Live It Up

Don't ever let nobody
Tell you you can't do something
Your will must be forged from steel
And your mind infused with skill
Don't ever let words make you
Diminish from your own value
Or excellence if you dare
Make that Superman appear
Don't you back down from a fight
A challenge to drill your mind
This planet needs your talent
Though you print it in scarlet
Rise above your situation
Inject zest into the occasion
Take your place and live it up.

Akpan

At Life's End

When my life comes to an end
I'll reel on the threshold and
Number my blessings against
The lessons I'm yet to learn...
It'll be such fun to know
I came this far trusting hope

When my life comes to an end
I'll be way over my head
When I find I did get there
I'll raise my hands in the air
And pluck the stars from the sky
With shaky hands and a smile

When my life comes to an end
I'd love to celebrate a spell
Shouts of joy will close the day

Akpan

Crossroads

See you at the crossroads
Our paths must needs divide
For I must go alone
By default or design
Hope you understand this
The dark night of the soul
Conturbat me for real
I must myself console
Alone, all alone
This war I must wage
If the price be paid
I am, all of myself,
Invested in this test
I must go alone
If I go at all
See you at the crossroads
If I wander not

Akpan

I Don't Wanna Know, Man

I don't wanna know
Who got left out in the cold
Just show me some dough
And watch the magic flow
If you flash money
You get the honey
If you act funny
You get the dummy
I know no courtesy
Without some hotsy
If you want shit from me
Flash the open sesame
I don't wanna know, man
If you ain't got dough, man

Akpan

Sometimes Miracles Happen

Sometimes

And those times are rare times

The miraculous rips

The fabric of reality

And the supernatural trundles in

Solid rests on skin of water

With no hairline crack on matter

Unleashing an awesome wonder

Families reunite

After haste of flight

From a war-torn former life

Children survive airstrikes

And obtain a new lease of life

Sometimes,

When day darkens,

Miracles happen

Akpan

You Don't Know The Half

You don't know the half
Till you're stuck in a circumstance
Don't set yourself up for failure
Follow the laid down procedure
Experience will always guide you
If your inner self you subdue

Akpan

Big Chunk

I'll bite a big chunk

Out of life this once

Slash a slice of life

Lay on a spread of surprise

Take a road buried under leaves

And make grieve the dead leaves

I'll do life a favor

And turn up the fervor

I'll switch the episodes

And cut out the sad notes

I'll take life on my terms

And mend the broken cisterns

Akpan

There Will Be A Way

There will be a way

Because I will find a way

I made up my mind today

To beat a path where there's no way

I will walk on water if I may

Today, I will find my way

Akpan

Menu

I'd have you for breakfast

But I'd save you for last

I'd whet my appetite

With thoughts of supper time

You're top of the food chain

Soul food from the soul train

I'd stick you in a jar

Of syrupy red jam

And let you marinate

Put me on salivate

Rub you down with mayo

Boost up the cholesterol

Mouth-watering dish like you

Is new definition of good

Akpan

Stay In The Game

There will be rivers

But I bet you knew that

So we'll skip the gutters

Flip to the boulders

There's a ways you handle that

Or you get crushed under

Without heavy equipment

There's never a dull moment

But you can still move mountains

If your heart stays in the game

Akpan

Tell It All But Tell It Simple

Tell it all but tell it simple
Let the oil restore my hustle
Whisper tenderness to my heart
Let it bleed and tone my muscle
Strip the forests bare for a start
Tell it raw but tell it simple

Akpan

I Smile

I smile
If for a while
Pressures pile
Up so fast in style
Relief is a turnstile
So my smile is the Blue Nile
With a hint of thyme
And it hoves me fine

Akpan

A Dime A Grime

If I had a dime

Everytime somebody died

I'd be a millionaire of a kind

If I had to grind

Every time somebody cried

I'd be a float on my own grime

If I took the walk of 10,000 miles

Backasswards to find

Affection that we left behind

I'd be forever stuck in time

Akpan

Mirrors Don't Lie

Take a look in the mirror
Search through your eyes for the horror
Poke at the lump of a tumor
With the twig of the burnt femur
You be the juror
Let your findings be law
Set your heart up as judge
Turn around and look at your world
Where would you be without war?
How is your franchise cost?
Would you just look in the mirror?

Akpan

Accountants Of The Past

We must call the past to account
For the nightmare of today playing truant
Lay all cards on the table
Pull the charts on the cable
Mark the spots that's unstable
We must make a new type
Of voice training and try
To build choices from minds
Fortified against trite
If the past makes us
Who we are
Our past has made us
Thus we are

Akpan

A Poet's Commission

'Beat dead men at what they've done
Or write what's been written by none'
This is a poet's commission
The whole terms and condition
A poet's mission
Is to bend convention
Learn all the rules
Then groove your groove

A piece of Hemingway
A large chunk of Audrey
Rise higher than Maya
Or write your own Firestarter
Do what's never been done
For twilight bounds softly forth

Akpan

Hope

Hope calls to deeper hope

Hope is enriched when it hopes

Hope fattens and thrives

By staying constantly hopeful

Hope enriches lives

But it only seeks bountiful

Hope has no shelf life

When there is hope, there is life

Akpan

Ghost Train On Overdrive

Don't play games

On a ghost train

Cause you won't be back

When you hit the track

Mind the dirty riddles

Poke your tongue with needles

Be stoned as a hippie

The ride's gon' be creepy

Don't you dare close your eyes

You won't see the sun rise

It's a nightmare ride

The speed peels your hide

Scream like you lost your mind

Ghost train on overdrive

Akpan

High

I'd ask
For a glass
Of ice cold water
Or rolled up grass
To smother
I'd rather be high
Way up on ice
Than face life
I'd sooner die

Akpan

Tango

Oh, you thought it was over
But woes don't come singular
Don't turn the page
It'd be the lid on your grave
Don't walk away
There's hell to pay
Since you come this far
Might as well swing the bat
This crap ain't over
Until you put me over
You wanna tango
My dog name's Bingo
Call your pal Obstacle
I'll ride his neck to the pinnacle

Akpan

Words

Some words are open
Some bolted-down like coven
Some words pierce like spears
Others sting like tears
Some words are rivers
Some cut out a path like daggers
Some words are white gold
Some are wisdom of old

Akpan

Adders

Breed
Like adders
Set yourself free
Boil like larva
Flow like a raging stream
Dump the sun in the sea
Build your kingdom
Upon the floods
Strap on your purple
Like the hibiscus
And ripple
Seamlessly into the horizon

Akpan

Macabre

Won't you join the dance?
The whole world signed up in advance

Won't you join the dance?
Will you not take the chance?
It's a festival of the dead
A bona fide Danse Macabre

Won't you join the dance?
It's a Open House jams
We're going All-Night in the dark
Grenades are gonna light a spark

Won't you join the dance?
Ain't no time for romance
Grab your stick of dynamite
We might launch some missiles

Come, won't you join the dance?
This might be our last dance

Akpan

Fly Like A Crow, Fall Like A Sparrow

Sparrows don't fall
They improvise free falls
They have the Most High
Giving charge over their glide
They're confident in their thrust
And relaxed in their shove
Sparrows don't fall
But they may get close calls
Sparrows glide on angel wings
And navigate treacherous winds
Cause Heaven's their Control Tower
Storms don't ruffle their feather
They challenge the weather
Unafraid whatever the outcome
Unlucky the hero born
When angels take turn
Sparrows don't touchdown
But their Maker sets a rebound
What lesson is learned
Should you study intend
Fly like a crow
Fall like a sparrow

Akpan

A Mind That Can Pierce Clouds

A mind that can pierce clouds
Has been forged from the inside out
A rare wonder
That hits home without blunder
It's got X-ray vision
Kicking in like spontaneous combustion
A mind that connects
Deeper than the intellect
It has found truth out
Searched out the laws of virtue
Death n' decay don't count
This mind paid its due

The flash and outbreak
Of a fiery mind penetrates
The impossible and regulates
The rules of the game
That mind knocks on invisible doors
Strikes up a revolution
And knocks the night
Till it breaks into dawn

A mind that splits light
Into a spectrum of color
And wields each shade like
A tool that stabs the dark
A mind that wakes a spark
From dead cold embers
A mind that numbers each raindrop
Before it impacts the blacktop
A mind set as a flint
That refrains its fiery glint

Akpan

Remake

Ocean waves

Trash and crash

As if under severe strain

From a cosmic whiplash

The Earth

Is grounded

Upon the waters

Firmly founded

Upon noisome floods

Man is born

To battle storms

To dare to dare

Not in spite of care

But to be creative

To make adversity submissive

Man is born to trouble

Train himself to grow humble

And therewith noble

Man set down here

To remake Earth

Akpan

Scent Of Possibility

I’d sniff it

Out of a smokescreen

Honey-themed milk

From Divinity’s tit

Untainted aroma

From Heaven’s saucepan

There is pleasing s=elegance

In each cubic inch of fragrance

That holds the creative

And intuitive mind captive

It draws the inquisitive nose

Through the breath of the keyhole

Into a world

Of endless awe

It is the substance of invention

The evidence of intuition

The heart perceives

The mind receives

But ingenuity busts a gut

That precipitates the flood

Akpan

Let's Go

Let’s go

To that place full of hope

Where all we know

Are pleasant tomorrows

Let’s take a walk

As we explore

The chemistry of love

And taste the fruit

Of the tree of zeal renewed

Let’s go

As we explode into blossoms

And rain down petals of homesome

Affection

It doesn’t matter where we go

So long as together we go

Akpan

We Came From Silence

We came from silence

But we’re ready to invent noise

Perchance

We might catch fate playing coy

If not

We’ll settle for what may come

But we do our job

Onward cause we movement

We’re here to make a statement

Boom shakalaka boom

From a noiseless implosion

Until hell’s industrious crew

Earn an earth-shattering explosion

From allegiance to deafening silence

We progress by alliance

Till we are down to one

Or till the war is won

Else our job ain’t done

Akapn

Keep It Together

It’s so much better

When we’re holding hands

Our smiles are wider

Our hearts on exotic lands

Two hearts entwined

In sync like multi-rhymed

Verse can multiply

Into revelations of another life

You give me fever

Deep down inside

Make me a believer

When you walk beside

Me fingers locked

Palms rubbing it off

Personalities are suspended

Compromise is conceded

Nobody gives a flying cake

Worries are light years away

It’s so much better

When we keep it together

Akpan

Heat Death

Turn night into day

Turn sadness to gay

Take hope and break

It slowly until its grain

Fall like rain

And precipitates

Turn the sun to sun to hay

Tell the day make haste

Take the moon and shape

The going down of the same

Turn gloom into waste

I need you to stay

The coming of rage

Turn darkness away

Speak to the climate

Turn heat into glaze

Until Earth glaberates

And freezes again

Akpan

Professors of Religion

Professors of religion

Ushers of Armageddon

It’s humbling to know

You know so much

And yet all you know

Is an abomination of worth

Professors of religion

Masters of desolation

Wrest me from

The arms of salvation

Save me lest I fall

Into the saving Grace of God

Professors of religion

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

You were present on

The day God formed man

You held his stolid hand

When God named him Adam

Akpan

Diamond On Glass Windows

This is my number 900 blog post.

For the very first Boko Haram Victim

Enough alive

To have strength to die

You transmit that shine

From behind the screen like

A diamond on glass windows

Wherever your memory goes

You spark a flicker of hope

More than you’d ever know

You’re always on my mind

Until your death’s justified

A recipe beamed beyond tomorrows

Like a diamond on glass windows

When the sun

Wrestles the soil

For a glob

Of that innocent blood

It inspires a momentary brilliance

Like a diamond on glass windows

Your last day was a blast

And your memory pierces the bones

Charming eyes of every beholder

Like a diamond on glass windows

Akpan

Strength To Die

Do you have the strength to die

Can you stand being burned alive

Do you have the nerve to try

Close your eyes and say goodbye

If you can’t hang then you failed

Yet if you’ve a love for books

There’s your ticket to the stakes

You don’t have to break no rules

Do you have what it takes

To turn your back on snakes

Can you raise your standards

In the face of dangers

Do you have a heart

Can you play a part

Any part at all

Get off the damn wall

Akpan

Angels Still Long

How could our love

Be so blind

And angels still long

To look in spite

Who is my neighbor

Since we fell out of love

Who holds up the torch

Since we don’t keep in touch

Oh tell me now

Who rubs off that frown

And holds you the right way

Bring a brighter day

Than tomorrow

We can see this sorrow

Into the ground

And make the moment count

Akpan

Alabaster Chamber

Their hearts

Are chambers of alabaster

They are natural disasters

Living the artificial life

In their cozy little world

Erected on engineered lies

Abominable apparitions

Their feelings

Is cut in alabaster

They live on ice hills

In castles cut from glaciers

They are caged by their creed

Enslaved by their greed

They operate within a grid

Their condition is pitiable

But above all, unenviable

They ride on wills of steel

Going through like rims of still

They’re on chronic déjà vus

Sad creatures of voodoo

Their mold is alabaster

Stowed away islands like Madagascar

A Broken Heart

A heart that can be broken

Will heal if it stays open

A heart that will stay open

Will feel and may get broken

Who needs a heart of a robot

When every heart loves to love

I’d rather feel and be hurt

Than live like a stuck record

A heart is only broken

When it has strength to hope

The heart seeks companionship

And we know ships wreck n’ sink

A heart is tender to touch

Its gatto be if it works

A heart beat can change the world

A beating heart is diamond

A heart is for caring and dying

A heart is obsessed with trying

A heart will keep believing

Though the world keeps deceiving

A heart that can be broken

Is to a turn a token

Who needs a heart unbroken

If a heart can’t be broken

Akpan

Have A Little Faith In Yourself

Have a little faith in yourself

Pick yourself down from the shelf

And dust up that confidence

Pull yourself up from the mud

And believe in you once more

Be bold and live down slander

Watch your back they breed like adders

Release that rotten emotion

By indulging gainful action

Your heart is the ignition

Guard it above all else

Have the balls to trust in yourself

Once again just this one time

Cause you can still happen to life

Akpan

Flood Of Remembrance

Down in the flood of remembrance

Is no country for repentance

There lies a remnant of Atlantis

Her people are grinning apprentice

A culture downed in a watery grave

A death culture buds in its place

Remorse is a burden forgone

Regret is flung and done is done

Down in the floods

There is only rusts

The decay of things long dead

Is the only custom down there

Its trellises are broken down

And its watchmen have rested their brow

Down in the flood is a kingdom

With seams woven into silence

Its native grass is moss

Its royal banner is lichen

Akpan

Here In The Dark

Here in the dark

We glimpse our dark side

In the light

That is not there in our hearts

We grope blindly

As a zombie

For the scent of blood

We live far up

Where affection can’t afford

Dead to the heart

In the darkest part

Of the darkest path

Thrown in shadowcast

Here in the dark

We are what we are

Like a detailed work of art

We can’t hide in the dark

Because it’s dark in our hearts

And because our heart is the dark

Akpan

Overcome n' Become

We have to overcome and become

Thrive between dimensions

Till we strike out a destination

Don’t let distress hold us back

Kick out the door don’t slack

We have to cross the Jordan

And occupy the land of Canaan

We have to learn the art

Of struggle and do our part

If we don’t try

There’s no chance we’ll rise

Sign on the dotted line

We have to overcome

If we must become

Akpan

When You Know Who You Are

When you know who you are

You’re filled with unique power

When you know who you are

You enter into your hour

When you know who you are

You flow with a novel aura

When you know who you are

You rise up and stand taller

When you know who you are

You dare to be bipolar

When you know who you are

Your shout will drown the thunder

When you know who you are

You’re set to shine like a star

When you know who you are

You learn to treat life as art

When you know who you are

You’re free to express your heart

Akpan

That We Have Come

It is important we know

That we have come

And to know that what we know

Is a war half won

That we have come

To the point of self-apprehension

That we have come

And we must make a decision

Or we’ll win a war

Only to flunk a struggle

For this time love;

An impending hurdle.

That we have come

Not a crowd

But a people with funk

And hope profound

That we have come

Into war

Yet out war

We have sprung

To rouse ourselves from the mud

As champions of freedom

I say it is enough

That we have come

Akpan