Henry Akuete: My Poems and some

All she wanted was to taste love looking into the wide grey heavens she made rain with her warm tears wetting the sour earth from within but nothing grew from it all only for a lonely seed of sorrow sprouting from the barren earth it bore a bitter fruit poison to taste this she got when love she sought she cried thunder loud and long she spat out hail and whirlwinds it quaked when she fell to the ground but she was still alone, all alone nobody heard her song, nobody came all she had was the bitter black fruit cold and lifeless in her pale hands hungry and starving for nought but love she closed her eyes and took a long bite in that moment her heart was frozen and broken to a thousand red pieces this was not suicide, no it wasn't make no mistake, it was murder

Call me, draw me, hold me Make me kneel and bend In the wind and rain whip me Tear my skin away in pain As you forge me with the cane Drain me of joy and light In my own sorrow drown me Call my name in the dark And let the fright chain me I'm a slave to your long will Take my name away from me Let me know only your cold whistle Nail me to an inverted cross For agony is all you give me Drag me through the rough streets Let me know the beauty of shame As they spit on me and mock me While dogs lick my open wounds feed me my own nauseous waste Give me my piss for wine i drink I am no man before your sight Burn me when I'm still alive When to a stake you tie me Let me know no sleep in the night Leave me to the mercy of wolves And the howling hoots of grey owls As i lie on your cold threshold Give me pain and tears all day But all i ask of you till death Dont leave me all alone

Not all poetry is sweet, Not every line is beautiful Life is not a comedy,This poem is not beautiful It is dark and otherworldly, Drawn from dark energy With lines written in black ink Ink made from dark matter and grey ether Im not a living poet, im a dead poet For my poetry is not for the living The living are deaf and blind Call me a dead poet because i die when i write I bleed my very soul onto this papyrus So by the time im done my hand falls Call me accursed because all true poets are cursed Cursed to die and rise again to write To die when we write and write when we die Our souls eternally trapped in limbo Only to be freed by the very truth that haunts us So we write to be free, to tell truth that makes us hated My skin is covered with ancient rune tattoos Every poem i write burned unto my own flesh By seven arch angels with my own blood and tears With my pen i stab my chest everyday Tearing my heart out for immolation on the alter of truth This is not the

Its in the flow of the ether in the noise and the crowd where flows truths unknown and lies become upended still in the ether the past is present the present comes to the past what was in the ebbs and waves the tide will bring it to bear in the ether all is still possible so do not say it cannot be make no mistake about reality the unreal is what you once knew in the ether life is a river the river is the ether you see flowing through the senses yet without notice to most tap ye into the silent ether fetch from the ancient fountain fill your cup with this here truth knowledge to quench your thirst

the shadow, the perpetual shadow standing tall above my dome silently creeping behind me walking on my dark foot prints in the dark it only remains darker in the rain it still towers over me it must not be my own shadow my shadow wouldn't be over me but still it persists in the brightest day in my dreams its casts a dark figure tall when all bows to the howling wind i am scared to turn about me now for what i see will tear my soul out so i walk on with my chin to my chest eyes closed to all around me now chastised by the silent sound behind behind and above it is absent ahead anchor to my forward movement if i fail where i now must go then it is for my fright for the shadow the shadow, the shadow, the shadow

I see no meaning in this even harder when i ask i was born and i will die a flame bright to smoulder where is the scale's center the balance we call truth men are not equal in the sun dwarves run among giants the coin chooses who to love what she sees i do not know falling in the arms of ogres better men die alone and cold i wish she will smile at me when we cross paths at the market but i am invisible to her i think she stays faithful to death while i covert another man's wife why won't she love me women can love more than one

Our women are gone we are married to ghosts we stay all night weeping for them weeping for glory days past when our women were dark and proud walking tall in the noonday sun we would beat our chest loudly that is my woman in the marketplace until they sent us a vile disease to wipe out our women and leave us this disease that first made them mad mad so much as to hate their skin this skin which made them envied by white women in the western halls in madness they peeled their skin in pain we watched them turn white poisoned by their own hands we saw now they walk among us pale shadows grey ghosts in our own cold beds our children know them no more for the mothers of black Africa are no longer black.                      

I'm a little man on a little road Against the four elements i battle Earth, wind, water and fire fighting I bleed my own soul from within When i fall from the hatred of gravity Face has seen the farthest reaches And blown about by the four winds In reverse do i see time spinning When the crow went before the hour Truly I'm but an old beast of burden As my sins weigh heavily on me I carry myself like accursed Cronus Through the dunes of the hourglass My eyes spill silver rivers of tears When i cry to curse the lofty gods against supreme and higher forces Alone to lick wounds and count losses Pray me to ride the wings of pegasus Away from these shadow demons Spit from the deepest pits hades To haunt my mind and drive me mad Lookin Into the grey and dim future I see me in me on the highest peak Surrounded my a thousand crows My foes slain around with Excalibur Lo still do i see my father's fathers All those who fell before my birth Then i know the fa

The thing that dares to be when the world is same to me insane it is when i choose to kneel praying to a god i cannot see my faith is weak my hope is deep deepened by pain my eyes they bleed religion. an ideal i share a refuge for me when life is pain a place i hide when i cant explain religion. my mark my name my curse my bane my gift my jazz my drug my game religion the thing it is that takes me there when i believe that all is well when i am healed and freed from hell life is new and sin is fell religion you bring me God and call me blood creed on creed the sword is law god on god the earth is gore stone a dame she is a whore religion oh damned be thou i wish begone so we could sing a happier song no more deceived when veil is none the bird would sing when shines the sun religion your name is lost, your pride is poor your way unfound when chaos is law God betrayed by what you cause vile, violated, soiled on the floor religion, why religion?

begone, begone oh demon of chaos like smoke in the wind, away your writers block conjure for me my cherished muse to sit on my shoulder and bleed my hand

My eyes have seen and my mouth is mum I cant summon words for what i've seen It scares the very life of me and i quiver I sweat salt water and blood as i stand Is it but a bad dream in which reality is cruel? My wish to wake never bears ripe fruit As i eat the raw and bitter seed of existence My skin is plagued and thick as i look Chastised by the long whip of what i behold I cried on the day of my birth as i realised  truth I tried desperate retreat into whence i came But my umbilical was severed by a midwife Conspiring to trap me in this dark cycle Now i hate two who summoned me without consent This soul came and went a while before Hoping never to come once again In limbo all was still and all was calm Now all i know is strife and all i see is fear Hate envy spite war greed terror and pain Give me a dagger to quench these here eyes For what i see not hurts me no further Give me wax to plug these here ears What i hear not is for myth and sailors My eyes hav

When will i die this death when will it be done away with because the how is certain death will come on the battlefield shot or blown is how i go They send me out into the night to fight he with more metal he knows I'm on my way now he waits to pounce and devour me this i know and sure to go I am sent out naked and hungry this order i know to be my last i write a note to send back home I stop to pray and wipe my brow as i step into the waiting night All i know is the man by me brother to bleed and breathe our last a soldier i am my fate is sealed they sent me to die and die i will no coin, no gun, no boot no food

Wait, listen. Hush, listen Its in the wind. listen closely When the birds sing listen As the waves come crashing listen The owl hoots in the dark, listen Open your ears and listen a while Mystery comes undone in them The small and silent are books Read the sounds and understand Tap into the ether and learn For the birds are wiser than Solomon Listen to the songs they sing The songs of joy and songs of fear Watch for when they fly and whence For in that lies the key to survival Beg the little ant to give speech Beg him for the secrets to all The cockroach was at the beginning At the creation of matter and time The fish has been to the very depths He has seen the most unseen At the place where the sun cant shine Listen when the water is still The subtle ripples will take it to you Look to the east when the sun rises Follow its path across the sky west Look keenly and learn to live Listen, hush, listen my brother Eavesdrop into the raindrop as it falls Peek in

Bring me a dog it is better than man Bring me a dog whom i wish to be Bring me a dog it sees the world Bring me a dog it hears and learns Bring me a dog its friend is a friend Bring me a dog it upholds loyalty Bring me a dog it walks by truth Bring me a dog it will not pretend. Bring me a dog its life is simple Bring me a dog it knows no creed Bring me dog for it sees no colour Bring me a dog its either right or wrong Bring me a dog for man is but a fool Bring me a dog it wont lie to itself Bring me a dog for man is a hypocrite Bring me a dog I've lost faith in men Bring me a dog it will not betray me Bring me a dog when you see one Bring me no man but bring me a dog

The youth in Benue state are still a long way from self liberation. Its high time they started realizing that the common good is far better than individual gains. I find it embarassing to hear that someone only wants to vote for a political candidate just because "he is from my LGA" or "he is my uncle's friend so me sef go chop" etc. At this age of enlightenment we should be concerned with the improvement of the benue economy and equitable distribution of the common wealth so that we are able to reap the bread of our endeavour. You dont need a politician to give you 10k , what you need is an environment to make your 'hustling' worth your while. That is the promise of a developed and industrialised economy. The basis for which a guber candidate should be voted for should only be his capacity to provide the prerequisite socio economic environment conducive for the individual or collective pursuit of happiness. Its not about how young or how old, neither is

In the wake of the just concluded presidential plebiscite in Benue state, the law of causality has become evident in the machinations within the political sphere. Events are occurring and these events have remote and immediate causes. It is true that at the federal level, power has been unhinged and shifted from from the "ruling" PDP to the  opposition  in a surreal political Armageddon. Now the APC holds sway as the majority party by virtue of winning the presidential election and holding the majority of seats in the legislative chambers. What now becomes the fate of the gubernatorial aspirants in both the PDP and the APC in Benue state is akin to the unknown climax of a champions league final between two footballing titans. This is heightened most severely by the fact that the principal of the incumbent government Dr Gabriel Suswam, himself the de facto leader of the PDP in Benue state was defeated by a candidate of the opposition APC, Chief Senator Barnabas Gemade in the z

Wait, listen. Hush, listen Its in the wind. listen closely When the birds sing listen As the waves come crashing listen The owl hoots in the dark, listen Open your ears and listen a while Mystery comes undone in them The small and silent are books Read the sounds and understand Tap into the ether and learn For the birds are wiser than Solomon Listen to the songs they sing The songs of joy and songs of fear Watch for when they fly and whence For in that lies the key to survival Beg the little ant to give speech Beg him for the secrets to all The cockroach was at the beginning At the creation of matter and time The fish has been to the very depths He has seen the most unseen At the place where the sun cant shine Listen when the water is still The subtle ripples will take it to you Look to the east when the sun rises Follow its path across the sky west Look keenly and learn to live Listen, hush, listen my brother Eavesdrop into the raindrop as it falls Peek