Last night,
the editor looked through a pile of poems,
where mine hid, with a smear of mama’s anointing oil,
wrapped in the first prayer I mumbled after my last rejection.
(Is there even a thing as last rejection?
Is rejection not a long endless string,
A prayer bead writers only stop
fingering when Death hosts us)
I have watched many of my poems
return with a reverberating ‘no’
& have had to deal with losing yet another editor’s nod
But I never stop wishing I could go out,
& stand in the same way my poem went,
when it bade me farewell, as it set out
to a journal or magazine.
Don’t you wish you could hold your poem tightly,
plant a kiss on its sweaty dusty verses,
& welcome it home after each rejection?

Don’t you also wish that the return of
your poem was not as sudden
as the beep of a new email,
that you could actually watch it
walk back into your arms
so you can see it’s beauty
one more time?
Don’t you wish rejection
was just a word, you didn’t
have to spell with many
tear-stained smiles
& silent sighs?
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

Eboquills
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17 hours ago
Our #MCM for the week is Saddiq Dzukogi @SaddiqDzukogi. His collection of poems, “Your Crib, My Qibla”, has earned rave reviews since its recent publication.
Award-winning poet, Ilya Kaminsky, describes it as a “stunning, memorable book”!
@UnivNebPress
"...
You had your voice,
yet silence was your outburst ..."
In this #poem, Ojo Emmanuel writes about loss, grief, and the long painful journey to healing. It is a sad, sensational poem & worth the #read.
https://eboquills.com/2021/02/27/one-poem-by-nigerian-poet-ojo-emmanuel/
#poetrycommunity #poets #WritingCommunity
Creativity and simplicity cohabiting in one literary piece, quite a rarity these days!
We loved this story, @ewoe_nam
We still do 👏🏾👏🏾
I am happy to announce that my story has found a home with @eboquills🥳 https://eboquills.com/2021/02/23/brach-and-ara-a-short-story-by-ghanaian-writer-ewoenam-kukah/
Kindly read, comment and share☺️😘.
Beautiful poems!
Thank you