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Poetry Column
We are pleased to announce that Ojo Victoria Ilemobayo is the new Graphic Designer of Poetry Column-NND. Ojo Victoria Ilemobayo is a Nigerian literary enthusiast whose works have appeared in Christian Century, Christian Courier, Ake Review, Typehouse, Thema, Sunlight Press, Eboquills, Non-Binary Review, A Coup of Owl, Firebrand, Mad Swirl, Flash Frog, Eco Punk, Mande, ...
Poetry Column
By I Echo "haunting fevers strangers shared in the hulls,never to break after centuries on land"— Ishion Hutchinson, 'His Idylls at Happy Grove' Happiness makes a clearing for meto walk through the morning light with healing. A greyed conscience.The dotted dress. The stained mouth, its heavy breath. I am far from the crime. But, I ...
Poetry Column
for F—By Isaiah AdepojuEverywhere I am is dark matter. Between us the concentration of distance.Afternoon carries on aimless. Panels of bodies trundle in the rust of sun,Bleak, pliant-boned. Equinox the ash of day. The ghost of happeningAnd death. Draw close behind curtain’s memory. For you’re my wakingMoment. My glory of East. My wind in tousled ...
Poetry Column
By Olamilekan Wahab The flood is walking back to its shore,snail to its old shell,shame to its old self.Somehow,there are little feathers left on my body,there is a hope as raging as Santa red. I longed for flight many times this year,the closest I could reachwas the tip of a ceiling,my squared corner ceiling.I left ...
Poetry Column
By Omodero David O. At the dawn of eventide, the mind carries in its wombthe burden of prayer. I arrive, once again, at the quiet lake of wonder, where I must tarry upon its solemn bankand await the light draft of your voice to kiss the water. Before the bloom of age, the mortal mound ...
Poetry Column
By Alobu Emmanuel Even with the bottle cap tightened,I do not know how air sneaks in to soften things. Like rock, I used to be tough—edges all jagged and roughuntil I met her eyes & dissolved. The sweet potato is hard-hearted, but the tuber, too bad,breaks in the boiling heat of love. My science student, ...
Poetry Column
By Jamila Abbas as lean as the nightingale song sounds, I haveseen god through these white walls twice.first, through the liquid fussed into myveins & the hallucinations that theseredemption speaks of. call me prophet, singme thongs, the diluted soul from the over-room bouquet.with the lengthiness of mysticismthe wind was poisoned by broken jazz,the water danced ...
Poetry Column
The Folorunsho Editor’s Poetry Prize 2024 has been awarded to Samuel A. Betiku and Marvellous Igwe for their exceptional works, 'Lances at the Hedges of Light' and 'New Man,' respectively. The winners were announced at the 14th Nigerian NewsDirect Lecture and Award Ceremony which took place at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos, drawing a distinguished audience of ...
Poetry Column
Named after the late Publisher of Nigerian NewsDirect, Dr Samuel Folorunsho Ibiyemi, the Folorunsho Editor’s Poetry Prize follows in the tradition of upholding and supporting poetry in Nigeria through its Poetry Column. Only poets published in the Poetry Column in the year under consideration are eligible for this prize. This prize has been bumped up to N200,000 for 2024. The ...
Poetry Column
By Michael Okafor I promise you this poem won’t have any laughter.I have squandered all the joy inside me. I am tiredof carrying myself. Most days I pretend to be dead.Nobody knows where this poem ends—this poemthinks it’ll end happily. Nobody knows where it'sheaded. A dog empties its voice into the dark. I amtraumatised but ...
Poetry Column
Named after the late Publisher of Nigerian NewsDirect, Dr Samuel Folorunsho Ibiyemi, the Folorunsho Editor’s Poetry Prize follows in the tradition of upholding and supporting poetry in Nigeria through its Poetry Column. Only poets published in the Poetry Column in the year under consideration are eligible for this prize. This prize has been bumped up ...
Poetry Column
By Flourish Joshua Sneak the amens out of the cathedral, I wantto make love to them for my supplications. The goal, as it should be, is to outwit the wilt,smear joy on the walls of my room, necklace my laughter. To spare you the metaphors,I desire sufficiency. The golden milk from sunlight’s breast, satiating my ...
Poetry Column
Named after the late Publisher of Nigerian NewsDirect, Dr Samuel Folorunsho Ibiyemi, the Folorunsho Editor’s Poetry Prize follows in the tradition of upholding and supporting poetry in Nigeria through our Poetry Column. This prize has been bumped up to N200,000 for 2024. ELIGIBILITY Only poets published in the Poetry Column in the year under consideration (2024) are eligible for this ...
Poetry Column
By Káyọ̀dé The foggy morning splitsmy lower lip, blistersthe flesh that refuses to submit to its whiteness. I slip outof the embrace of my mother's Ankara—and no blanket warmth rivals its old snug fragrance.I am twenty rivers and hectaresof forests away from home, but the season must do its chore;chisels the softness of my solesinto ...
Poetry Column
Nigerian author Reyumeh Ejue has secured the second-place award in the 2023 Hudson Review Short Fiction contest with his story titled “Full Term.” The piece examines how an individual resists and eventually yields to societal pressures, weaving a meditation on personal agency and compromise. The 2023 edition of the Hudson Review Short Fiction contest received ...
Poetry Column
By Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe Bone-white night. Dead world. All about me, a shimmering river of silver, knife-lit lake of quiet. I have opened my eyes into an inferno of colour. Caribbean sky. Broad leaves and their lemon gaze. Of the gilded day. And the dark skin of a midday shade. The yawns of morning, birdsong. ...
Poetry Column
Poetry Column-NND, in partnership with Abuja International Poetry Festival 2024 (AIPFEST2024), is pleased to announce a call for submission of poems to be published in the Poetry Column of Nigerian NewsDirect on the theme: AFRO-FUTURISM. With globalisation and widespread technological evolution, there has been a certain fear for the place and survival of African culture. ...
Poetry Column
By Aliyu Umar Muhammad The poem can start with him walking backwards into a roomHe takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life— Warsan Shire Little thing,I know how deathgrows in you.I know how life springsyou back fromthe chimney of vermilion.Of million mileswalking to a foot door—memories teachingyou how to ...
Poetry Column
By Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi The whole house, like a body, fenced hot with fleshed clothes that refuse to dry.This, itself, is war, the beginning of the end,the derivation of warmth—like the feeling after a burnraged by a fire of ourselves. We, at the other end of the scale,awaiting a little tip, the mercy of a ...
Poetry Column
By Isaiah Adepoju Every evening wind-intangible,feral shadows burst open the wallsof the city like hand ploughing dead grass.The hard, inarticulate things memory-familiar, loyal to a fault— prise the city’sboughs and sunders, its Recyclable God,beat against morning & the innocence of parks & fountains.In the day of wrath in the day of wrath in the day,Vacuous ...
Poetry Column
By Bright Kingsley To say that it falls—soft yellow & white dew, blue overlays of skyon our faces. Green tides, a rushing wind &itself drenched in the glee of a fading night To say that its floorswere covered in stars, points of short distancesrolling into the edge of a vanishing country.fold. unfold. The burning science ...
Poetry Column
By Joshua Effiong while the night was still young,i called the stars to bear witness to the distillation of my desires.& the wind to wash away the debris that remained. i've become too old forthe body i possess. even my mind aches at the rhythm with whichmy thoughts & dreams engage in a wild romance. ...
Poetry Column
By Oyindamola Shoola For two years, you've huffed and puffed.Yesterday, you did a negativity diet;today, your cure is a sunbath.Tomorrow, it will be a gummy bearthe Kardashians share,and next week, it will be a slimming teapromoted by an Instagram herbalist. Even your madness knows no Godand your salvation is on a diet.When the usher served ...
Poetry Column
By Joemario Umana The world is a museum, and I, a visitor as much as an artifact in it. From where I stand, / absorbing the world the way a sponge absorbswater, / the branches of the tree before me haunt me. /How they look like stretched-out ribs—beautifuland disturbing all at once. / It's a ...
Poetry Column
I followed myself for a long while, deep into the field. – Richard Siken the field is always unfilled, forget the sunshine spilling atopthe land. if the body had wings, it would grasp the air& never let go.where do our shadows go when light is absent? I wonderif they retract into the body, footprints flipping ...
Poetry Column
By Ebuka Evans lord knows, like a child banished afresh from womb, my lips long for the flower of a lover’s nipples. lord knows i do not intend to take from another’s to fill mine but i am a hollow log rolling in the woods waiting to be stopped. lord knows no one can stop ...
Poetry Column
We are pleased to announce that Olumide Manuel is the new Assistant Curator of Poetry Column-NND. He takes over from Ayo W. Oriolowo in this role. Olumide Manuel was one of the inaugural winners of the Nigerian NewsDirect Chapbook Award, for his chapbook, “Hopemonger.” Olumide Manuel is a poet, educator and an environmentalist. He is a 2x nominee of ...
Poetry Column
…Says investing in talent isn’t about immediate returns, but shaping the future By Flourish Joshua In June, Flourish Joshua caught up with Artistic Director, and the Founder of Bowen’s Got Talent, Rotimi Olorunfemi, to discuss the importance of art as a great tool for storytelling. They also explored the role of art directors as critical ...
Poetry Column
By Splendor Victor In this poem, I am not withering anymore.I wake to the petrichor of soft light, and I recalllast night it rained—angel wings drizzlinglike daffodils. And see now, a garden.And butterflies dizzy with joy. God breezes by atevening. He sneezes and I catch a blessing.It is a beloved thing, that this heart, though ...
Poetry Column
By Abdulrazaq Salihu For the people that hold me with fur My misery is a small pill,A body, punished by light& at the threshold of mySuffering my mother stretchesHer hands towards the darknessBefore it touches the flowersIn us, and my mother callsThe evil by its pulse beforeIt reaches for our names& my mother sings a ...