Picture of You

To the memory of my father Rev. A. S. Akpan (1940-4eva)

With this life I’m going to paint a picture of you

Cut a canvas out of reality splash on colors so true

Erect a living effigy in my flesh offer up my body

For all time in pursuit of this solitary soulful duty;

I’m gonna walk your walk until I’m eligible to talk

Like you once did during your stay on this mortal ball,

I got a feeling I want to feel it how you took the heat

And polish, refine, weave it into the theme of my masterpiece.

Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2016: Round Up & Winners' Medallion

IntShoWriMo 2016 Winners' Medallion

We’re on the other side of 30 days of adrenalin rush. It’s been four whole weeks of tempting the muse and the word ‘fun’ just grew a whole new meaning of its own.

So, long story short, this month’s theme has been about celebrating, at least for me, five years of crafting 30 stories in 30 days. I didn’t know exactly how this gig was going to turn out when I dipped my toes in that strange waters of the short tale. But heck, here I stand today worth over a hundred and fifty stories of roughly 250,000 word count.

I just might post the summaries of those stories sometime this July but for everybody who took part in this year’s challenge, the winners’ golden badge is all yours for the taking. I’ll be seeing you yet again the coming year.

Until that time, write feverishly and keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Thicker Than Blood

World Refugee Day

I took a ride

In the passenger side

By my best friend’ side

And I got hit by surprise

Like a one-two punch to the side

When the ghastly sights

Paid out in the deep of my mind

Time to do right's never been this tight

                                             

As I bend the corner

There's structures scattered from hell to breakfast

School's been out since summer

And don't look like it'll be back by November

We may not stop the rain of leaves in October

But with open arms we can show em it's far from over

Arm in arm as one people we grow stronger

Thro the storm with refugees we stand together

The lives and future of millions

Rest on the pinions of our opinions

They sailed from afar seeking a new Zion

Fleeing a dungeon they once called home

It's our turn to offer them hope

Bring them into the fold initiate a reunion

Give them warm embrace like true companions

Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2016 Badge

IntShoWriMo 2016 Badge

Welcome to IntShoWriMo 2016!

The badge is all yours for the taking.

This is my 5th year of taking a shot at writing 30 stories in 30 days. I hope to make the best of it and I believe you'll put your back to make it work out fine on your end.

Once again, welcome to IntShoWriMo 2016.

Thank you.

Akpan

Day 30: Amanam

"Amanam" (sounds like /harmattan/) is the

Ibibio word for "Bravo!" "Good job!"

Amanam

And so I give you a hand

Cause you held your own like a man

You stood strong in your faith

And achieved the miracle of moving mountains

You sneered in the face of fate

And accomplished victories and still counting.

Amanam

Even opposition knows you can

You came from so very far away

Piercing dark clouds like a star

And the world can no longer wait.

Amanam and so I give you a hand.

Akpan

Day 29: Living Legacy

Pedestaling a champion

On the ledge of challenges.

Gallant like a stallion

Going thro the realm of Hades;

My misery is a portal

Into the exotic phenomenal.

Who I am

Is the redefinition of Adam;

Temptations

Are pointers to my predestination.

Death of a father

Conceived a seed

That exploded into a million dreams.

This is my story,

The conviction by which I have lived

On this terrestrial surface,

The makings of a destiny

That cannot be erased

Like a living legacy.

Akpan

Day 28: Details

Pictures of gruesome misery

Mark our times

We all ordained under this ministry.

Its captives within our soulish confines.

Terrorism, violence, kidnappings,

And over-indulgent embezzling

At the highest offices

Without details suffices.

Rust-rampage ravages our economy

Like a fully-ripened corn field.

Limp-limbed and hapless

We ya’ll wind-tossed and helpless.

Akpan

Day 27: Wheel with the Stars

I long to wheel with the stars

Above earthly seas,

To pitch my tent in esoteric paths

As I constantly roam the heavenlies.

It’s something I feel I gatto do

Eventually it’s something that comes true.

I wanna be the peak of the mountain.

I wanna be the particle of snow on Everest.

To bubble like a life-producing fountain.

And when my days are completed

I long to be the article of posterity

That resolves the climax of a story that never really ends.

Akpan

Day 26: Moves

Let the spirit move you

Until you defy gravity’s law

Yet without a pinion

Reach for the out-of-reach;

For hubris without a flaw.

You have no fear cause you’s a lion

Let the spirit move you

Until the momentum pulls you thro

Relax in the sun.

Let the spirit push you

Into the break of a new dawn.

And when you come thro

Stand forth!

Be a man.

Let inspiration breathe healing thoughts

Multiply like desert sand

Shoot off the top of the roof.

Let the spirit move you.

Akpan

Day 25: When Stars Are Born

In a time when stars are born

The race for reality just begun.

Sons of Adam

Scurrying to meet the demand.

Here I stand

On a pedestal surveying the land

Thro the eyes of my mind,

Like a mental rule.

Guess what I find?

A star is not a moon.

Yes they both glisten

Massive cosmic satellites

Marking and defining earth’s seasons.

I realize I need to be persuaded

From within to define where I’m headed.

If I twinkle

Would I be a diamond in the sky?

Or to put it simple,

Burn like a lamp in the sky.

Akpan

Day 24: Quiet Place

I come to the quiet place

Where I take a seat

Under the greenwood fir tree.

Here I meet release from all struggles

In the homey captivity of peace embrace.

I need no other argument

As I access the simplicity

Of tranquility’s recesses.

I am enough

In the sweet shadow of all I can be.

Akpan

Day 23: Drama's Horns

I live on drama’s horns

Where the zeal of my struggles

Are daily reborn

It’s only natural for me to bleed

I am like  thriving weed

The steadier I run my  course

The more society hates my balls

In the eyes of all who behold my progress

I am a wary process

My tranquility is spiteful commotion

Truth is I find it impossible to belong

As I take a long look at this misery

Which I call my life

I bow down in repulsed reverie

To spit on a rotten plight

If life is a mansion

I live in the servant’s dungeons.

I won’t be surprised when I wake

If I find myself in passion’s grave.

Akpan

 /

Day 22: How I Choose It

After strife,

Comes the extreme excesses of bitterness,

The metamorphosis of trife.

Hasty lopsided eagerness

To undefined idolized individual dignities.

Men seeking the substance in vanities

Trip over blinding signs of reality.

Why chase after fakes

When you can claim the original with a legal ticket?

It’s like fighting over lakes,

Or blindly trading thickets

For greenwood fir trees,

When you can easily pick a forest or sail the seven seas;

Keeping your head up is not an option.

Actually, it’s the only right decision.

So if I’m gonna make it,

I’m gonna make it how I choose it

Akpan

Day 21: Delight of Darkness

Willful men

Groping blindly

Searching for long lost destinies

Cast aside in the height of ignorance.

Depraved men of substance

Listlessly cutting out a path in patches

Edging their days closer

Dangling off decadence’ latches—

Sheepishly tailing accursed strings;

Signing out their annihilation to the nether.

Men sold out to rust

Like corn

On the very verge of ripening

They spin dearly nearer to the edge like lightening

About to peel open the carpet of the sky

Zigzagging their ways in and thro

Darkness’ eternal delight

Men who’ve washed their robes in affectation’s drool

Like timed bombs

Who can’t wait to detonate

Once men of honor,

Now prone to hallucinate,

Slaves to their own error.

Akpan

Day 20: Silver Platter

If I achieve the world on a silver platter

Or lug its mass on my shoulders,

I would have obtained pure satisfaction,

After all is said and done,

If I stand up for the glory of something worthwhile.

I have climbed up to that stage in life

Where I perceive everything working out right for me

Whether in peace or thro adversity.

So if in my quest to achieve

I stumble and underachieve

My pride will not be the praise I receive

But the grace by which I did live.

Akpan

Day 19: Where Desire is Born

At a point in life

Everybody falls for something.

It might bring you peace or strife

Still there is always that special something;

A solitary desire

That ignites your passion like consuming fire.

Giving wings to your dreams

And yes! Sometimes, often go unfulfilled.

I have wandered on the verge of discovery,

Only to be blighted by the cause of searching.

What is it I search for?

That my soul will not exist but fall for?

But I must continue searching

Though it brings me to my knees.

It burns my heart like hot coals

Impossible to ignore.

I’m headed down the long and winding road,

Like once before,

That place where desire is born.

Not knowing what I might find

But I won’t stop until I bind.

Akpan

Day 18: The Challenge

Nothing can come between us

And the talent that Divinity placed within us.

We are His handwritten opus

If we got balls to make ourselves heard,

And when we pluck the fruit of genius

We cease to flow with instinct of the herd.

There’s a part of an individual

That stays locked up in talent-inert,

Trapped like a cage-mental,

Waiting for that one moment in time,

When the giant awakes

Piercing the horizon with an infrared beam;

When a new dawn breaks,

To set the whole world at liberty,

Thro the invasion of creativity.

Akpan

Day 17: Invention's Hour

Let your imagination run wild

Like wild cattle on the green hills

Of Obudu countryside

Lay hold on all your heart seeks

But try anything once

Then flow with the rhythm like a folksong

You can dictate the tune

If you paid the price

You can blow on Destiny’s flute;

Call your sun, like an enchanted cobra, to rise

Without reflux out of a creative mind

Until it literally razes the illusory sky

Invest in your imaginative power

Cause it’s the only way you triumph

In invention’s hour

Akpan

Day 16: Turn the Page

It's my birthday!

It’s my birthday today

And I ran out of words to say.

It feels weird feeling this way

But it’s not the first time the void’s held sway.

But I gatto do what I gatto do,

I gatto be true to all that’s true

And show the world that I came through

And thrived despite the stuff I went thro.

So here’s a token of courage

Dished out on a plate of rage;

My heart’s been strengthened by age

And life keeps turning the page.

Akpan

Day 15: Now of the Future

Hear the words that I speak

You forces of adversity,

Intimidating me with weapons of war;

I am the strength of a worm

Wriggling yet steady flattening toughened structures.

I will yet be the Now of the future.

I am defiant in my quest,

However my soul is oppressed,

Completely persuaded in my request.

The challenges I face

Will churn out my point of grace.

Then I will stand

And, in this place,

Take my spot on a pedestal

Clutching triumph like a mace,

(Everything’s eventual).

Akpan

Day 14: Stand As 10,000

Sometimes, the sun might rise in the west

And set in the east

Scorching the skies like a fire-breathing beast.

Often at such times

We are found in the garden of the

Hurricane’s eye.

The logs of rut that lie in our path

Inevitably give way and depart.

We find the inner mystery willing

Evoking details of passion

Swift in its gushing

Like a fountain spewing out a ocean.

There we rediscover our selves

Only to be lost in the revelation of the true self.

Suddenly,

Veiled oracles speak

With the silence of the seas

Narrating explicit secrets

In recently familiar mysteries.

Bidding the we of ourselves

To crack out of hardened shells

Calling us to stand as ten thousand

And get our butts off the shelf.

Akpan

Day 13: Survivor Attitude

I fight for a right I was born to breathe

Erasing obstacles from the picture,

As I formulate street literature,

From my mental street scriptures.

There is no mountain I can’t move

My survivor attitude

Keeps feeding me with rage on the altitude.

I battle my demons,

It’s a whole ton of fun

Than playing dungeons and dragons.

The sky is not an alternative

Absolutely negative

But I’m feeling positive.

The road I navigate is a jungle

But I’m persuaded I will not tumble.

Cause every experience keeps me humble.

The storm blows hard

But I can’t turn back

I pulled up my knapsack

Hitchhiking toward my dream as I eat up the track.

I got greater expectations

Than Dickens’s Copperfield

Could in a million orphan generations.

I can picture destiny busting on the horizon

Sunrising like a dome.

See me breaking the deluge

Like glass, brother, I’m busting loose.

Akpan