Behold The World's Longest Love Poem

POETRY ALERT !!!

BEHOLD THE WORLD'S LONGEST LOVE POEM

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This special edition of poetry, which is the first of its kind was borne out of ardent desire to give this year's valentine day celebration a poetic colour.

Ahead of the day, we sent an online call to poets to send in lines and verses.

And to that end, we secured contributions from eighteen great poets and poetry lovers from different parts of the country, to weave this panoramic poetic montage. 

Enjoy!!!

TITLE: MY LOVE FOR MY LOVE

My rose for the spouse I treasure

Sparkled I on a glue of miss pleasure

Grazing down to the field of lust

Only to remember my love for the one I love

Love full of life,

Life surrounded with joy,

Joyful within my heart,

Heart meant for you alone,

Alone, you fill my thoughts.

Thoughtful of you all days,

Show me love,

Love of my life,

And make it unflinching.

Hand in hand we held and walked

Looking through the straight path 

We beheld a reverie of green future 

Where in drinking, we want some more. 

More of love sparkling like snowflake

Across the bed of bliss where magic unfolds

In pools of golden ecstasy — embers rising

From our hearts; burning our solitude to rust.

Where else can I go

If I don't visit my ego?

What else can I say

If don't  hail my seer

Ọla aka m, adorned with uli

Ede oko m, beautified by spear glass called world

The firewood I fetched 

Beyond Orie market bend

Today is 14th February

Come on, warm my cold heart

Revel in my love,

Let me rejuvenate your vibrancy,

Spread a perky red canopy over your skyline,

Like dusty red roses scattered on tarmac floor

The love for my love

Brings more life than strife,

More beautiful than the streets of Bulawayo,

Sweeter than a sugary cacao

My love for my love

Inexplicably rare, not like the jacarandas of Zimbabwe

Or the yellow trumpet that adorns Nigeria

A cross dimensional touch

A supernatural rush

Superseding the searing intensity of a Moon

Crossing diverging lanes and cosmic space

A love surreal like wayo

This night too will pass, 

It will be a memory of fallen leaves, 

A path of righteous sin

Because I kissed your sweet 16.

Shall I call you Ogene? 

The clap of your twin breasts

Resonates the reeling song

The spirits couldn't sing with the wind.

What is as beautiful as your lips? 

The only path that knows

The gate to the temple of sin. 

My love for my love 

Is as the sun in the morn

It is as the broom in Osho's hands

It is as the hairs on Wole's head

It is the goose to my bumps

The thought of my love

My love for my love

The star that sparkles in my heart

The shadow that guides my path

Lead me not to God's wrath

As I journey with you my love, my heart

Sometimes it lies 

Sometimes it doesn't

It builds castles and holds her prey in captive

There are skulls of fury within it gory portrait

It does not sound like you've heard it 

It is either a deceiver or a caresser 

sometimes love lies also

My love for my love

In confessions of undying truth,

We live indefinitely but not

In one state of existence. 

After this life, I will search 

For you to a hundred worlds

To keep tasting the sweet wine

Of your rich nectar which makes 

Beauty native to your being

I will follow you to a thousand 

Lifetimes to satisfy my longing to 

Be in your arms and continue feeling the

Contours of your exquisite form

Which makes you ever alluring.

My body in ice smear

The shivers, my teeth clinks

Sounding the gongs of love

For the taste of your warm

Oh how sweet art thou

Love like green leaf

Makes life good to live

Like water quenching a thirsty throat

My heart you keep afloat

Weathering lives stormy weather

And toughening me up like leather

To make the best use of my time

And rule with compassion in my clime.

I will forever treasure love

And be as gentle as dove

Handling each day with focus

And making right my locus

My everyday Valentine your Love Sprung as a tender bud

Pure, healthy and full of life

Blossoming everday with the

Passage of seasons of life

I glow and radiate as a lone 

Star on a cloudy sky the envy

Of love spurned damsels!

Little damsel string round my being..

You will be the song on my lips,

The rhythm of my pulsating heart,

The melody that wiggles my west.

Come...I will proclaim your name

Fourteen times, fourteenth day of our communion!

I will proclaim your beauty to falling stars;

Spread your titillating face above the moon;

And my verse, a connoisseur of your endowment.

Love is a fatherless son,

reading the tribute of his late father,

Under the hurricane rainfall

Love is a bitch

especially that of a boy and a girl

not too strong to be in love.

I sigh and smile when she's not at sight

We talked and walked a lot

Tried to hide and secretly seek

I wanted to write but she's sad

I'm void of idea, just sunk 

She is already double

Though I can't stop looking for trouble

She has got the most beautiful smile

I hide behind my door and sing

Who wouldn't want to adore?

Think about my pain in peace

Breathing gets to its peak

I face it with some smirk 

Better off with a face full of smile

Like the rays of the sun, it shines

She swept me off my foot

Left me with the best mood, I'm over the moon.

Time passed by 

A bid of good bye

I bet this will never die.

As deep as the oceans

As soft as silk

As meek as a lamb

Is my love for you

Words can't express my love

You are the reason I live

My life is meaningless without you

Its just like a song without melody

You are my inspiration

The life I live, not I that live

But you that live in me

You are my world 

Though I'm weak, yet strong in you

Your smiles become my vigour

You are my light, my star at night 

You are my world

How do I explain the wild kisses, 

Like a fire in a burning furnace

ravages my entire spine

Each moment I pass you by

I need you like a heart needs a beat, 

No wonder my life is null without you

Can you live in me and pay no rent?

Oh! My love for my love

What is love that I could not think,

Fantasy eludes my reality

Shall we rehearse our dream before we tell

It speaks from the heart

You are my song

My song of love 

Is like the wind, you can't see it

But you can feel it

My love for my love

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS:

Izunna Okafor

Kayode Awojobi.

Nwokeabia, Ifeanyi John.

Chukwudi Nwokpoku

Okechukwu Onuegbu

Liam Obidi

Felix Chibuisi

O'star Eze

Nwobi Chidubem Valentine

John Chizoba Vincent

Marcel Ike Okonkwo

Stanley Obum Ezechukwu

Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

Udo Okokoronkwo-chukwu

Nket Godwin.

Ude Ibiam Ufiem

Onuekwe Jude N.

Chioma Favour

Nnenna Ogbozor

COORDINATED AND EDITED BY: IZUNNA OKAFOR

Why we celebrate Chinua Achebe annually – Izunna Okafor

Why we celebrate Chinua Achebe annually – Izunna Okafor

Izunna Okafor, a multiple award winning author, is the National Secretary of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) and the Anambra Coordinator which organizes the annual Day Celebration. In this interview with Iwindoyin Opelegbemi, the literary enthusiast speaks on the forthcoming edition of the celebration of the literary exploits of the late Prof. Chinua Achebe,  Igbo Culture, as well as promotion of his works after his demise. Excerpts:

1. This year’s edition of the Chinua Achebe Day will be coming up this Friday, how prepared are you now for the event?

Ehm, I can say we are getting ready. I and my team have been working harder to put things in order. You know the event is multi-facet. It involves several things, which include: lectures in memory of Achebe, dramatizing of Achebe’s selected books, recitation/­presentation of poems and other literary works written in the memory of Achebe, essay writing competition based on Achebe’s works and life (for all participating secondary schools), open microphone, spoken word poetry, unveiling and launching of the third Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, dancing, entertainment among other literary packages slated for the day. So in planning each of these activities, I can say we have recorded a gargantuan measure of success. Our guests speakers, the students and our participants have already been served with reminders. We have received free copies of books donated by some young writers in Anambra State, to be distributed to students that day at the event. So we are moving forward and getting ready for that day, despite the financial constraints, which attempt to impede the preparation. Surely, we are getting ready, and we believe it will all end in praises.

2. The forthcoming event will be the 3rd edition, have you been able to achieve your objectives of coming up with the Chinua Achebe Day in the last 3 years?

Thank you for the question. We have several defined objectives we intend to achieve through this event, but there are basically six that are cynosural. They are:

1. To remember, honour and celebrate the great literary crackerjack -- Achebe (who made us proud, died since March 21st March 2013, and seems to have been forgotten just like a fow, with no single monument in his name).

2. To annually produce and publish potry/essay anthology in memory of Late Prof. Chinua Achebe, through calling for and securing of quality poems/essays from writers across the world. All written in memory of Achebe.

3. To use Achebe’s life and personality as ideal, to raise new amazing writers of our own present time.
4. To promote, encourage and reward creative writing and reading culture among our youths and students.
5. To discover and harness the hidden amazing talents among our young ones, in the creative field.
6. To present writers and readers (intellectuals) as the elixirs to the country's ailments, and so on.
Looking at all these, I can say we have drawn near to some, some have been achieved, while some are in fact, continual in nature. We have been celebrating Achebe since 2016, we have published two anthologies in his memory, and the third one will be unveiled in this third edition of the event coming up on 16th November, and so many other achievements that have been recorded. We also hope that in no distant time, with the dust raised by this event, a gigantic structure or more will also sprout, apologizing for coming late, and introducing itself to the entire world as having been sent on a mission to immortalize Achebe.


3. How will you access the promotion of Achebe’s books through the Chinua Achebe event?

Achebe’s works generally as a writer have referentially been a talk of the moment in each edition of this literary festival, especially with respect to what is currently obtainable in our country today. That was why I said earlier that we one of our pursuits in this event is to present writers and readers (intellectuals) as the elixirs to the country's ailments. So through the event, we have not only been promoting Achebe, his works have also been a focus of attention.

4. Apart from the event, in what other ways have you been promoting Chinua Achebe?

As a forum that unites young writers, we do have monthly reading, and Achebe’s works and writing style have also been the most used standard in each of our analysis. Aside these, we have also been in the forefront on the call to immortalize Achebe. In fact, I can say that we are Achebe’s apologists in all ramifications, even outside the literary bracket.