Every July

The Rev. A. S. Akpan
Dad passed away on first of July, 1995,
That's twenty six years too soon.
He taught me to never give up on my talent.

Every  first day of July

A riot of memories flutter to life,

Like a bust of sunshine.

I reminisce of the good old times

You used to spark causal smiles

That rose up to glisten in my eyes.

Too young n' dumb

To foresee the cruel surprise,

That far too soon you'd be gone

And I'll be down to eulogize,

To acknowledge the rule,

'It's appointed once to die,'

Guess I've been schooled.

This first of July

I dare to touch the sky,

To hold your hands in mine

And force estranged hearts to reunite.

Cause every once in a while

Impossible things bend n' slide

So I'm not gon' cry

I'ma take these tears for a ride

And let the love you showed me

Shoot me into that peace

That passes all understanding

And translate my reminisce

So that when I think of you

And the things you used to do,

I find strength to pull through.

Akpan

Sir

Sir (The name I called my father) was translated to glory
on July 1st, 1995. This poem is dedicated to him.

Sir, you…

Never said to stir up trouble;

Never said to walk away from a good fight;

Never said I wouldn’t take a tumble;

Never said change won’t rain in the nighttime.

But above all the things you said

As well as a million others left unsaid

(And it’s the greatest of all thrills),

Is that I’ll never forget how you made me feel.

Never said any worthwhile cause comes easy;

Never said it will be fine if I didn’t give it a try;

Never said to welsh on my dreams;

Never said to take my eyes off the prize.

Never said I’ll be writing this with tearful eyes;

Never said you’d be gone before this sun would rise;

Never said to see you smile again I’d go back in time;

Never said you won’t be there when I… when I…

Akpan

Day 30: Kensinsi

"Kensinsi" (pronounced /ken sin see/) in Ibibio/Efik (a Nigerian dialect)
translates "forever."

By the way, that's not yours truly in the image above. It's Dad and Mom
who my brothers and I fondly call "Sir & Mma." 1st of July marks 20 years
of Sir's passing. I thought I'd start off celebrating his life early this year.

Kensinsi

You are a never-ending story,

You bought my respect thru the dreams you made real.

Kensinsi

I dedicate my life to illustrate the lil things

You set in motion which turned a simple life extraordinary.

Kensinsi

You are my hero, my shero; you taught me to believe

So I can stare failure between the eyes and still find reprieve

And it's always been that way with you

And me as a kid running around without a clue;

You are the reason I always managed to pull thru.

It will take kensinsi to show I appreciate you.

That's why I owe you,

Kensinsi

Ain't nobody gon' take the place reserved for you, kensinsi;

In my heart I raised two thrones and crowned you King and Queen.

It's all about you can't you see?

With me and you it's kensinsi.

I love you kensinsi nsinsi. (Forever and ever)

Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2014: Last Words

First of July represents two important events in my life; on this day, roughly nineteen years ago, my father (who I called Sir) passed on. He once told me, while he was still around, “I fear for you. I fear for you because you set your heart on a cause and don’t quit until you turn the subject on its head. What worries me is if you eventually, turn out as the bad guy.” His many words of encouragement inspired the next event which feeds import into the day in discussion; IntShoWriMo grew out of my childhood writing habits. And in a sense, I guess I did turn out as the bad guy. If you take my choice of genre into account, that is. Horror (as Stephen King puts it) “appeals to us because it says, in a symbolic way, things we would be afraid to say right out straight, with the bark still on; it offers us a chance to exercise emotions which society demands we keep closely in hand.”

International Shorts Writing Month 2014 aka IntShoWriMo 2014 officially expired at 23:59PM yesterday June 30th, 2014. I’d like to thank the websites that provided invaluable resources by way of incitive prompts posted on their blogs; thanks go to WritersDigest.Com especially, Brian Klems, the online editor for the weekly writing prompts, and not forgetting CreativeWritingPrompts.Com run by Shery Russ. Isn’t it a nice coincidence this site is a one time winner of the Writer’s Digest Top 100 Websites for Writers? I’d also like to acknowledge the Admin of Poets & Writers (PW.Org) for the great prompts served up on that site. Also deserving thanks are members of the greatest online writing community, Writing.Com especially, the StoryMaster and StoryMistress for the most rousing one-liners obtainable anywhere on the cyberverse.

Writing those short stories without the writing prompts, would have been the equivalent of chopping up century-old timber with an axe. So, thanks. I’m also acknowledging you guys who participated including those who attempted but didn’t quite make it. You got credit for trying. This year’s IntShoWriMo was such fun and when my hands got tired of typing all those words, I decided to paste scanned copies of the written drafts because impossible is nothing.

            2015 is just over the horizon and its gonna be inundated by the stack of the short stories cause we’re gonna churn ‘em out in their thousands!

Keep your pens bleeding.

Eneh Akpan,

July 1st, 2014

What Sir Taught Me About Talent

Back when I was a child (to coin a phrase and a swell one too if I may add), I would lock myself up in my room, turn my back to the world, set the muse to work and, explore all the depths of my creativity. There were times I skipped meals and just got lost in my muse creating lyrics. A feeling of nostalgia often accompanies my recall of those early days of trying and failing and you can readily associate if your childhood hobby morphed into a lifelong career.

Sir (if you have read my post “On Identity,” you know I called my father, “Sir”) was well aware of my obsession—how could he not, I spent more time writing than I did doing anything else. I recall one uneventful evening, that’s one day which has evolved into one of the most memorable of my entire life. An unusual hush garbed the entire household. The way I remember it I suppose my sibs were out playing soccer on some stubbed patch of undeveloped lot.

My improvised desk flaunted a clutter of school notebooks. I was buried in the pages of an exercise book flanking the heap when Sir invaded the privacy of my room.

                “I haven’t seen you do too much song writing, lately,” He said, his fatherly aura eclipsing my tiny frame.

The smile, which abruptly, lit up my face, came uninvited and uninhibited because I felt I just had my legs pulled.

Don't get me wrong, though. Sir was a big fan-he loved me and loved what I did.

                 “Seriously.” He eyed me the way fathers do when they're trying to make you pay attention. “You've not been writing those lyrics of yours like you used to.”

Sir went on to tell me something that rearranged my overall psyche and triggered a new sense of purpose within.

1. Your Talent is ‘Who’ You Are

You can't discover the inner self and not find your talent. Towing the same line, you can't straddle your talent and not know who you really are.

                “That’s one reason sloths can’t discover who they really are,” Sir said.

If someone has talent, they still have to work very hard if they want to be very good at something. Some people become quite good at something even if they do not have much talent, but if they are willing to work very hard at the skill. Some people “waste their talent” (they have talent but do not work hard at it, they do not “use their talent”). — Wikipedia

"Inspiration exists but it has to find us working." Picasso

2. Your Talent Ought to Define Your Career

This line rather blows its own trumpet. Nevertheless, that's not the situation much of the time. With unemployment and underemployment running the game and as we all know, a man's gotta eat, sometimes, we defer.
Fact remains you can't be waist deep in your talent and still be, metaphorically speaking, out of a job.

Once you find something you love to do, do more of it. You will improve your skills and refine your technique this way.  WikiHow

You should consider making a career of it and help change the world with something only you could rightly show off.

  

3. Your Talent is No. 1 Priority

Here's what Sir said to me, "Education was invented so gifted people could learn from like-minded folks who have through drill perfected their craft." (I can name a few of my high school teachers who signed up for the job because they ran out of options, though.) "People get an education to polish raw talent. The intent wasn't to get a qualification you can't defend for beans so you can apply for a fine job that pays handsomely."

You should nurture your talent by finding a teacher, even if it's just somebody else with more experience at something who can give you advice. WikiHow

“Thomas Edison (electricity), Benjamin Banneker (clock), Garret Morgan (traffic light), Henry Ford (automobile), and Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) had 8th to 12th grade education.

Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ted Turner (CNN), Bill Lear (Lear Jet), Soichiro Honda (Honda cars), and Howard Hughes (Hughes aircraft) never earned a college degree.

These geniuses had average IQ but made the world a better place by using their intuition.” — The New York Times

That's my idea of a well-rounded education. As Sir said, “In a difficult situation where your talent is pitched against 'formal' education, choose your talent.” Put differently, do it in a heartbeat. No questions asked (to coin a phrase).

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

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