A September in Gbongan

Life, an abstruse montage. 
Providence bested choice 
Lagos was the pick 
But providence moulded Gbongan
As provenance and as cradle 

Wee hours of Wednesday 
September 23rd
A howling birth; Ìbejì 
Our nascence mooted the names;
TAYE and KẸ̀HINDE 

House became a gleeful formicary
Every leg headed here
Every lip spieled gaily 
Every eye gaped the cot 
Every heart longed 

A September in Gbongan 
Of birth and bread 
Of TAYE and KẸ̀HINDE 
Of mirthful ÒGÚNLÀDÉ 
Life, indeed a medley of tides.

©Taiwo Olaniyi, For September 23rd.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Library

Image
                      MY LIBRARY   Ever since I read William Ellery Channing's words on books in Ben Carson's Think Big, I have developed voracious palate for books. Channing rightly posits that "it is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. " This assertion has had considerable influence on my literary enthusiasm, and I will forever crave the orgasmic fulfilment I get from reading books.  Although, I currently have in soft copies more than 8,000 books on my laptop, these are the titles of books that you will likely find in hard copies in my library.
Read more

My Review of Chinweizu Ibekwe's Anatomy of Female Power, published in 1990.

Image
I read Chinweizu Ibekwe's Anatomy of Female Power between August 25th and August 26th, 2020. Matriarch exists. Does matriarchy exist powerfully as patriarchy does? This is the question which this book proffers answers to. It is a brief essay which, with persuasive series of evidence, challenges the catholicity of the impression that matriarchy is a mirage. It evidently submits that female power exits and "the power they wield is neither illusory nor a joke." Theirs is an amorphous mass of power which calls the shots for men all through their lives.  To contest the men's supremacist attitude towards women, it handily details how women's influence cut through men's existence like a thread. The three phases of men's life are ruled by women's power: motherpower, bridepower and wifepower.  The motherpower manifest in the cradle and espouses the universal truth that "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." The
Read more

OVERSEER J.O Ọ̀JẸ̀LẸ́YẸ: OUR PARAGON OF EXCELLENCE

When I was offered admission into St. Patrick's Grammar School, Adenuga, Gbongan in 2004, my aunt who had attended the school earlier used to threaten me that the school principal, Prince Adébáyọ̀ Bínúyọ́, would beat my puerile naughtiness out of me. She would then cite innumerable instances that would definitely make one liable to receiving stinging strokes of cane from him. I would always cower in fear whenever she threatened me with these realities. But my grandmother would graciously dispel my fears in Yorùbá that 'Inú Bínúyọ́ máa yọ́ s'ọmọ mi' (Binuyọ́ will be pleased with my son).  Weeks into my admission to St. Patrick's (as it was popularly called then), I experienced these realities with him. He was on the one hand a bundle of awesomeness and on the other hand a wise and constructive disciplinarian when it came to such issues as students' truancy. He was a principal whose stance would crumble every form of academic infraction. I can still vividly rememb
Read more