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Tag Archives: poems
Features, Stories and Poems January 17, 2017

Dying Flowers | by Martins Ekong | African Poetry

I DON’T know how I got here believe me, yesterday I lived in birds’ songs which means my heart once had feathers today I’m a house filled with questions and children cry into my bones covering their mouth I don’t know if they cry of sorrow or shame an ocean grows in me I’m the […]

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Stories and Poems, Submission November 23, 2016

Upon Waking | By Kirby Mania | Poetry

In the morning I write you love letters, Letters that tell how I dream of you Pen to paper prolonging these sweet invented singular memories. By afternoon the pages sweat with risk of the plural Apostrophes implicating and vowels incriminated against consonants fearing circulation In the evening reduced They are all but one dimensional folly Attempts, callow […]

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Features, Stories and Poems November 23, 2016

Roses | by Kofi Sey Simpson | An African Poem

Red is the favorite White or pink are there for the choosing Gentle in touch, founded in the midst of thorns. Waking lights wake her essence, To be carried in the midst of guided winds In blossoming variations, careless hands ransack her core And drop by drop her layering skin falls at the feet of […]

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Features, Stories and Poems November 23, 2016

Resigning | by Nana Akyempo | A Poem

I am resigning. From living and tasting like rejection. I am leaving myself as a most memorable aftertaste on life’s unkind tongue. I am hanging my petty quotes in the overcrowded wardrobe of poetic tantrums. They will brew my story the morning after as stale jokes. The zombies will slurp on my hot black without […]

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Features, Stories and Poems November 23, 2016

Under Your Smile I Build My Poems | by Emmanuel Etop Idem | A Poem

Under your living lips: a miracle of creation, Red, as fierce desire I take my lyrical roots and erect an empire of tasty words flowing freely from my nectar. Under your talking eyes: the mirror to existence, A path leading to enlightenment; White, as untapped innocence I plant my words, fertilized by hope. Seeking a […]

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Features January 24, 2011

Writing Inside the Guts of a Crow

Ali Ahmad Sa’id also known as Adonis is a Syrian poet. The country he speaks of in the first poem, “A Prophecy,” sounds so much like my own country. Maybe that’s why I cannot read the poem without plunging into sad contemplation. As far as imagery goes, both poems are “gruesomely sensory.” Imagery that evoke […]

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Features October 14, 2019

The Queen of Dahomey: Episode Three | The Witches of Auchi Series | Anthony Azekwoh

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There was an old woman with a ragged scar on her cheek who lived alone on the outskirts of Dahomey. […]

Features October 11, 2019

Befeqadu Hailu, Ethiopian Writer-Activist & Co-founder of Zone 9 Blog, Named 2019 International Writer of Courage

Befeqadu Hailu with Lemn Sissay at PEN Pinter Prize ceremony Photo credit to George Torode

Befeqadu Hailu, the Ethiopian writer, activist, and co-founder of the Amharic-language human rights platform Zone 9 Blogging Collective, has been […]

Features October 11, 2019

Kalaf Epalanga, Angolan Author & Musician, Named Curator of the 2020 African Book Festival in Berlin

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The Angolan musician and author Kalaf Epalanga, who looks like the actor Mahershala Ali, has been announced as the curator […]

Features October 11, 2019

Addis Ababa Noir, Edited by Maaza Mengiste & Featuring Mahtem Shiferraw, Sulaiman Addonia, Linda Yohannes, Meron Hadero, Hannah Giorgis, Forthcoming in April 2020

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Each anthology in Akashic Books’ noir series is “set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city” and […]

Features October 10, 2019

The Frozen Heart: Episode Two | The Witches of Auchi Series | Anthony Azekwoh

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“To you, oh Goddess, we give our dreams, To you, oh Goddess, we give our faith, To you, oh Goddess, […]

Features October 9, 2019

Unoma Azuah’s Embracing My Shadow, Nigeria’s First Memoir About Being Lesbian, Forthcoming in March 2020 & Now Available for Pre-order

Unoma Azuah by Jose M. Osorio and Chicago Tribune - graph

Unoma Azuah, novelist, poet, academic, curator, and one of Nigeria’s leading LGBTQ rights activists, has a new book, her third, […]

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