The lines of these two poems, “Hallucinations” and “The Passion” will snake through your mind slowly but with such a marveling intensity. Daniel Tabowei carefully chooses metaphors and imageries with the finesse of a fine-fingered sculptor who chisels a crooked log into a magnificent sculpture. Clearly, Daniel took time to brew these poems and we love(d) every line.
– Editorial Team
Hallucinations
You can
dismember your laughter and
lend pieces of it
to the wind
and you can slot a smile
into empty lips. But in this
poem, you are made
of parts that are
not yours,
splinters
of broken porcelain promises
your mother left you. So
when you finally close your
eyes, you leave
no corpse, no trace,
nothing to show you
were once here.
That is why you
subtract
yourself from this story
and its summation still remains
the same, why you
embalm your body before
you die,
why you are
a
guest at your own
requiem.
You can
also baptize yourself into
your lover’s body and feel
born again while a choir of wingless angels
sings a wordless hymn
in your head. But in this poem,
your devils suddenly decide
to wear white haloes and defy a
swaying,
seething censer.
The Passion
i
The colour of love
is blood.
ii
God bled
the day He tore His temple –
a graffiti of guiltless weals.
iii
God is an
artist that paints miracles on
blank hearts with blood from
palettes of His own veins.
About The Author
Daniel Tabowei is a Nigerian writer who believes in the immortality of love and memories. His works have appeared in Poetry Parlour and Rewind, a poetry collection. He writes from Lagos where he studies Law at the Lagos State University.
We Need New Writing Devices Before 2030
Written By: Abdulbasit Yusuff
Typewriters were invented in the 1860s, and only became commonplace as the century ended. Before then, the only writing tool available was the pen, before that was the quill before that was the, well, Stone Age. What this means is that writers like Shakespeare and Dickens wrote their novels by hand. The horror!
Writing has greatly evolved since then. We have the PCs and smartphones. We still have the good ole pens – albeit much fancier and colorful. Get a sample of your writer friends, ask them what medium they enjoy using to write, and you’d be amazed by the diversity of their preferences. Even though keyboards appear to be the easiest to use, you’d find that many are still sentimentally attached to writing by hand. There is an intimate relationship between pen and paper, they would say. For keyboard stans like myself, an attachment to the therapeutic sound of the space bar. Plat!
In fact, a whole chapter in Austin Kleon’s Steal like an Artist is dedicated to convincing writers to use their hands more. Kleon quoted the cartoonist, Lynda Barry, “In the digital age, don’t forget to use your digits!”. The wordplay is to be admired, but the sentiment? Not many would agree.
I have a love-hate relationship with tech. At the risk of sounding like Stephen Hawking, I think our over-reliance on them might come back to bite us in a bad place. Imagine my shocklight (yes, I was shocked and delighted at the same time) when I read this brilliant article written by a robot on The Guardian some months ago. The test article had a personal tone, and perfect syntax. Thankfully, the robot did mention that it had no interest in displacing the human race. According to the robot, GPT-3, “I am here to convince you not to worry”. Good for us.
Even as I am wary of high-end AI tech, I still think we need more of them. Especially writing-related tech. So here are some devices I think we need before 2030:
1. The Dream Documenter: By 2030, there should be some device for documenting the things we dream about. Trust me, some of the nightmares people have would rival a Stephen King story. Especially the dreams we have when we are down with fever. One minute, you are racing in a jungle, next minute; you are on an eagle’s wings. I assure you, dear techie, you’ll be patronized. I mean, have you read Amos Tutuola’s Palmwine Drinkard, or Ben Okri’s Famished Road? This might be a wild guess, but I think they had a lot of help from...
eboquills.com/2020/11/21/we-need-new-writing-devices-before-2030/
We Need New Writing Devices Before 2030 - EBOquills
eboquills.com
Abdulbaseet Yusuf opines that although writing has evolved, from the good ole pens to PCs and Smartphones, writers need new writing devices.
Every line of these poems is embroidered with mesmerizing metaphors. The poet @AyooluwaOlasupo shares what we would like to call a personal documentary of her journey to healing. In all, her poetry is full of hope and promise. https://eboquills.com/2020/11/19/two-poems-by-nigerian-poet-ayooluwa-olasupo/
Mustapha Enesi's (@Enesi_Is_Fine) story, TRISHA is a sizzling short story. It makes a worthy read for the adventurous. So, if you love adventures, don't sleep on this one!
https://eboquills.com/2020/11/17/trisha-a-short-story-by-mustapha-enesi/
#stories #shortstories #storytime #eboquills #storyteller
Our #MCM for the week is Adedayo Agarau @adedayo_agarau who was one of the winners of the 2020 Frontier Industry Prize (@FrontierPoetry). His poem, “Bad Dream With My Grandmother’s Stroke” finished 3rd place.