he goes to the shooting range all the time and his teenage sons can hit a moving object some 100 yards away. My liberal co-worker from the south and the catholic conservative don't want to hear anything about Gun. As for me, I take both sides - I am for and against Gun in the same breathe - John Kerry never wavered, why should I?

Elemoso

The arrival of the macabre
here comes Elemeso

Now that the gods were cursed
sweeping through the whispers of the winds
I am the last of the Orisas
Never known, never found.

The forlorn cries trail my shadows
The echoes of the lost spirits
Not mine, never mine
but the count of my conquests.

I am Elemeso
Orisas verloren hoop
I was told
I killed the gods