I LOVE TO KISS by Mfon Ekott

This is no news, people who are familiar with me are aware that I love to kiss.

The first time I ever did that was in my first year in the university. I was still young and naive that it took a lecturer to show me how to do it.

In one of the classes, my lecturer asked a question and I answered. After I did, he looked at me straight in the eyes. I quivered.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Mfon!” I replied.

“Meet me in my office after this class.” He said while star gazing at me.

“Yes Sir.” I replied in fear, thinking hard if it was right to have answered the question.

After the class, I meandered shyly into his office and it happened.

“Mfon,” he called me, “I know you’re a brilliant girl, I couldn’t help but ask to meet you because I see so much potential in you, but you need to get it done the right way.” He concluded.

“Right way?” I thought to myself. “What could he possibly want with me?” I wondered.

“Hmm… Let me not see what I’ve been hearing of in the ‘tales of a campus girl’ o,” I prayed in my heart.

“Now you’re here, I’ll show you how it’s done.” He finally concluded.

He came closer, passed me a white sheet and right there on his table, we did it.

Yes! I learnt how to kiss.

Ever since that moment, life has been beautiful for me.
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Oh, I forgot to tell you,

KISS, to me, means Keep It Short & Simple.

Yes, my lecturer showed me how to make short and simple sentences in French in his office.

“Keep it short and simple, Mfon. Your answer was correct but the expression was way too long, clumsy, and loaded with jargons.” That’s what he told me.

He also said that when a sentence is too long, there is a possibility of it not making sense. This was true.

Since then, I found it easier to construct simple and clear sentences in French.

It got better.
.
.

I also apply this rule in life.

“Always do the right thing and avoid excesses.” – Anonymous.

Live simply and enjoy the benefits of life, don’t overstress yourself unnecessarily.

• Stop waiting till the dine minute to rush to get things done.

• Stop going all out to help people to whom you should simple tell ‘sorry’ and pass.

• Stop investing your energy into fruitless relationships with people.

• Stop going overboard for people who are not worth it and would not do same for you.

• Stop searching for love where friendship is needed.

• Stop giving commitment to temporary events.

• Stop stressing yourself monitoring another people’s activities.

• Stop giving in your all where a very little effort is required.

• Stop putting in effort when you should just let it go..
(I can’t list them all).

Just stop it mbok, live a simple life.

Above all, MIND YOUR BUSINESS, you will live longer.

Yet, in all these things, LET YOUR SIMPLICITY BE GUIDED BY DISCIPLINE, and not careless attitude, you will soar..

In life, don’t ever forget the KISS principle, you will need it.
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À bon entendeur salut! 👋
.
..

PS: With much respect to Dr. S. F. Nzuanke, the most principled lecturer ever.
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.
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#Bonjour

#Day24
#MyPenMyThoughts

© Mfon Ekott

Mfon Ekott is a Language consultant, French instructor, A Writer and a great Poet who hail from Akwa-Ibom State. To check more of her works, go to her Facebook Page Mfon Ekott.

IMAGO

this is between me against the mirror;
the conflicts and the constraints,
the truth and the dare do or don’t.
will i say i become an adult today,
who watches the Cuppy woman flaunting wealth
from the hard-work, restricted by my
mental pull of a hatch
if i could just propel my brightly dark wings,
leaving arms and legs on the stem of a blue ivy
who nurtured me with the nectar, secreted
after my world had been hatched to larva
till now. this image is a freak,
i am the world itself in a mirror, lifeless.

Natur’s Pictur N’quill. 2019.

Letter of The Past

when I was the boy child,
stones were un-useful
but a weapon, to destroy.
now that I am learning life
of stones, useful to uphold
and restore
the crumbling edifice…
my boy child was strong,
so strong to found me here strong
and make me here made.
father, forgive…

©natur’s pictur n’quill.

Lust by Jaiye_Taiwo

Bathe with me in a pool of chilly water,
With the foams floating and our bodies shivering,
Goose bumps allover, my nipples erect
Our bodies shaking with lust

Lay me on a bed of roses
With candles lit and soft music playing,
The lights off.,the windows open and soft breeze blowing
Whisper into my ear, the things you want to do to me
I don’t care if it hurts, Give me a love bite.. just do it..
Touch me from the hair on my head to the nails on my toe

Tickle my fancy,
Make me go wild with lust,
Make my eyes yearn for your stare,
My ears for your words,
My lips for your kiss,
My body for your touch

Make me go wild with lust
Give me all of you
I will give you all of me
Make me hot and cold
Make me smile and cry
Give me pain and pleasure..
Make Love to me…

©Jaiyeola Taiwo Khadijat

Reasons and Redwoods by Richard Wilson Moss

I would climb redwoods
I have my reasons
But there at the top of them
Clouds confer, droplets talk of jumping
Angels are angry, seething
How dare one break into heaven
Picking the lock of hell.

© Richard Wilson Moss.

Letters xxix

To His Diamond and Gold

Never belittle the trials of the weak
who, on his twenty-ninth’ pace
calls at the banter from your face
that see no star sparkles but glitters
in tears, wiped away in awful display
of your handkerchief!

Natur’s Pictur N’quill

 

SQI 2017 National Independence Day Writing Competition

There is always a question on the mind of people during summer holidays. “How best can students spend their time?” SQI has however provided an answer this time. It is really exciting. We are putting students’ writing skills to work.
THEME

THE LAWS OF A NATION AS THE FOUNDATION OF HER FORTUNE
INTRODUCTION

Nations have risen and nations have fallen apart, all in accordance with how the citizens of these nations relate with the constituted laws.
As against the forthcoming 57th independence anniversary of this great nation; Nigeria; on October 1st, Speak Quill Initiative welcomes essay contributions from all young people who are not only the determining factor of Nigeria’s future but are also actors in the Nigerian project.
Secondary school students from all parts of the country are hereby invited to utilize this platform to project their opinions on how the laws of a nation can either influence its growth and development or otherwise.
GUIDELINE/MODE of OF SUBMISSION

*Write and submit an essay between 320 to 500 words on the theme. 

*The competition is open to students in JSS One(1) to SSS Two(2) in registered secondary schools across the country. 

*Entries should be forwarded to speakquillinitiative@gmail.com as attachment in *MsWord document with IDWC2017 as subject.

*Entry opens for submission from 1st of August to 15th of September.

*Entrants should include a cover page containing their name, location, mail address, class, school and telephone contact.
PRIZES

BICYCLE…1ST PRIZE

ELECTRIC FAN…2ND PRIZE

BACK PACK…3RD PRIZE

…and load of gifts to go home with.

Write and win fantastic prizes on independence day.
PS: Parents, Guardians and Teachers can help forward for maximum broadcast.

_Spoils of the War_

_spoils of the war_
*_(An epistle)_*

_Larinnaka !_ 

Come forth,that I might anoint your forehead,

With this palm wine that forsake fermentation,

When the moon walks upon the absence of the sun,

You shall see the crest of the seventh night,

Then you’d be a masquerade of your old self,

For only the brazen endure nights with two faced ancestress in _igbale_,

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
_Larinnaka !_ 

Today,you’re brute but not an ogre,

He that shall learn this art must taste blood,

This blood is the sap of the ancestral tree,

Where _Akara-Ogun_ took shield by the footsteps of an enigma,

He who taste this blood becomes invincible,

For deep in the nights, _Orunmila_ will chant unto indemnified souls..

_A kii mo ori ahun ka pa ahun_

_A kii mo oriki ile,ki o gbe ni de_

_Eni fi ikarahun mu eje s’oogun aiku_

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
_Larinnaka !_ 

The coast is clear,for the sun is in its ripe age

The stallions keep neighing, for souls are soon to be mislaid

I will ride on this stallion, I’d be your stallion

Ride on my very inguen,to learn this art of valor

Today,I will fight and sheathe this sword into its scabbard

Tomorrow,you’ll fight and never sheathe this sword into its scabbard..

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
_Larinnaka !_

No one leaves the shrine without a vanguard,

But heed, _Obatala_

Heed _Olukoso_

Heed _Sonponna_

Heed _Esu Ebita_

Heed the sixteen _odus_ of _Ifa_ the diviner

This impending combat is a junction of blood,

For life and death exists within a thin strand,

But when this strand of hair falls into a flowing river…

Wives shall paint the bones of their husbands in black palette,

Sons shall remember their fathers in the dirge of a quill,

Mothers shall exhume rotten placentas in memories of valiant sons,

Daughters would wish their spouses were their fathers..

But this land,would only wax stronger for a selfless sacrifice,

It is martyrdom…it is a sacrifice !

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
II.

I am _Larinnaka !_

I am not a coward but I would rather take shield under a bamboo leaf,

I am yet but an apprentice who knows not the face of the Grim reaper,

How do I send a soul on an errand to the Elysian fields ? 

If I do learn this art, _Alao_ who purloined my woman will be no more

Even _Tolani_ who fled from my seeds,would go on this journey

But maybe by the setting dawn,I might learn this art

To chant the enchanting chants of _Orunmila_ 

_Kijipa ee se egbe awo maalu_

_Igi ti ara Oshin fojudi lo fo leyinju otun_

_Ete ti o kan aditi Ira,o ni je o kiyesi kurukuru ojo_

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
I am _Larinnaka !_

And my eyes have witnessed terror..

Terror sight of a skull inscribed upon the hills,

Eyes of an innocent lad plucked out by an ogre,

I have witnessed the slain of a merchant,

Who traipsed into the cold hands of death,

On a gory day when his feet should have ceased to walk,

His blood is the liquor for hotblooded swordsmiths,

His blood a shea butter for he who can’t afford Vaseline,

Amidst ignorant wails, came the emergence of frabjous eulogies..

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor. 
I am _Larinnaka !_

And I have seen gory gore..

Before my blurry eyes,a maiden has won an epitaph,

Her appealing hair now scraped off,the shadow of _Ajirebi_,

Her inguen unveiled by hungry soldiers who haven’t seen their wives in seasons,

This is a story that must not be told,

But an art that must be bequeathed like _ajogunba_,

This is the art of war,the anatomy of valor.
But then.. I surged up from this mental state,

Prying through roots and stems for my father,

But all the earth could give was his amulet

And a sheathed sword in its now bloodstained scabbard,

This must be the art of war,

For no anatomy of valor proves supreme than this..

_©BALOGUN YUSUF GEMINI._

Balogun Alabi Yusuf,popularly referred as Gemini,is a novelist,playwright,poet,author and a teacher. Most of his writings are known for idiosyncrasy as he appreciate traditions and culture. His works have featured on several blogs and he’s currently a resident of Lagos,where he writes. He could be reached via +2348181400105 or yusufbalo15@gmail.com

Examination Hall by Ezeali Testimony

​Examination hall

        By Ezeali Testimony

In an examination hall

I am left alone in the wilderness

A hall where no one accompany me. 

A jungle where its path leads me to face its king.

A hall where there’s no time

to rest, except my residual knowledge

wins with absolute understanding…

Its road, so wide but passage tight

Left with me would eyes read me

Amidst success; my utmost goal.

©Ezeali Testimony (12years)

Ezeali Testimony is a young girl of twelve who is currently in Junior Secondary 3 Class in Oshboug Modern Secondary School, Ogba Lagos. Her first poem caught my attention while I was having a creative class with them and I think it worth sharing on my blog. Will like more of her works and other young writers, poets and creative mind published on my blog to improve African Re-creativity. This is my first post of this year, I think you will love it!

Not A Season of Songs by Ridwan Adelaja

this heart

tonight 

sing not of love 

for the door that 

leads inside is broken 

and the hinges in between 

growing gaps like 

rusted fetters. Don’t ask

who -my brothers broke 

it: a tale of cock-lords

in cockroach den.

*

this heart

tonight

no longer feel 

at home at home

for the suffering of my people

drum thunders to my ear.

*

I am a widow 

married once again to 

aloneness, watching the 

sweep-change-finger of 

the clock from a 

distance.

*

this blow is heavy,

this wound is 

eating in; will

time ever a-flesh 

my bone?

POET ADELAJA RIDWAN OLAYIWOLA is the founder of SPEAK QUILL INITIATIVE, a youth led organisation for peace, science and national development in the country using education as a formidable tool. As a poet, his works have been published in numerous poetry websites, book anthologies and magazines. Mr Adelaja Ridwan is a dynamic multi-talented personality. He is a versed speaker, writer (poet), journalist and social media savvy. He currently serves as social media manager for the GREENBLES NETWORK.​