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What My Father Taught Me About The African Gods

1/4/2022

5 Comments

 
By Osho Olaìítan Jeremiah
Picture
YEMOJA (THE SEA GODDESS)

i form the mouth of this poem with the milk that drips from the breasts of Olúweri — a mother writhes at the cries of her infant.
i, a boy, become a snail, drooling into the skins of my mothers as i bore a hole in my palms when the sun weeps its mother's death and sculpt the skulls of the portrait of water. (i pray Samuel Adeyemi doesn't feed me with the meat of a dog).

exercise 1: with the poem above, prove this equation to be balanced;

a kola nut + the head of a doll × the scales that fall from your eyes ÷ the different names you call grief = no tapping in the head of a fish.

OBATALA

a boy that sucks his mother's breast and throws a bucket of slaps into his father's face is a bastard. if Fèyí too, continues to punch the walls of salt i mould round Obàtálá's name, she becomes a bastard too — a goat that runs without a chaser & a slice of yam slicing its throat into my father's palms. i promise my father, Adébáyò, to keep these words i cut from the apples where he dines, nurture it, let my chest marry the soil and kiss a bucket of clay, run like a snake-bitten man back to Obàtálá & wear a name around its neck.

exercise 2A: hold the poem above with your teeth & run hands in hands with your male lover, to your mother, as an orange,
tell her to subtract your flesh from your bones, bath you in the gourd of palm wine the first time, you run like a mad man.

2B: tell her how to rub kola nuts on your bruised cheeks and draw the Ìgbìn drum like an artist.

SUMMARY: 

Obàtálá is the greatest of all gods in the Yorùba myths. He is the second in command to Olódùmarè (Almighty God).
And according to myths, he created everything on earth, including humans, and has power over them.

Yemoja, on the other hand, is the greatest sea goddess. She protects anyone who seeks her, and that is why the poet said, "no tapping in the head of a fish."

Writer’s Biography

Picture
Osho Olaìítan Jeremiah is a young Nigerian poet, teacher, and student blending his words into pieces of writing from the beautiful city of Abeokuta, Ogun state. He is an undergraduate student at Lagos State University. He has poems published/forthcoming in Litround, Naijahotstars, Madswirl, Communicator's league, arts lounge, and elsewhere. 

When he's not writing poems, he's drafting lesson plans, cycling, or walking side by side with a twin sister.
5 Comments
Friday Praise link
1/4/2022 02:29:00 pm

Beautifully constructed. I love the flow, the use of use of words and consistency overall. It's a nice one. I learnt a lot from the poem. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
Funke Adegbokiki
5/4/2022 08:13:23 am

This is the first time I am encountering poem written like this. I enjoyed the imagery and it would helped if the poem is structured well, like the spacing and everything. However, it might be the poet's writing style and so it is a free style. I look forward to more poems from Olatitan. Say me hi to your twin.

Reply
Modester
6/4/2022 03:45:22 pm

We are used to the regular. But this right here is not the regular. It is different in the most beautiful way. I like the structure of the poem. I love the imagery, the choice of words and the play with words.

Read this thrice and each time felt like the first; so refreshing.

Reply
Olusoji Obebe
9/4/2022 09:29:44 pm

Crafty. Fluid. Great work, Olaìítan.

This is a beautiful epic. One that explores the history of Yoruba god and goddess with well-picked symbols and metaphors.

Another thing that seems fascinating in the poem is the style of the poem. The body of the poem really resonates with the title. All beautiful.

However, the poetic licence doesn't disregard the fact that poems should conform to grammatical rules. In the parenthesis "(i pray Samuel Adeyemi doesn't feed me with the meat of a dog)", I suppose the "doesn't" be "do", following a concord rule in English.

Essentially, this fosters dexterity and professionalism.

Reply
Moyosolaoluwa Olowokure link
10/4/2022 11:20:13 pm

The imagery here is so lovely. I felt warm because of this poem and I really enjoyed reading it even though I did not fully understand it.
The cryptic is commanding but I think it would have been nice to see a line that really encapsulates what the poem is about. Good stuff!

Reply



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