inverseparanoia:
Hello, lovers of poetry, who's your favorite Poet, which of his poem do you love most? Post your favorite line in the poem...
Alan E. Poe is my most admired poet.
I love his "Annabelle Lee" most.
Favorite line:

"For the moon never beams
Without bringing me dreams"

teejay29:
Soyinka wole :abiku

Gbadebo19:
Wooohooooo!!!
I would go for "Kofi Awoonor"
I love his "Songs of sorrow" best

Richy4:
Songs of Sorrow by Kofi Awoonor..

Dzogbese Lisa has treated me thus
It has led me among the sharps of the forest
Returning is not possible
And going forward is a great difficulty
The affairs of this world are like the chameleon feces
Into which I have stepped
When I clean it cannot go.1

I am on the world's extreme corner,
I am not sitting in the row with the eminent
But those who are lucky
Sit in the middle and forget
I am on the world's extreme corner
I can only go beyond and forget.

My people, I have been somewhere
If I turn here, the rain beats me
If I turn there the sun burns me
The firewood of this world
Is for only those who can take heart
That is why not all can gather it.
The world is not good for anybody
But you are so happy with your fate;
Alas! The travelers are back
All covered with debt.

II.
Something has happened to me
The things so great that I cannot weep;
I have no sons to fire the gun when I die
And no daughters to wail when I close my mouth
I have wandered on the wilderness
The great wilderness men call life
The rain has beaten me,
And the sharp stumps cut as keen as knives
I shall go beyond and rest.
I have no kin and no brother,
Death has made war upon our house;

And Kpeti's great household is no more,
Only the broken fence stands;
And those who dared not look in his face
Have come out as men.
How well their pride is with them.
Let those gone before take note
They have treated their offspring badly.
What is the wailing for?
Somebody is dead. Agosu himself
Alas! A snake has bitten me
My right arm is broken,
And the tree on which I lean is fallen.

Agosi if you go tell them,
Tell Nyidevu, Kpeti, and Kove
That they have done us evil;
Tell them their house is falling
And the trees in the fence
Have been eaten by termites;
That the martels curse them.
Ask them why they idle there
While we suffer, and eat sand.
And the crow and the vulture
Hover always above our broken fences
And strangers walk over our portion.

omoredia:
Jagabandit

He tried the first time he fell

He tried the second time he fell again

He tried the third time he fell again

He was sobbing on tv like a baby

tundeabib1:

Beautiful!

Realists:
My favorite poet is Imru' al-Qais (501-565)
"May You Be Happy This Morning, Worn Traces!
How many a day, a night I'd spend
with a woman, stark as a statue outlined,
her face aglow as she turns to her mate
like softly radiant candle light;
her breast like the flare of a generous fire
by chilled men lit in the desert at night
in the wind come roving across the hills,
north, south, at the caravan staging posts.

Clear-cheeked, in her teens, so playful yet
that she makes me forget my clothes when I leave;
with rounds like the dunes that as children we loved
to tread for their smooth and velvety touch.
When her lover strips her, wanting all,
she leans to him lightly, holding back;
slim at the waist and firm as she twists
with quickening breath from intoxicant lips.

Richy4:

Honestly Kofi.. was an excellent African poet..So original..

tundeabib1:
Just getting the reminiscence of good old days. We would jokingly recite the poem anytime things got difficult when we were in the University. I wonder what happened to the reading cultures. The other day I was searching frantically bookshops in Lagos for any African Writers series' novels. I found none! So pathetic.

You were really lucky to have circle of friends that loved literature while you were in the university... I was all alone in that...

My love for literature while in secondary school was as a result of the fact that we had an exceptional teacher from Ghana... I wanted to run away from it like my friends did when we were told of the number of books we have to read in order to pass ..
I simply encouraged myself that since I was kind of good in English language, literature in English will not be much of a problem..

We kick started with the trial of Brother Jero, it went well, my biggest challenge was the Shakespeare but our teacher was there to explain away all those horrifying English language...

I turned out to be the best in my set.. during prize giving day, I was rewarded with a miserable book Gullivers Travel.. when I opened the gift... Chai!!!.. I remembered my friends were laughing their lungs out at my misery..

Richy4:


You were really lucky to have circle of friends that loved literature while you were in the university... I was all alone in that...

My love for literature while in secondary school was as a result of the fact that we had an exceptional teacher from Ghana... I wanted to run away from it like my friends did when we were told of the number of books we have to read in order to pass ..
I simply encouraged myself that since I was kind of good in English language, literature in English will not be much of a problem..

We kick started with the trial of Brother Jero, it went well, my biggest challenge was the Shakespeare but our teacher was there to explain away all those horrifying English language...

I turned out to be the best in my set.. during prize giving day, I was rewarded with a miserable book Gullivers Travel.. when I opened the gift... Chai!!!.. I remembered my friends were laughing their lungs out at my misery..

Teco2:
William Wordsworth

Richy4:


You were really lucky to have circle of friends that loved literature while you were in the university... I was all alone in that...

My love for literature while in secondary school was as a result of the fact that we had an exceptional teacher from Ghana... I wanted to run away from it like my friends did when we were told of the number of books we have to read in order to pass ..
I simply encouraged myself that since I was kind of good in English language, literature in English will not be much of a problem..

We kick started with the trial of Brother Jero, it went well, my biggest challenge was the Shakespeare but our teacher was there to explain away all those horrifying English language...

I turned out to be the best in my set.. during prize giving day, I was rewarded with a miserable book Gullivers Travel.. when I opened the gift... Chai!!!.. I remembered my friends were laughing their lungs out at my misery..