WAITING

WAITING

The only faithful companions I have ever had
In this whole world and wide I came to add
Are my leaf and pen.
They have endured my endless probing 
And consoled my painful writing and sobbing
What is my course in this world then?
I ask; Waiting. Endless and hopeful waiting 
Waiting and going on, hurting and hiding.
Yes, although I wait for the goal 
Can't I be consoled awhile to the roots of my soul?
Who would give comfort and answers to this turmoil in my being?
My companions, although faithful as I have owned
Cannot help me wait for a fate I do not know.

-Nonye Anyichie 

QUESTIONS

Where do the dead go? 

I hear stories of the Afterlife

Is it a truety or does life end in the hole?

All life's sojourn end with the shutting of the eye

All that is left is a story

And the vibrant life becomes a memory.

Oblivion is man's greatest fear 

We do not want to leave this world we know for the one we do not know

The latter may be better perhaps

But those who have been cannot be back to tell us

Would the thought of death be better to bear 

If we knew really what lies thereafter?

Where is heaven?

Where is hell?

Enough with the description of high above and low below

Enough with the stories of stately glory and languished sorrow

What is their actual state?

How plausible are the stories in the Book?

Do not kneel to redeem my soul when you ponder this

I am far from lost

I need to know.

True knowledge is hidden from man

So that he cannot know what has been from the beginning to the end

True knowledge comes in death 

What use is it then if it cannot help those living?

Nothing makes meaning

All meaning is lost

Knowledge is nothing 

We live seeking it; it eludes us

We die hoarding it.

Is seeking answers then a waste?

Would our dead loved ones

When they converge together 

Still think themselves family?

Do they have thoughts?

What thoughts do they have of the living?

Do they have powers?

Or are they just fallen embers?

We grapple for knowledge over our existence 

What we cannot know we speculate 

The answers lead to more questions

And leave the mind much aggrieved with confusions 

Why are we brought here so 

If this is how we go?

FORLORN

FORLORN 

Every time it comes and grips me

I do not know what's in it for me

No one knows or care about how I fare

They only ask to be seen as fair

Yet I alone recognize this ache I feel

It never leaves till its had its fill

Three times I have stumbled and fallen

Three times I have gotten up all sullen

This is not a song of hope and waiting

This I write upon my bed strong but crying

What's in all these for me?

I see no rays of sunny hope

All I see is darkness covering my face like a shod

The waiting hope has turned to ashes in my mouth.

Nonye Anyichie

Behind All That

   The little I have experienced in this one score year and five I have been given is sure to make a compelling read; how much more what time has in store for me. I have known joy, I have known sadness,  sheer laughter and painful mistakes have also not been far from me. In silence I bear them all. You will never know. I give you chaff story now until I am ready to tell all. Secrets; I keep them. Some good, some bad. You tell me all of yours, I tell you 'all of mine' but you will never know them for sure. My life has taught me to create a facade and weave the main one into the creation. I only let you see what I want you to see and you'd be really satisfied with it. Now you get to read this you call me a double faced inventor? No my friend, I am not, for life throws us all stones. What we do with these stones is up to us; you build a wall, erect a cooking corner or build a house with them. I on my part, have chosen to create a wonderland with my stones. I no longer remember how they hurt, I have built my escape with them. I hope you understand because life happens to us all.                                      
   I look back at those past years in wonder and think how far I have come, though my years be not yet far spent. A lot of things happened, not a soul will hear or know about, save only those who came from same loins as I. Nature is unique I say, for sometimes it never lets what people are or what has happened show on their faces. People admire the build without knowing the silent pain and inner struggle. That is okay because you are not meant to know. My siblings and I; I call us The Five Stars. I remember our growing up years and marvel at our resilience. A lot happened that could take away one's sanity, but we are still here, admired and STRONG. The struggle, the anguish, the worry will never spring up again. It doesn't show. You will never know. We smile now because we must not cry; that is all. Great joy fills my heart now because I have come to realize that we are the roses that grew from concrete. We are strong indeed. Strength above weakness sums up our lives. We are the definition of strength reared by a woman I call STEEL. The future has great plans for us still, that is why we cannot now leave.                                                                      
   I often end my write ups with 'may we always remember', but a certain lady who owns this slogan will agree it isn't a suitable end note here. It is not a plea anymore but a statement of an unshakable fact because we can never forget. In all, never wonder at anyone's life and growth, you do not know how they got there, how they carried their life's stones and how they built an escape or really escaped. Never long to be any person in any way because if the 'real' person is revealed you will be too weak to measure up. Gathering thoughts, gathering memories of the yester years. 'Nkeiruka' is an Igbo name which means 'what's ahead is greater', while looking out for it; We Can Never Forget.

Foetal Thoughts

Foetal Thoughts

In the chamber of the one who is to give me birth,

Curl I like a ball brooding over my call to the earth

Wherein The Maker saw fit to place me. 

Thinking of all the sad tales told by my rejected little mates;

Those who would have been but rushed back with stories of sadness and hate,

I should be glad to be purged out like a pile of blood.

The expectants make a fuss at my coming

One could think the J-man was coming.

This brooding stance I have taken

To seek out the nuances surrounding my cage

I hope much answers would be given 

As I go away fulfilled in old age 

But the fussing of the expectants at my coming I look upon with worry

Will my stay mirror the tears of my tell-tale mates?

Will it revive my thoughts of woeful ills?

Nonye Anyichie 

Reincarnation

REINCARNATION  

There is Life after Death.                                                                       

Not above or beneath as we think

But here again on earth.

Life is a cycle

Full of ancient sleeping souls,

Those who fulfilled their slot

Do not rest; they come back to instruct and guide.

Those who went in pain and untimely come back.

To protect themselves from prying eyes they take a new form and hide,

Unhappy with their former life they come again.

They live a fast paced life

Haven known the futility of time,

Aggressively they chase their goal

Because they may not be sent this way again;

Opportunity comes only once

This they know is not for the living alone.

Our past lives come in streams of thought; dejavu,

This feeling you have had before have you?

We all are ancient souls

We die, again we seek our root.

All these I know; I know my step before I fall,
Because I have been here before.

Poem: FLEETING

FLEETING

I am alive
I try to do everything to keep my life
Yet the bread break and turn to gravel in my mouth.
Forsaking all counsel, I throw them all out
I embrace my soothing friend who is not fake;
Crying. Till I’m tired and my being ache
This is what I need now not to escape
I will embrace all I feel now and relish it
And live to give it wings tomorrow.
I want to smile now, please ocean, just let it.
The hope is sprouting amidst sorrow
This is the turning and twirling of my life.
This has come now the other flies away,
It is better this way than death and decay.
 
Nonye Anyichie