A NEW YEAR BECKONS

by Nidi Bonis christabel. bewize2000@yahoo.co.uk

As the old year comes to an end, preparations are being made in earnest for the dawning of a new year.. Everyone is in a festive mood. Goodwill messages are flying all over the world to friends and well wishers.

How I love that moment when the clock ticks to midnight and we all stay up to be the first to wish someone a happy new-year. It amazes me as I watch the old year rolls by and the New Year comes slowly by like the hatching of a chick from an egg. It’s a fascinating transition. God, it’s always a beautiful experience.

It was just like yesterday when we celebrated the old year and now, it has come to an end. How time flies! What have you achieved so far? Good? Bad? Manageable? No matter what you have achieved, I have got good news for you. This year can be better but it’s up to you to decide on that. Have you decided on some New Year resolutions? Can you keep and stick to them? I can assure you it’s hard to break old habits but there is a way out. Persistency is the way out. Refuse to be discouraged no matter how hard it gets.

The following are easy to follow let’s call it soul boosters.

v Start the year by blessing a soul with something good and you too would be blessed throughout that year!

v Be positive each morning you wake up by saying good things about yourself.

v Forgive yourself and be true to yourself-believe me, you would like the feeling.

v Greet everybody with a smile whether they like you or not.

v Love yourself for it is only then you can love someone else.

v Make somebody happy as often as you can.

v Give out those clothes and stuffs you don’t need. Somebody else needs them.

v Be a giver-givers never lack.

v Let go anything that gives you pain.

v Forgive others whether they ask you to or not so as to be a happy person.

v Drop those habits that are harmful to your health and occupy yourself with activities to keep your mind off them.

v Be current and identify yourself with intellectuals. They help sharpen your mind.

v Finally, be honest to and give compliments to people often. You never know what that would mean to them.

I once gave a piece of poetry to a friend some years back. To say I was shocked five years later when she showed me the very thing I gave her is an understatement. Well, I never thought she would keep it that long. And she told me how that inspired her. That shows how special some things could mean to people. I understood it was something that touched her soul.

Work on the above and they would help you live above shallow waters. When you are happier, you live longer and you live healthy. These tips are enough to make you happy and focused. And with God on your side, you would smile all the way. It’s never too late to make changes. At least we know its better late than never. This year can be your turning point into being the very person you always wanted to be.

As you prepare for the coming year, I wish all your dreams would come true so you could have a story to tell about the year that brought tremendous positive life changing things to your life. It could just be the beginning of better years to come as the New Year beckons……. And also, I wish you a world of happiness and sweet surprises.

*Christabel*

08077680648 & 07033266919.









My wish

It has always been my wish to be among the movers and shakers of my state for a start, my country next and the world at large. ‘What a funny idea.’ Some of my friends do say, ‘cut your coat according to your size.’ What an absurd idea, I know they think. But that made me more determined. Those who shake the world are not better than I am. We were all born through the same process, created by the same God, live in the same world and breathe the same air. We all survive by eating food, etc, etc.

My wish is to see myself flying on the eagle’s wings, doing those things that would put me ahead of the crowd. I wish to be celebrated not for anything, but for positive changes to my generation. Bringing honour to my country would be fulfilling a dream. Making my state proud would be adding feathers to my cap.

I wish I could be a mother to the motherless, bringing smiles to the faces of the destitute. Giving them a chance to feel love and be loved. I wish the children would call me blessed. There is nothing that cannot be done in this life when you believe. The sky cannot be my limit but I would surely touch the stars, smile my way through my wishes and find my dreams through God’s help. My wish is my future the way I see it ahead of me. Wishes do become true when you believe. Keep the flames of your wishes burning. You would surely succeed

I'M BACK...

I've borrowed tongues
-mine left me stranded
in synta-semantic limbo...
Limply in the virgina of words
like the phallus of an impotent idiom...

I'm back
after sipping on the nectar
of a distant proverb...
mine, marooned me
on an island of gigglin silences
as my word blossomed like a mute daisy
in a garden of petaled voices... Tonalities

mine, is the maze of the rainbow...
Fantasm and true
vague yet pricks the eye with a pallid answer splitting into seven questions

TO NIGHT THE MOON SHALL POUR: inspired by a reoccuring dream

Tonight the moon shall pour
cradling us, you and i
in the lyrics of an ancient lullaby
agree to the sweetest melodies of humankind

the moon shall pour
to tame the hurricane
here my paddle
here my sail lead me
here my heart of gentle storms

the moon shall pour
and my song will overflow with void
give me your voice
and my song be yours.
fill this silence with your revamped hope

And when the cock crows we wont run protecting our shame
instead we shall wake to ponder on the mystery of our humanity

THE VOICE...

The voice that is me
threatens to gather proverbs
of conflicting wit
my tongue is caught
in a character battle
begging for deliverance
-ritual of bloody enamel

O! But like the night owl
picking crumbs of hoots
from the vast table of the night
with eyes that defy soft lids
i've found my self roaming blurry paths
veering into dense under-growths
digging tubbers of verses

i've seen vanity
i've seen insanity
i've seen wisdom
i've seen victory
i've seen brotheliness
i've seen BLOOD
I've seen it all
i've seen nothing
i'm but a lad yearning to stand
hoping to fly
seeing through my eyes
wondering if you exist

brother, my greed is complicated;
While my crown yearns for crystals
-for vanity
my sanity throws questions at silence
and my heart beats
for change
for hope
for love
for optimism
for humanity...

Our stories

We've survived wordy labyrinths
of dragging stories
tales unfold uncontrollably on the spiders web of beguilling rainbows and the hyena tails us,
gathering the red petals of our aborted hope,
eating them with the salt mockery...
but where are the promised laughters of happy endings?
where are the tears of joy.
gradually we awaken from the spell of the story teller
gathering our shattered tale from the graveyard of buried dream.
Lets seize our tale from the lips of the flying tortoise
who has swallowd more than he can chew
after stealing our feathers, feed into ballots of trust.

The sea...

I set my sails
a voyage to nowhere
but the kind sea lead me to its dreadlocks
where fuming waves massacre the dreaming ripples
in a cannonade of madness.

A wave raises the majority bows
for the colossal zero to tread
dragging his regalia of vanishing bubbles.

but the enduring earth waits
patiently, for the watery claws of the tyrant.