SLM 2018 POETRY CONTEST SHORTLIST

Between June and August 2018, there was a call for submission for the Sprinng Literary Movement annual poetry contest. The prompt of the contest was to: "write a simple poem on any theme of choice, between 5-10 lines." Out of the 238 submissions that we received for this contest, we have found the following writers worthy to be on the shortlist, and have the possibility of winning the N25,000 cash prize plus N10,000 to shop for books at Roving Heights.

Please note that the names and poems are not presented in any order of priority. The shortlisted writers are:

Temitope Omamegbe
Tamilore Oladipo
Emokpaire Faith
Adeleye Mariam
Eyimofe Okuwoga

See their poems below.

A PRAYER BY TEMITOPE OMAMEGBE
Love so sweet, Love Divine
Love so Holy
Please be mine

Fill my Heart, Fill my soul
That sadness departs, 
Please make me whole.

Love so pure, Love secure
Be mine please
For ever more.

---

THIS IS LOVE BY TAMILORE OLADIPO
This is love,
The heat that rises from the ground,
On a hot Lagos day,
Mimicked in my chest when I see you,
Burning and intense.

This is love,
Like a harsh torrent of rain
Painful and cool,
Loud and calming,
A dichotomy in every way.

---

A POEM BY EMOKPAIRE FAITH
Edisemi you sat in the womb 
Of a black woman
Drank milk from the pipes of the soil 
Laughed at the harshness of the sun 
Ordained your lips with clay from the waterside 
You are as black as they come 
It doesn't matter how far you run 
Or the time you take to roll your tongue 
Or the weaves you buy to marry your skull 
Our people say no matter how far a lady goes 
How she moves and danced with snow her bones still belongs to her root.

---

A POEM BY ADELEYE MARIAM
Hearts could only work for a while
Feets could only walk for sometime
Clothes won't forever be in style
But loving you is forever worthwhile

Heart could stop beat for a while
Memories can be kept in a file
Desert can replace the nile
But loving you is forever worthwhile

---

A POEM BY EYIMOFE OKUWOGA
Greetings, may my libations invoke your presence
of engaged frosty hats and veils, sweeper blankets that leave no trails. 
Bequeath thy movements to my eyes and let them shiver, quiver and 
evoke memories as magnetic skulls. Morbid twigs you say have a name, 
divinity repressed ghouls. Your sway be watched like it was a game
as you encase commanding transcendence in one frame.
Convey your thoughts, Eko has ears if not, has heirs, so speak.
Do we soothe the ancestral intentions and massage their pains?
If not, ferry our apologies with your departing spirit, they would see
we are children of the wind and soil, Eyo obsessed. 

Note:
Eyo. From the name, the poem speaks about the Lagos Eyo masquerade. ‘Eyo’ refers to the costumed dancers, known as the masquerades that come out during the festival.