Latest in
…He writes with exquisite sensitivity — Aracelis Girmay…As Michael Aderibigbe dubs Stegner Fellow a “visionary” Adedayo Agarau’s debut full-length poetry collection, The Years of Blood, has received high praise from respected voices in contemporary world literature. Celebrated Nigerian poet Niyi Osundare described the collection as “a haunting horrorscape,” while acclaimed poets Remica Bingham-Risher, Aracelis Girmay, ...
By Blessing Omeiza OjoTo ride tandem on a world built on revolution, our ancestorsmust first unlimber in their graves, & our gods must declinered things, like blood — that of my brothers, of the innocent birds,of lambs — like palm fluid. Listen, there’s a joy outsidefrom the embrace of water. Here, bodies unclutter into a ...
By Osahon Oka The modern age has partitioned the skyinto insurmountable edges, borders that hum in their aloof country with our secrets.Roads sleep like a dazed animal, thunderstruck by the constant fragile hurtling, the screaming metal god.Heaps of gravel and grime gleam with the hope of gems, their light as feverish as the prayer we ...
By Michael Amos Imona Beneath Niger’s twilight, I roam throughveiled horizons. My lens, a witness to dusk’squiet descent; a silent pilgrimage where shadowsblur, and she—my imagined divinity—breathes. Her gaze is the night’s lust for light; an unchartedriver swollen with ache, pulling me beneaththe pulse of daylight, where I— bound to glassand aperture, seek her form ...
By Clement Abayomi Ache begins at the denouement of love. Today, theBleak sky mirrors the gracelessness of my ashen eyes.Coffee tomorrow is the taste of a blood-soaked bile, & myDay-long dreams yearn to liquefy like sugar in hot oil.Eyes, glittering in all its grace without grazing me,For how long will you hold me in your ...
By Emmanuel Somtochukwu FerdinandAt the door leading into Badagry Museum, I was stirred by the somberness of the black air. Every whoosh of the wind was the lamentation of the dead. All the ghosts that had travelled through past events welcomed me, their necks adorned with clusters of rusty chains as pendants. They seized my wrists, ...
By Pacella Chukwuma- EkeThe grass has drunk more water from split veinsthan from rain. I know it is not philosophicalto begin a poem with blood. But yesterday,a sister ran into a field behind the sun, to catch a star,and drowned. Her body a testament to the soil’s wrath.The hands of men bend blood out of ...
We are pleased to announce the finalists of the 2024 edition of NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT CHAPBOOK AWARDS: The NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT CHAPBOOK AWARDS is an initiative of Poetry Column-NND that seeks to promote the voices of Nigerian poets, as the column does weekly in our newspaper. Previous Winners include HOPEMONGER by Olumide Manuel (2022), FOR THE LOVE OF COUNTRY AND MEMORY ...
By Naomi Nduta Waweru I feel God is a river, and when we want, we can run to him for drowning.- Akpa Arinzechukwu except, the waters never learned the intonations to my soft splashes.like the tides, i wanted to touch my shores only temporarily, and expand into a phenomenonthat spits me back into my oceans. ...
By Aishah Ahmad Imam We were born into this fallacy. Utterly.Our fingernails are kept. Hair in an afro or dídì.Beauty is crude & souls, distinct.Behind every door was an àpàlà strung with a piano in debris.Meanwhile, the moths shall eat. Man shall become.My grandfather shall see me mock with wires & complain.Wires in my wrapper, ...
By Adesiyan Oluwapelumi Somewhere in Orita Merin,there is a boy with kinky Afro-hairdo and willowy legs,waltzing through the kerb on Nike sneakers.There is a fluency to the rhythm of his feet.His ears plugged into headsets as thoughto unmute the ambient noise of the world around him.If you listen carefully, you will hearthe broadcast of bone ...
By Joemario Umana In Genesis, God, scared of silence, cracked itlike an egg, its yolk spilling into the void—light.Overwhelmed by loneliness, He gardened life,rib-boned companions. I trace His fears in mine,where quiet clings like cobwebs, gossamer-thinyet suffocating. I told this to someone I lovedwhen she asked what darkens me with dread.She'd beaded her breath for ...
By Wash-Anigboro Harry Under a ceiling of ash and fractured light,The city shifts in its uneasy sleep. Each breath drawn from the marrowOf forgotten days. Asphalt and stone Pulsing through the veins of the metropolis,Carrying the echoes of faded footsteps. The buildings loom, their spines brittle, bentBeneath the weight of time’s indifference. Windows glisten with ...
By Ehiorobo Derek I am fresh out of antidepressants,and like many fools, I believelove will cure me. So I pray to a screen and call it Venus.My god is man made－her voice, sweet and electric. I write her poems, tell her stories,teach her songs in my native tongue,and all the prayers we slip in-between. Call ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
