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Irawe (dry Leaves) - Poems For Review - Nairaland

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Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 7:57pm On Jan 16, 2015
Irawe (Dry leaves)

Falling dry leaves do speak when found
Dancing in arctic wind journeying to the ground
When shrubs renounce her conjugative hand to death
She rustles giving up her murmuring breath

When the Mother Tree bears a handful of leaves at the apex,
Some murmurs in a condescending tone
to the rear leaves and those beneath whose struggling
fingers refuse to touch the sweet branches
or yet to savour the nutrient of the loamy humus
or whose voyage are yet to pull through the clustered maze
to the hill of the tree where rain sprinkles down upon them.

And when the whirlwind throws his jabs and knocks
and whistles time-up like a referee on a soccer pitch;
When the mother tree shakes from flank to flank,
the leaves fall obeying the herald of the Grim Reaper,
whirling, twirling, round and random, rustling, tumbling,
delicate, beautiful fresh green leaves fall; yellow fall; even the
gold leaves whose tongues have tasted the sweet and sour fall,
eternal bruises stamped on Mother Tree for the brave, good ones.
An uncanny tapestry of life - the wicked fingers of the Reaper
do not pluck by colours; when each leaf gets to its shore,
it falls flat into the swamp, succumbs to voice of the driver.

Those cold nights when the lofty symphonies of choir birds
serenade and crickets chirp panegyrics under glorious stars;
when the vigilant eyes of owl stay glued on the leaves
or when the wind itself caresses them. All are gone!
Now they sing in a pure silence, elegiac songs

While the fresh green unfulfilled leaves succumb
to the forceful heinous hands of the wind
and silently slice her sojourn and steep down to sleep below,
Irawe, the dry leaves, speak
the parables of every mortal life.

Irawe, the dry leaves, do speak when found
Dancing in arctic wind journeying to the ground
When shrubs renounce her conjugative hand to death
She rustles giving up her murmuring breath

When fateful fatality beckons on Irawe, she falls
And never sleeps atop the tree again
the secluded stem of the tree becomes her ancestral home
as they form yards of carpet beneath the mother tree
Scary serene breeze whistles at dawn and dusk
within the four walls of many acres allotted to them
It shall be said, "Sand for sand; ashes for ashes"
different epitaphs at the roof of their blessed homes.

copyright 2015. Warning: Do not copy!

18 Likes 1 Share

Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:00pm On Jan 16, 2015
Tag: Laykorn
Texanomaly
Timpaker
Oahray
Everestdebliu
Krystalxxx
Buqqui
Firestar
Gloriaz
Johnbright
JigsawKillah
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 8:10pm On Jan 16, 2015
.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Oahray: 8:44pm On Jan 16, 2015
Such vivid imagery. Wow... Make I settle down digest this food smiley
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 9:37pm On Jan 16, 2015
Lianzer, read and review, please.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 10:27pm On Jan 16, 2015
I won't cry cry no I refuse to be driven by emotions
Beautiful piece
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by timpaker(m): 12:24am On Jan 17, 2015
Nice one bro! I sure can relate with this piece. What form did you use?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by texanomaly(f): 3:32am On Jan 17, 2015
What is Irawe? I Googled it and I got a Yoruba Nollywood movie. It's a lovely poem, but why do I get the feeling there is something I'm missing because I'm not Yoruba, or even African?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:03am On Jan 17, 2015
texanomaly:
What is Irawe? I Googled it and I got a Yoruba Nollywood movie. It's a lovely poem, but why do I get the feeling there is something I'm missing because I'm not Yoruba, or even African?
Irawe is a yoruba word for those dead (dry) leaves. You aren't missing though, there's a yoruba proverb that says, "when leaves get dried and are ready to fall from tree, nothing can stop them."

That means the leaves change their home from the 'tree' down to the 'ground', so it's a metaphor for humans, every mortal life will surely depart the world (Mother Tree) into the ground irrespective of their ages. In the poem, 'green, yellow, and gold leaves' represent various ages. That is death does not consider age. 'Gold leaves' are the accomplished old humans. 'Green leaves' are those who die young.

Now I think this helps and you're no longer missing. I wanted to write it in Yoruba, but to reach wider audience. Ayaf type enough abeg, phew!

Thanks for reading, Tex.

4 Likes 1 Share

Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:14am On Jan 17, 2015
timpaker:
Nice one bro! I sure can relate with this piece. What form did you use?

No definite form, it's free verse.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 8:17am On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:


No definite form, it's free verse.
Ol' poets still in free verse. Inspire us Dammy, abeg. We need sonnets. grin
Ayamlaykorn
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:22am On Jan 17, 2015
laykorn:

Ol' poets still in free verse. Inspire us Dammy, abeg. We need sonnets. grin
Ayamlaykorn

Sonnets? I will have to SIT down and write that. Okay, I wrote one erstwhile. How about that?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 8:25am On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:


Sonnets? I will have to SIT down and write that. Okay, I wrote one erstwhile. How about that?
Link?

Lol, I tried to write some myself. Not good enough to be shared embarassed lol. One hard thing to write.
Ayamlaykorn
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:29am On Jan 17, 2015
laykorn:

Link?

Lol, I tried to write some myself. Not good enough to be shared embarassed lol. One hard thing to write.
Ayamlaykorn

I will scour through and repost in this section.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 8:35am On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:


I will scour through and repost in this section.
Dammy, check this:
www.nairaland.com/2097730/word-picture-recharge-challenge-submission-thread
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 8:46am On Jan 17, 2015
laykorn:

Dammy, check this:
www.nairaland.com/2097730/word-picture-recharge-challenge-submission-thread

I have been there. It's going on well, but eliminate the requirement of 5 lines. It's a weekly thing. You garrit?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by timpaker(m): 9:46am On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:


No definite form, it's free verse.
From my observation you wrote the first and sixth stanza(s) in verse(s), the second and fifth stanza are written in blank verse(s). Free verses aren't suppose to rhyme or follow a particular rhyming pattern bro.

Some few features of Blank Verse
1. Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.
2. It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
3. It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the poems in which
a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
4. Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iambic pentameter. I hope you understand?

3 Likes

Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by texanomaly(f): 1:32pm On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:
Irawe is a yoruba word for those dead (dry) leaves. You aren't missing though, there's a yoruba proverb that says, "when leaves get dried and are ready to fall from tree, nothing can stop them."

That means the leaves change their home from the 'tree' down to the 'ground', so it's a metaphor for humans, every mortal life will surely depart the world (Mother Tree) into the ground irrespective of their ages. In the poem, 'green, yellow, and gold leaves' represent various ages. That is death does not consider age. 'Gold leaves' are the accomplished old humans. 'Green leaves' are those who die young.

Now I think this helps and you're no longer missing. I wanted to write it in Yoruba, but to reach wider audience. Ayaf type enough abeg, phew!

Thanks for reading, Tex.

Wow! I knew there was some story behind this. You did a great job with this poem. I got so much of its meaning without knowing the Yoruba proverb or what "Irawe" means. I knew it was significant though. Thanks for explaining. Lovely
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Nobody: 2:38pm On Jan 17, 2015
OMA4U:


I have been there. It's going on well, but eliminate the requirement of 5 lines. It's a weekly thing. You garrit?
okay, i'll do that.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 2:41pm On Jan 17, 2015
timpaker:
From my observation you wrote the first and sixth stanza(s) in verse(s), the second and fifth stanza are written in blank verse(s). Free verses aren't suppose to rhyme or follow a particular rhyming pattern bro.

Some few features of Blank Verse
1. Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.
2. It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
3. It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the poems in which
a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
4. Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iambic pentameter. I hope you understand?

I got you clearly. I purposely made stanza one and six quatrain(s) to call attentions to those particular stanzas ( just like chorus in a song is repeated ).

Thanks for enlightening me on Blank Verse. Any more observations?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 2:46pm On Jan 17, 2015
texanomaly:


Wow! I knew there was some story behind this. You did a great job with this poem. I got so much of its meaning without knowing the Yoruba proverb or what "Irawe" means. I knew it was significant though. Thanks for explaining. Lovely
Thanks, ma'am. Did you also get it that the last stanza represents 'cemetary' and 'tombs for the dead'?
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by JigsawKillah(m): 5:25pm On Jan 17, 2015
nice piece......wish I can write like this
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by OMA4U(m): 7:17pm On Jan 17, 2015
JigsawKillah:
nice piece......wish I can write like this

Okay o, I hear you. I still hold you in high reverence. Jigsaw boss, na you o.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by lianzer(f): 8:00pm On Jan 17, 2015
Interesting, guess you have a thing for nature…
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by elohorayodele: 1:20am On Jan 19, 2015
Una no de sleep
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by KingEbukasBlog(m): 1:22am On Jan 19, 2015
nice

www.kingebuka.com
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by ril19(m): 1:24am On Jan 19, 2015
poets are one hell of a thinking group of people mehn.

kudos to y'all.

1 Like

Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by classiclee(m): 1:26am On Jan 19, 2015
space booked
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by Quatermaine: 1:28am On Jan 19, 2015
.
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by sheddo619(m): 1:29am On Jan 19, 2015
Nice peom op
Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by ireneony(f): 1:29am On Jan 19, 2015
which copy right, infact i go copy am put for me blog.
you nor go fit do me anything cheesy

2 Likes

Re: Irawe (dry Leaves) by bighead1(m): 1:30am On Jan 19, 2015
irawe o ki'n dajo ile ki o suun

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