For Women Who Are Difficult to Love
Warsan Shire S
(Kenyan born Somali poet; adapted by Beyonce for Lemonade album)


you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.

Thinking
Walter D. Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost a certain - you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in this world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can!

OKWESILIEZE
Dike Chukwumerije

Today, I saw a mysterious thing
A thing that vexed me to my very soul
I saw the black man dressed like a king
But crouching in the shadows with a begging bowl
His children were starving in fields of cassava
Dying of diseases the palm kernel could cure
Homeless in a land of rock and timber
“Why are you begging?”- He said, “I am poor”

Today, I saw a mysterious thing
A wonder so great I cannot tell it
I saw the black man dressed like a king
But lying in the dust, crying at my feet
His legs were sturdy like the iroko
His forests were rich and teeming with game
His muscles rippled like the proud Zambezi
I told him, “Get up!”, but he said, “I am lame”

Today, I saw a mysterious thing
So shocking I have no words to say
I saw the black man dressed like a king
But standing like the lost by the highway
He huddles in a cage that had no gate
He could see where the keys to his chains were kept
He stood in clamps but they had no weight
“Why are you here?”- He said, “I am trapped”

Today, I saw a mysterious thing
Oh! How can I tell such a horrible story
I saw the black man dressed like a king
But he was sharing a sleeping mat with poverty
His poverty was a fat man with a bulging stomach
Lying on his back, beside a pot full of treasure
This knowledge was all he seemed to lack:
That he could get up and make his own future

——



THE ROADS ARE BROKEN
Dike Chukwumerije

The water does not run
When you twist the tap
But my face shines like the sun

The teacher does not come
When you go to school
But my soul is still winsome

I haven’t stopped laughing
Even when the police
Ask for a bribe or keep me in prison

I haven’t stopped living
Even when politicians
Give me nothing to believe in

Do not mistake me
For things around me
For all the things ruined around me

The roads are broken
But not my heart
It is not my mind that is broken

—————–

And God Said, "NO."
Claudia Minden Welsz

I asked God to take away my pride,
And God said, "No."
He said it was not for Him to take away,
But for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole,
And God said, "No."
He said her spirit is whole.
Her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience,
And God said, "No."
He said patience is a by-product of tribulation.
It isn't granted, it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness,
And God said, "No."
He said He gives blessings,
Happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me pain,
And God said, "No."
He said, "Suffering draws you apart from
worldly cares and brings you closer to Me."

I asked God to make my spirit grow,
And God said, "No."
He said I must grow on my own,
But he will prune me to make it fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.
And God said, "No".
He said He will give me life,
so that I may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me love others
As much as He loves me,
And God said,
"Ahh finally, you have the idea."




Obedience
George MacDonald

I said: “Let me walk in the fields.”
He said: “No, walk in the town.”
I said: “There are no flowers there.”
He said: “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said: “But the skies are black;
There is nothing but noise and din.”
And He wept as He sent me back –
“There is more,” He said; “there is sin.”

I said: “But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun.”
He answered: “Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone!”

I said: “I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say.”
He answered: “Choose tonight
If I am to miss you or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given.
He said: “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem so hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide.”

I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town;
He said, “My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?”

Then into His hand went mine;
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light divine,
The path I had feared to see.

Nice

They Went Home
Maya Angelou


They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.

They said my house was licking clean,
no word I spoke was ever mean,
I had an air of mystery,
But... They went home.

My praises were on all men's lips,
they liked my smile, my wit, my hips,
they'd spend one night, or two or three.
But...

this thread has always been awesome.. bring it on

There is a new budding poet who happens to be a banker and has produced his first poetry work called "No Longer Stunted" a second one in works. He combines the normal kenyan life in his works and its quite satirical. Available in major book stores around nairobi

https://www.nation.co.ke...76746-ulyio2z/index.html