Fave Five: Slamming It!

Nothing soothes the spirit quite like a good love poem, regardless of the type of poem or any other such evaluation criteria. When you hear or read it, be it with a happy or sad ending, you can never ignore the likeness of emotion, the feeling of knowing, or rather identifying, there is a melody acquired from well-constructed metaphors and similes. The captive pleasure contained within a broken heart and the dancing clatters of a new romance.
A beautiful word has always resonated within me, what more of a bunch of beautiful words strung together to illustrate meaning and familiar emotional stances.

I’ve been watching a lot of American slam poetry on YouTube of late and on this post I list my fave five poets and poems, here goes:

5.            Dear Ex-lover by Jasmine Mans

4.            A lot Like You by Rudy Francisco

3.            40 Love Letters by Jeanann Verlee

2.            I Will Wait For You by Janette Ikz

1.            Before Bed by Zora Howard

Current Read: Half a Yellow Sun

In 2014 I vow to read more books written by or telling authentic African stories and it starts here.

I read and finished Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of short stories titled ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ and loved it. I am very happy to have discovered this author and her work and I’m equally thrilled about delving into this novel as well. Published in 2006 and has since gone on to receive awards including the Orange Prize for Fiction award in 2007, this is an award given out annually to a female author of a full length English novel. 

The Word: Nirvana

Dictionary definition: a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.

Origins: 1830–40;  < Sanskrit nirvāṇa

Synonyms: awakening, serenity, bliss, ecstasy

Use in a sentence: Lying in your arms, the ultimate feeling of nirvana!

Rant & Rave: RIP Amiri Baraka

Yet another great loss for the literary world, Playwright, poet and author Amiri Baraka died Thursday, 9 January 2014. RIP, love forever!

Death Is Not As Natural As You Fags Seem to Think – Amiri Baraka

I hunt
the black puritan.
                            (Half-screamer
in dull tones
of another forest.

Respecter of power. That it transform, and enlarge  
Hierarchy crawls over earth (change exalting space  

Dried mud to mountain, cape and whip, swirled  
Walkers, and riders and flyers.
Language spread into darkness. Be Vowel
                                                            and value  
                                                            Consonant
                                                            and direction.  
Rather the lust of the thing
than across to droop at its energies. In melted snows  
the leather cracks, and pure men claw at their bodies.  
Women laugh delicately, delicately rubbing their thighs.

And the dead king laughs, looking out the hole  
in his tomb. Seeing the poor  
singing his evil songs.

Hughes Corner: Love Song for Lucinda

I’ve always been a sucker for a great love poem and when I stumbled upon this one my heart leapt out of my chest a little. Hughes speaks clearly of love’s irresistible charm and allure, its mystique and he also tells of how love is only for the brave. Since the beginning of time we (humans) have attempted to put into words what love is and what it means and I think these three little, basic sounding stanzas do a pretty decent job of summing up the feelings carried through by this abstract concept.

 I love love love this poem!

Love
Is a ripe plum
Growing on a purple tree.
Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.

Love
Is a bright star
Glowing in far Southern skies.
Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.

Love
Is a high mountain
Stark in a windy sky.
If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.