One Piece

I am not one piece of myself

I am the whole fragment

Of a forever cracking shell

I’m forming a knoll of sediment

Refining who I am

Like the cracks on a map

My soul is splinter

Of the Divine

A wicker

Of the supernatural mind

I am all realities

My psyche perceives

Yet I absolve all personalities

Or I’ve been self-deceived.

Akpan

I Have

I have

Walked other worlds before

I have

Stumbled on stones unseen herefor

I have

Walked blinded into concrete walls

And because I had a mound of ambition
I have
Spoken to death silence
I have
Had my reply in silence
I have
Thread forbidden lines
And came off grasping spikes
I have
Seen things
Man is not meant to see
My eyes have been weaned
I am a man of
I know not what
Yet I'm a man after all.

Akpan

Revolution

He who seeks his now life

Shall lose his next life

For without the shedding of blood

There can be no revolution

This is not about dying

It’s about dying to live

It’s about looking up and

Beyond the decay that

You have been forced to endure

And seeing the life you adore

Within your reach

Yet, out of reach…

A life which bleeds value

Will lay intense pursuit

Behind the curtains of blood,

Of the things which give it worth

And though that life don’t wanna die

Yet it will not profess a lie

It will stand and stare death down

Rather than take a bow

That life will never stop giving

Though it’s got nothing left to give

That’s the life

That sparks a revolution

That the life

That can’t witness corruption

Even if it dies

Its seeds sprout a million lives

It cannot thrive in slavery

It will not strive with drudgery

What it wants it fights for

Cause that’s what gives it worth

A life that looks beyond death

Because it’s stronger than death

That’s the life not scared of revolution

That’s the life that liberates a nation.

Akpan

Let Tyrants Fall As They Fall

Let tyrants fall as they fall

bump! bump! bump! bump!

into ledges that jut

from jagged edges of rocks

and double over in tortured pain

only to bump! bump! some more

all over again

let grains of dust rise

and settle with finality

on their demise

a swastika of their hypocrisy

for ages we’ve been served

a dessert of deserts

desiccate purposes aver

we now reassert

collective sovereignty

tyranny shall not prevail

we, the people declare our liberty

human rights must avail

let tyrants fall as they fall

let Nazis fall

by their own blitzkrieg

fall shamefaced down

like the ostrich

head in the ground.

Akpan

Hospital

In the voice of that one

refugee who knows the worth

of tender loving care.

Love’s loving

Is touching us deep

Nursing us within

Hurting our hurts

Where it hurts us

Making our fountain spurt

Giving us new genesis

She is our peace

Who has broken down every wall

She matters after all

The whole earth is our hospital

Kindness made us a people

Drew a map that has no borders

And placed us on her shoulders.

Akpan

Love Like A Mic

Love, all alike

hugs me like a mic

Love, oh love

Love like Dews of Hermon

Love has attacked me

Love has conquered me

Love has sprung me up

On wings through an aperture

into a realm of glory

Love composed my story

Love, all alike

Love like a mic.

Akpan

Silence Of The Drum-House

Silence so weighed down with load

That it would crack an ego

Has been impregnated

She has delivered death

Into the bosom of the earth

The deep heart’s core veneers a hearth

Billows of blinding smoke

Intervolving hate and faith choke

The humpty dumpty club

This is where the buck stops

Hear what the thunder said

The weak of heart shall not be spared

Silence will expose the hypocrite

A tied tongue will pronounce treason.

Akpan

I Have Seen The Wind

Sudan's Million's March
Courtesy: euronews.com

I have seen the wind

It’s neither you nor I

But look up a Sudanese

In a march of no compromise

I have seen the wind

Don’t let it pass you by

We’re tearing down this tyranny

And we’re taking it outside

I have seen the wind

A hurricane hath no fury

It’s blowing change birthing new life

You best not get left behind

I have seen the wind

It beckons you and I

To help the Sudanese

Translate a dream into life.

Akpan

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Fight

Sudan's 'Millions March' against military rule

Do not go gentle into that good fight

For your redemption draweth nigh

By default or by design

You just peaked Africa’s pride

Joy comes in the morning

If you keep your shit tight

Clip the claws of tyranny

Discharge your widow’s mite

Do not go gentle into that good fight

Stand strong as one people

Pump your fists in the sky

Champion this struggle

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Akpan

Daddy

My father, The Rev. A .S. Akpan (!940-1995)
Passed on First of July, 1995

To catch a falling star

Is beyond a poet’s art

Still I’ll knot a handful of notes

From the string of my broken tones

Make strung chords rise like octaves

And pitch for the comet’s tail

If life was a fairytale

Who’d be the fairy godfather

But you?

If I was Aladdin

Who’d be the genie of the lamp

That’s stays true?

You are every father’s envy

An oasis of raw healing scenes

A star that keeps falling falling falling

I reach for you there

Where men cease from care

I long to catch a falling star

And bathe in the rain of sparks

An lift my face to taste your charm

Sometimes I catch on to your grace

Like vibes from radio waves

There’s nothing better than that

You do not sit in your armchair

                                  anymore

And tell me of the Savior

Who took my place on a cross;

You showed me the worth of my words

Taught me to stay creative

Much’s been said ‘bout fathers

Daddy, Daddy

You best that.

Akpan