The black orphan boy says
By Ajani Samuel Victor Everything is music. The saunter of dried leaves in a bereaved city. The crackle of creaks in a deserted home. The prana of my mother on the physician’s mat. I wish to psalm my life into…
poetry column
Onboard the chaos caravan
By Njikonye Charles N. somewhere in the west of Africa, the sky is plummeting its blue is smeared by terror, & every evening star, running we swerve our tongues into cathedrals of prayers, for violence gushes into each second like…
Graffiti
By Damilola Omotoyinbo here, a man sail storms with a paddle carved out of his fear. a heart mourns the loss of bliss. a mind empties itself of its memories. a woman traces the map. to a home that won’t…
An offering of lamentations to the wind
By Joshua Effiong I learned the best way to live is die / with your heart kicking, like what a fetus does to its fragile home / your eyelids flickering like lightning // I have learned to fetch the stars…
Lines written in the days of unrequited forgetfulness
By Gideon Emmanuel Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. – Billy Collins childhood memories are like lanterns…
Epistolary about the Birds
By Olalekan Daniel Kehinde on the head of green hopes nested whits of weeds towering into empires; small colonies carving circumferences of warmth, bordered landmarks. son, brave beaks formed these homes with veiny bones from skeletal trees. the birds, they…
At the Confessional
After Anthony Okpunor’s “Confession” By Charles Nnanna there’s a hole in this poem. a buried hole. each line is a seed in the quiet; cracking, desperate for daybreak: see a soul longing for a body, see a tongue toiling to…
My uncle explains why his knuckles are full of scars
By Ehiorobo Derek My body is a wild flower that only blooms at night. When the day comes, I rise with the sun, you see, I consider myself its student. I have always been given to combustion. Once, when I…
Abu Ibrahim (IB) Plays Voice of Conscience in Music Has Failed Us
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera The spoken word poetry album, “Music has Failed Us” is the debut album by the poet Abu Ibrahim who goes by the stage name, “IB.” Along with other poets from around the world, they are currently advocating…
CLOSED PERIOD: WEEKLY POETRY COLUMN
Poetry Column-NND is currently closed for submissions as our updated Submission Guidelines specify. Closed Period: From October to December, we do not receive unsolicited poetry submissions but will instead publish works carefully selected by our curators, if possible. General submissions will open…