I Belong

Photo Courtesy: UNHCR
For all the beautiful people in those countries
working tirelessly to end statelessness.
On behalf of all refugees,
You're always welcome in all of our hearts.
Thank you!

Who did I tell

When ghosts of yesterday rang my bell? 

Who raised me up from hell?

Who broke me from my shell?

Who stripped me clean of the past

That hugged my bones like second skin?

Who ripped to shreds my robe of rags

And made me their very own next of kin?

Who but you wrapped me in your warmth?

When you made me believe that even I belong.

Akpan

Up Everything

I gave up everything. For a lie

A million moments lost because of a lie

Suddenly, there's no one here to dry my eyes

Friends were all cons cause for constant sighs.

Akpan

Kitsa G.

The homely Greek lady who sheltered kids from
war-torn Syria in her home. The children fondly
call her, Kitsa Granny.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR video

Can I call you Kitsa Granny?

Would I be a bother

If I wet your shoulder

With tears that make me shudder?

Will you push me until I swing high

And catch hope as it flutters like a butterfly?

Ring up war and say, 'Eat your shame!'

There's no home bests Kitsa Granny's embrace.

We have reasons to call you Granny

You're family we never knew we had

Blood that mended these broken shards

You've made us the sum of the part.

Akpan

Killer Current

 

Courtesy: webstockreview

Raw passion consumed by a fierce loyalty

An obsessive commitment to humanity

Deep like an underwater river with

A killer current that spurts from within. 

Akpan 

This Is The Day

This is the day

When I take this body

And squeeze it into change

And make a life flourish

This is the day

When my story n’ glory

Get the lowdown on my faith

And translate my chemistry

This is the day

That I will remake

As I take the sun

And reverse its course

This is the day

That I seal my fate

And I’ll run the race

And maintain in grace

This is the day

That I raise a mountain

From a grain of sand

And make my entrance grand

Akpan

My Words Will Be

My words will be

In time of need

In a scarcity of peace

My words will be a flowing stream

My words will be a refuge

To contain incoming tide of refugees

When silence has no appeal

That’s when my words will be

Face danger and recover

Cause my words will be a tower

In a tunnel of despair

My words will be repair

My words will be onion

That you may peel n’ make pinion

And when you chance that cliff

My words will be relief

And belief

Will sprout from that simple creed

My words will breed

When the going gets tough

And you’re held down by stuff

My words will be enough.

Akpan

Your Words Will Be there

As light gives away the gloom

So your words ease away my blues.

You know the right moment to whisper

You’re like a nun playing sister

You strum a handful of notes

As your words massage my bones

To nestle in the marrows

Tending suture to tattered hope

Your word is a strong tower

Filling the volume of every hour

When I’m scared

When I drown in my tears

Your words will be there.

Akpan

Wait For The Angel

I wait for the angel

Hope they got wings for a rebel,

To fly me away from this hell

I’m tucked into like a tunnel.

I wait for the angel

Of righteousness to cast a spell

And boost me till my fears dispel

And rain down vowels like a bell.

I wait for the angel

To bring me hope in my Bethel

And in this despair raise a citadel

That thwarts the pace of shrapnel.

I wait for the angel

Come and deliver this Abel

Before my sacrifices compel

The Cains of this age to rebel.

I wait for the angel

Right here at the foot of the stairwell

I will wait to meet my Gabri-El

To filter out the lies of Jezebel.

Akpan

Grand Life

Life could sometimes be grand

Like the moon in the pool

You might trap in your palm,

You could rise if you stoop.

A friend may be waiting

At the lip of the cliff,

And the burden you bear

Just might be a bear hug

From somebody who cares

And dares to pick you up.

Life may give the answer

To questions you may have

And the puzzle may solve

Itself and give you pause.

But you will always have

A hand to hold your hand.

Akpan

I Will Thrive

I will thrive
I know I've arrived
Cause I'm still alive
After all the bull I survived.
I heard all that jive
About me not being the type
To cliffhang or dive.
Is that just because I rise?
I'm kinda still here so bite
Me or keep it sealed tight.

I will thrive
And no shying will jeopardize
The shine of my sunrise.
I will thrive
And my past can't downsize
The lesson which edifies.
I will not be deprived,
I'll have my soul revived.
For awhile I strive,
In time I will thrive.

Akpan

I'm Blessed To Be Alive

Woke up this morning,
Looked in the mirror,
I beam and I'm smiling
As I wink at my reflection.
The mood is a shawl of goodness;
Ain't no business like your business.
Ama shine into this darkness,
Make it mirror my happiness.
I got reason to celebrate,
I got rhythm so ama break
Outta this cage like daybreak.
The moment's fragrant like fresh bake,
From here on I'm gon' have fun.
There's three words that sum up life
I'll break it down; it goes on,
And I'm blessed to be alive.

Akpan

Break of Exit

Let me into your grief
Lift up the gates to your dungeons
Let the shadows snatch me off the cliff.
Willingly I'll take the plunge.

This may yet be your finest hour,
When you ride the storm to your power.

I'll wrap you in my warmth till you ache
I'll get a stranglehold on that grief
And nudge and whisper till it breaks
And sweeps you into the arms of relief.

Let me hold you tight,
These arms will lay your burdens by.

Akpan

Dead Dreams

Courtesy: Twitter

Staring down over a grave of dreams

I observe a billion good intentions go to rut

Solitary reapers on the verge of picking the gleanings

But falling just shy of their mature expectations.

Never made it but almost

Dreams coming thro but not quite fulfilled,

Lives well lived… almost.

Destinies moderately decoded.

I wonder how many millions have trucked this way;

What each heart would pour out and lay bare

If they were offered another shot to set things straight.

Would they make akin mistakes or throw in their best?

Because in the tomb where dreams are laid to rest

Only uncorrupted half-assed undertakings

Narrate tales of aborted victories,

And paint pictures of triumph’s grave defeats.

Akpan

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One

Courtesy: UNHCR Kenya

To the memory of the 22 aid workers killed and 100 people injured that day when the UN Headquarters in Baghdad was bombed. And all those who continue to dedicate themselves to helping others.

I never thought the word one could amount to much.

Like what can one man do in this crazy world, after all?

That was all before I looked in a mirror and set my eyes on you;

And I knew one could sometimes translate as beautiful.

I never knew the word one could create such earthy symphony:

Like one people, one song, one dance, one humanity,

One hope, one faith in one love in sync with one heartbeat

Sweeps the mind off its feet yet it’s the definition of you and me.

Akpan

When Your Ideals Are Threatened

When you crash and burn at your first attempt working a project that cost every muscle in your body to put together, same one everybody around you felt different about, you feel the white-hot glares of scorn peel through layers of your skin like sun rays through a hundred lenses incinerating an entire colony of black ants. The only difference is this beam is sucking on your faith, seeping out your very life-force. Do you marvel how fear of failure cripples the desire to venture out into strange waters? It makes us long for support from our peers. In any case, there isn't a single thread of fault with folks sharing their dreams and aspirations with other people. The principle thing is not to leave the door too wide open so a desire for companionship morphs into a ruthless dependency; a belief we are nothing without someone else's opinion.

Courtesy: Naja Niketa

The quest to achieve is an inseparable element of every man’s psyche; a burden to increase and multiply. To excel in a chosen field, an area of interest. And thus, fear on any level should be kept on a tight leash. I have come to terms with my weaknesses. Not compromise. I have studied and garnered ample info from my shortcomings, and I understand the limits of my abilities and strengths. I cannot deny the fact that I’m inclined to make mistakes or that the best of my pains might fall through like a castle erected on sand. Nevertheless, my calling raises me up high above all limitations and plants my feet on a pedestal of sweet possibilities. And I am persuaded to declare this privileged position in which I have found myself fortifies the essence of my zeal. Faith can stand, walk, run and fly incontestable even when evidence indicates the contrary.

I stay my course trailing my own path. Besides, shaping a life is an individual responsibility. Dexterity in the mental realm and otherwise, cannot be taken out of the equation. We are heroes of what we pursue and conquer but not before we conquer nor even before we lay pursuit. Until we tread less traveled paths, experience can only be measured by a stretch of imagination like a paradise possessed from a distance. The haunting knowingness that I might walk away from the life I was programmed to multiply agitates my creativity. I sense a threat to my very existence every time I am reminded I am surrounded by opposition.

“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”—Maya Angelou.

And that’s why I keep a simple creed but fire it up to get me through the heat.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

The Woodshop Boys

Dying is easy; it’s staying alive that brings gooseflesh to attention all over your body—staying alive high on verve and on the other hand, geared up to die for what you believe. The codes that enhance a man are those for which he is willing to stand and/or take a tumble. Such a man’s quest might strip him of his very essence yet his death only serves to boost his endeavor.

Of all created things, man alone is accorded devolved responsibility—or so we like to think—and what this means is that man can decide how he cashes in his chips and for what he does it.

Courtesy: facebook

How: whether he goes out as the K-I-N-G of his destiny or as slave of a nobler class.

What: whether he buys the farm for a belief even rut and decay can’t hold a candle to or for some porous popular convention that can’t hold water.

In her essay, ‘Graduation’ clipped from her autobiography, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ there is a paragraph where Maya Angelou mentions “the woodshop boys making sets and stage scenery.” These sets and scenery were constructed as preparation for the upcoming graduation of the senior students and Maya happened to be one of the graduates. The boys Maya talks about in that passage are actual schoolboys nevertheless, I want to assign them figurative roles in my write up. Think of these woodshop boys as the natives of your subconscious who have their backs to the grind as they sweat their butt to make ready for your grand entrée. The boys who have their job function explicitly stated, as night sheds its skin and becomes day, make sets and stage scenery.

What this boils down to, in point of fact, is only Time can issue you a certificate. It is Time who would expose “who did well, who excelled, and what piteous ones had failed.” The secret lies in never living for something you do not believe in; it is tricky to go meet your maker on account of something you wouldn’t live for. And a man can only muster courage with skill and swim an ocean if he believes that on the other side, on strange shores, his destiny—which suggests a million and one arresting metaphors to a million and one minds—waits for him, patiently.

Sure as shooting, dying is easy, you will get no argument from me there. Holding out a life fired up in the face of aggression now, that’s damn near impossible. Get the woodshop boys switched on regarding your itinerary; keep ‘em clued-up and then you can attend your business (in Maya’s words) “like travelers with exotic destinations on their minds.”

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

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