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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
…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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
We are pleased to announce that Fatihah Quadri Eniola is the new Social Media Curator of Poetry Column-NND. Born on a Friday in December, Fatihah Quadri Eniola is a Nigerian poet whose work has been featured in Torch Literary Arts, Blue Marble Review, Agbowo, The SoFloPoJo, The Shore Poetry, and elsewhere. She is gathering experience in ...
By Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo after Notes on Ambition by Ernest Ogunyemi The soil once vegetated by luscious fernsIs now riddled with summer heat & dry stumps. Mutable music of seasons rends meThe essence of life—steadied for fruition, Seeking rudder for riches until Grace spillsFrom its potent cup. Jubilant moths swamping the lantern neverContemplate the wick ...
We are pleased to announce that Muiz Opeyemi Ajayi is the new Assistant Curator of Poetry Column-NND. He takes over from Ayo W. Oriolowo in this role. Muiz Ọpẹ́yẹmí Àjàyí (Frontier XVIII) is an Editor of The Nigeria Review, Poetry Reader for Adroit Journal, Literary Head of the University of Ibadan LDS. Winner of the ...
We are pleased to announce that Michael Imossan is the new Curator of Poetry Column-NND. He takes over from Pamilerin Jacob in this role. Michael Imossan was one of the inaugural winners of the Nigerian NewsDirect Chapbook Award, for his chapbook, "For the Love of Country and Memory." He is a poet, playwright and editor ...
We are pleased to announce the judges of the 2024 edition of NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT CHAPBOOK AWARDS are 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. We hope to prioritise consistency of the award, and in so doing, ...
2022 winner, NewsDirect Poetry Chapbook Prize, Michael Imossan, has been named winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry, 2024 for his full-length manuscript “All That Refuses to Die.” The African Poetry Book Fund, APBF, disclosed this on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, via a statement made available to Nigerian NewsDirect. One of the ...
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. We hope to prioritise consistency of the award, and in so doing, document the vibrant work being put out by contemporary Nigerian poets. Two selected poets will ...
By Nwodo Divine The rasp of a moth wing, caught between windowpane and the moon's hard gaze. A silent question mark fluttering against the future, the shadow stretched before our eyes, but kept moving towards the bloom, petals heavy with the scent of honeyed bees. Stars were bright pinpricks against the velvet dark, the storm ...
By Samuel A. Betiku With Nigeria's economy and poverty levels worsening, abductions have become an almost daily occurrence in recent years — Reuters Until now, you savoured the world in packets of myth, moon- lit frolic and a cot where the soft ripple of praise succeeds the rooster's call and the amber flush of afterglow. ...
From Darling Hair commercials to Swallow on Netflix and the stylistic experiments of his early showreels, Oluwatise Oluwajuwon has built a career defined by clarity of vision and technical precision. Speaking with Flourish Joshua, he reflects on narrative flow, invisible VFX, team dynamics, and the evolving future of hybrid digital artists. Flourish:Your motion-design reel and ...
By Kei Vough Korede In a dream, two bars of soap Were handed to me— One containing melancholy. The other, mirth. A voice instructed me to give The former to my father and keep The latter for myself. I broke each bar into half And handed a half of each soap to my father: His ...
