Saturday, July 19, 2014

Happy Birthday to Me


On this day, I dance.
There's no other dancer in sight;
Just me, dancing with sheer delight...
My soul adorned with peace;
Jesus: My Fixer,
Rekindles the brightness of my path...
And as today unfolds,
His favour saturates me,
And makes me fly on the wings of joy.
His endless love fascinates me...
And brings me before a new dawn
So I rejoice, as I celebrate me today...
Happy birthday to me!


~Uche (2014)

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

9 years ago when we got married...


You were my divine promise fulfilled in due season.
Every day that I have walked with you, is an
Assurance of Divine favor
Readily completing and keeping me
Secured in the promises of Heaven...

Overjoyed in the comfort that you give; I'm
Forever longing to become that better man you deserve...

Blessings in every travail we face together is like
Living love in this life that ends; and
Imbued in the joy of a Life that never ends.
So deep and so pure, adorned by the love of God;
So here we are, ready to step into new realms of victory...


©Uche (2013)

Friday, July 19, 2013

Happy Birthday to Me! (2013)


I just flipped a new page on the book of my life,
Today I feel like a king lifted from the grass to the place of grace,
Every breath I take inspires me to cleave
To divine hands that shape me;
Captivates me, saturates me, and elevates me;
I celebrate me.

I'm still growing in the knowledge of myself,
Treasures from deep within daily unfolding,
Essence of my being; I want Your truth that daily sustains me;
Whether in pain or triumph I rejoice in the Lord Jesus
As I celebrate me today...

Happy Birthday to Me!


©Uche (2013)

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Happy Birthday to me - 2012


Every day I get to know me a lil’ more,
But today I’m enchanted by the songs of the Breeze.
I cannot tell the words, but what is spoken
Hangs on persistently on the hills where I must go...
I take another look at me; towards the deep wells of my life,
Springing forth new dreams, inspired by the Spirit who made me;
I celebrate me.

Captivated by a love that brings me sweet and pain,
But I want more; I want Your truth that daily sustains me;
Unchained and whole I rejoice in the Lord Jesus
As I celebrate me today...

Happy birthday to me!


©Uche (2012)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary!!!


Babes, lookin’ into your eyes
Again I’m saying that I love you.
The Lord has kept us sweet through 7 whole years,
And each day I still want to fall in love afresh with you.
Though through many nights, to heaven, we’ve both shed a few tears,
But by holding each other’s hand, our walk to destiny remains steady.
You bring the best out of me, baby, and everyone knows that already,
But the best part is: knowing my flaws, yet you stood by me from the start;
That makes your beauty a masterpiece I love to frame in my heart.
Feelin’ each moment like a king for 7 whole years,
Much unlike Jacob on a love mission in tears,
For God’s favor makes our union phenomenal,
Beyond every earthly sense;
And phenomenally,
The best part of our love story is just about to commence...

Happy Anniversary!


©Uche (2011)

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary!!!



How can I make this time of telling special
When I tell you that I love you every day?
How can I tell you that you are my angel
When you know you are my angel anyway?
I love you more on this special day,
Than on the day we married, 6 years ago.

Together we’ve been through thick and thin
But like a tree each year in height and girth,
Our love has grown immense and strong.
Now each time our eyes join instead of meet,
It's as though the lights of stars and sun
Join in us, a burst so bright and sweet,
And a reminder of God’s love toward us.

And so as poetry it flows from me to you
That in your heart all my love imbue...

Happy Anniversary my Boo!!!

©Uche (2010)

Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Treasure of My Solitude


Solitude is colored dark by many men,
But my spirit shines in those dark moments
That sparkle with my choice of God’s praise;
The essence of my joy, my stay of peace
Bedecks me in garments that eradicate my tears
And delightfully sheds my fears.

In my solitude, I have beheld Your beauty
In the glimmer of sunrise, the radiance of sunset
The glistening drops of dew on green foliage
And the flight of rain drops in the sun,
Even the rainbow blushes at my quiet gaze;
My gaze of wonder; am amazed as I ponder.

In my solitude, I hear the fish rejoice in muted voices
And the trees clap their hands in green ovation
Every creature drawing from You their soul’s satisfaction;
I am your sheep and Your voice is best heard in my silence,
My weakness reveals Your strength, in patience I wait,
Alone in obedience my heart is all ears…

©Uche (2009)

“Happy new year and happy new you!”


Hey you, wake up to a brand new day,
New mercies are here,
Happy new year and happy new you!

Rise up, rise up and shake off
The yesteryears’ dust,
Happy new year and happy new you!

Do you hear the new sound of hope
Thumpin’ at your soul’s door?
Happy new year and happy new you!

Strengthen weak hands and feeble knees;
And march into new boundaries,
Happy new year and happy new you!

On the threshold of a new age
Recognize you’re the essence of heaven here and say:
Happy new year and happy new you!

Happy new year and happy new you
Means in all you do stay joyful and true!

©Uche (2009)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

“Omolola”


Omolola is the angel I love to hold in my arms.
More like a virtuous sprite she stays her man.
Oh, how selfless is her array of excellence.
Loves to live by serving that herself be sustained.
Overall, she’s anchored in life by a love unrestrained.
Let me secretly watch you dance in style and grace;
An angel whose wisdom is one of her best charms.

©Uche (2009)

Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy 5th Wedding Anniversary!!!



As I sit here musing underneath the night sky,
Watching sea water splash to make beach sand shine.
I'm reminded of the beautiful flashes of your smile;
Just before we got married and you became my bride.
You became my sweetest experience, my treasure, my pride.
Who else but you could have matched me on this old lover's venture?
Just you and me rollin' on life's train of adventures...
Dum ditty ditty dum, my heart is a song of love for us to tango
And words may demean the very beats of my heart's drum,
Pounding eternally and watching your heart respond:
It's our 5th Anniversary love ballad,
So dance on like my private ballerina....
Let me secretly watch you dance to our life's tunes;
Let me be happy in your joy too;
As we remain thankful to the Lord's hands
Who forever strums the beautiful melodies we both enjoy
On our life's eternal dance:
We rejoice!

Happy Anniversary my Boo!


©Uche (2009)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

"Wings of God's Love"



On the touch of His beautiful hands I rose...

When my journey began with one feeble step of faith,
And all my weaknesses gazed at me with those beady eyes.

On the wings of His beautiful love I leapt...

Even when tens of thousands draw up against me like sand,
I shall not fear for the Lord sustains me with His hands.

On the wings of His beautiful light I fly...

Let the light of your face upon me shine,
And fill my heart with joy like new wine.

On the wings of His beautiful night I'm kept...

Knowing the king of peace dwells within my heart,
Dispels my fears and shields me from enemy darts.

On the wings of His glorious victory I soar...


©Uche (2009)

Monday, October 12, 2009

"God's Wisdom and the Jolly Good Folly of Man"



Lord, You are mighty in every nation!
Let Your manifold wisdom unfold in every generation.
In the quietness of my spirit,
I sense Your loving delight in the children of men
Such divinity in the midst of mere humanity - You amaze me!
You reveal Your majesty in the works of Your hands.
Your sovereignty is in the heavens and on the earth - yet,
You are not afraid to live in the hearts of the little men who killed You;
For little did they know that Your love is Your greatest strength
Which manifests in our weakest weaknesses.
And You seek to show Your wisdom in the worldly foolishness of men;
That they who are wise in their own eyes may see their own jolly good folly!
Oh, that the hearts of men shall be lifted up to You alone,
And let all creation testify that the LORD God Almighty is one,
Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Your blessed son!

©Uche

Thursday, November 27, 2008

In Moments Like This...


There is an experience of timelessness
Such as no watch can comprehend,
Still...

There is an experience of loveliness
Such as no beauty can express,
Still...

There is an experience of wholesomeness
Such as no pleasure can measure,
Still...

There is an experience of righteousness
Such as no law can represent,
Still...

In moments like this, in His presence,
I rejoice.

©Uche (2008)

Friday, November 21, 2008

There I Stand...


There where we stand as fools for His wisdom’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we are weak for His strength’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we are dishonoured for His being distinguished’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we are hungry and thirsty for His righteousness’ sake,
There I stand.

There where we are naked, and beaten, and homeless for His kingdom’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we labour, working with our hands for His gospel’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we being reviled, we bless for His name’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we being persecuted, we endure for His glory’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we being defamed, we entreat for His goodness’s sake,
There I stand.

There where we have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things for His joy’s sake,
There I stand.

Until now...

©Uche (2008)

Friday, September 5, 2008

A Cry For These Haunted Ones


Earth wonder’s beneath the night sky.
An exegesis she succumbs to
Cracks the shell of her conscience.

There is a whirling of inchoate obsessions
At earth’s loss; distraught
Without reason,
Shriveling the womb of human enterprise.

Cold night, alone;
In this silence the best noise is heard.
Before I wept.

Vermin at arm’s length nowadays
Cast a shadow of faceless hands, outstretched
To redeem their lust offering.
Unsexed and drenched in the heat of retribution,
The gunmen now bare their fangs at every corner.

I trust that this stillbirth of eternal human lesson
Keeps a contrary pace with the wisdom of the Ancient of Days.
Thus provoked, flesh hunger for more flesh
With very little time to spare;
Thus, confining the fat breasted Love in little cans of unwisdom…

And a host of other things
Including my uniformed friends
With a history of training sessions;
Has wanton corruption brought more guns to bear
On the humble bus driver?

As we continue to refuse by choice
To be what we all ought to be,
Truth is served on a plate of strong iron
Then that mouth-watering diet of lies in elegant casserole.

…The devouring flesh of a wanton polity
Deliberately feeds on the latter, nourishing their pride
As they are rocked to sleep in Ekwensu’s chair…

Death begets a quiver full of deaths
In dearth of the great Spirit;
Who dares propel His earthen vessels toward life’s purpose?

Necessity invents that we must hunger
In one accord for that light which shines
(With healing in its rays),
The most in these dark and darker times.

©Uche (2008)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

“Sunflower”


See how cheerfully you smile in gold yellow,
Unkenneling your ability to represent my sun.
Now, having taught my sunshine to mellow,
Friend of mine, you have become without a thorn.
Let your fragrant oil soothe my heart’s ache,
On the day, your bloom devours my life’s burden.
Why does your golden tear drop at dawn when I awake?
Exalt the hands that planted you in my heart’s garden.
Radiant bloom of beauty! How you blossom in life’s meadows.

©Uche (2008)

“Papa”


Oh, the joys
The pain
The cane that moulded me
The hands that held me
The strong words that taught me
And those toys you bought for me

Oh, the joys
The cares
Through my school-boy years
All for me your tears
Washed my future fears
In my heart your love remains dear

O! Papa
Your love is yoked to my soul
Through my days, in candour
You dwell secure in my heart’s parlour
I carry you wherever I sojourn
You have become my integrity and great honour.

©Uche (2008)

“Mama”


You held me in your arms
And I was a painter
You carried me in your bosom
And made me a star
Your tender words to your child
Shaped my poet’s mind
At birth, you stole my heart
Oh, how I need now your sweet breast
For they nourish my soul
With milk for my life’s nurture
What you placed in me, mama
With your corrective touch
Shall never die through my days
That is why I carry you wherever I go
I could never let you down
I seek to build a fortune
Of love everlasting between you and me
Your love is a carriage to my soul
Through my days
You dwell secure in my heart
Take these hands of mine
And shed no tears,
For a blessed woman indeed you are.

©Uche (2008)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Fetish Dancers


The fat bellied baboons are still dancing in small circles, and chanting
To the rhythmic crescendo of the impecuniousness of the green monkeys.
The wailing of the hoi polloi has deliberately swollen the bellies of the head tortoises.
An ever-readiness of a tyranny of choices;
Civically pilfering the best part of their own people in euphemisms.
I laugh at the repertoire of their ploy, and their agile skanking,
Unearthed by their own embellished unwisdom to fall into a disposition of angst.

I am haunted by the ghost of my childhood in nostalgia
Like a mouth-watering dish of amnesia.
When the spoil of their oil boom rolled their nation to a mental inertia.
Yet, the headship still thread on the same roads their forefathers travelled;
Now they are even uprooting the sign posts to their children’s future.
Even as they hold a candle to the shame of their malicious mischief
In the frenzy of their dance on the precipice of their own fate.

Until now, they have told me that my ears are still too young
To hear the pulsating throes of the sufferers, thicken into funeral songs.
Every desire of their polity churns in the people, a wanton ire.
Alas! Even the schools are dead and gone.
Subsequently, their youths diffuse into a diaspora
Of their every whims and debased forms,
Hoping to grasp on something to hold; a procreation of Area Boys.

A dear friend was ill some days ago
In a town of a thousand physicians, he died anyway of common colds.
Even his sister on her way to see him, had to
Settle toll fees of egunje to the men in black, at every roadblock.
They said it was the juntas that connived
To steal morality out of our storehouse,
Bequeathing a den of crooks and vermin as a lasting legacy.

Who can we blame, when precept upon precept
We have learnt Never to Expect Power Always,
And all trunk calls are ever too busy to connect.
After all, we are the ones who reap from oilfields
Which we rape with negligence.

And shamelessly queue for long hours to pay for adulterated fuel.
Even the birds are jealous of an eternally resting airways.
A worker deserves his wages, that we know
Yet not until the fat bellied ones have become full from feeding their flames.
Their people are daily becoming homeless in one thousand and four ways
And though some have prayed for freshwater
What we get instead is pure water,
The sachets of which later mingle in assortment of debris
Adorning the streets and waterways of Lagos;
The tiara of lost vestige.

What more can I say that has not been said at 9 o’clock?
Is it the ones wearing Agbada and Kaftans
With their bullet proof underwear?
Or the exchange of “Ghana must go bags” laden with
Their loot, then in secrecy, now blatantly;
Or is it the untold story of how they use the resources
Of their people to woo their daughters into their adulterous rendezvous.
Dividends or rather incentives of democracy.

We are the everyday people,
We see and we hear of their mundane luxury
Swiss accounts, hummer jeeps and private planes,
Contractors and white elephants; an ovation.
Some of have angels
And some f us have demons
Yet some still sojourn our terrible roads and some in penury.

…At a time when they began to salt their excrement
To eat, even the salt lost its taste.
Then the redhead lizard lost his voice too
On the day when it can only nod with no other choice.
…At a time when the truth incessantly thumps
On the eardrums of their hearts;
From these axioms we have hitherto eaten the yam of life.

Now is the right time for stepping out of place.
There is something in us that knows that
The echoes of our heartbeat have long gone out of tune with the Great Spirit.
And we even behold that the centre can hold no longer,
As a devious wind rocks the leaders and the led to sleep.

On the day when we finally wake up,
I pray that we may yet dance, but together in wholesome harmony.

©Uche (2004)

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

“Passage to Mañana”


Our magic of tomorrow is brewed
In the pot of today.
In this broth, the morsels of history
Are stirred by the timid hands of time.
As the sweet aroma of great expectations
Wafts to my nose
My mouth waters,
But it tastes raw
And the morsels are hard to swallow…

Weary expectations have made
A man’s tongue clings to his mouth’s ceiling
Panting from a frenetic chase
Of earth’s gold mirage,
On his way to Mañana.

Who plagues the heart’s fire
With harsh winds of doubt?
And crowns his task with
Our obsequious rite of vain conceit;
The bane of my ancestors
Whose bones lie now grotesquely
Consummated with the red dust of the earth.

The nuggets of life’s blueprint lie deeply
Buried in the soil of wisdom…
Dig, oh child! And be predestined to conquer.
They will laugh at you,
Hiding behind their coated boulders of fear.
Yet, unearth the truth
And see them tumble down the dirt hills
Of reverse beginnings,
Bringing shame upon their womb of life genesis.

Truth is always simple
Yet unflinching in purpose
To sail the willing passenger
To the promising land of tomorrow.
And she affirms as she secretly tells me
To redeem my time, for the days are evil…

That night, the spider and his queen
Began to spin the cosmic web of their future.

We have kept a long vigil, guarding our dreams
From the tyranny of earth's love.
Now we set sail, beyond all subsidence of earthly sense
Towards the misty dawn, when together
We shall behold the promising coast of Mañana. We rejoice.

©Uche (2006)

The Gateway to A Painter’s Paradise


Of my love for the picturesque and sublime in nature
My canvas is birth; inspired by the muse of colour.
As humanity struggles against the forces of nature,
A pleasant wind of light and atmospheric effects
Explores the interior of self in patterns and silhouette;
Of colour, pure, applied richly, in flickering strokes,
Conveying intense emotional expression or even pain;
A feeling of ease, more a part of my chosen landscape,
I can feel it from my insides:
And I want to express my feelings rather than demonstrate them.

To live my dream in my very heart
Here I shall have every right.
A brush in chiaroscuro, with the lights in lead-white,
A full blend of splendour and majesty in every masterpiece.
A collector’s delight.
With short brush strokes I juxtapose my primary colors:
Red, yellow, and blue-green, purple,
And vermillion I also blend on the general hue.
Thus, shall I let my feelings flow.

There is an agony that goes before my every ecstasy
When my feelings are unchained and set free,
To wander on mere caprice in the garden of my imagination
Avid constellation of ideas bestow
Upon the benign spirit of my painter’s heart
Just beneath the echoes of my perceptions on display
In grotesque forms on canvas,
Rendering the shadows of my unchained spirit;
Thus, shall I let my feelings flow.

©Uche (2006)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

“Velvet on My Svelte One”


Svelte is my sweetie,
Adorned in her velvet robe of virtue;
Queen of my tenderness.

By dreaming and loving,
I have watched her loneliness
Feed on my yearning presence.

By daydreaming of love,
We have watered little, the
Embers that quicken our tender flame.

Of deluge or dehisces,
In cumulus forms of love cure;
Ecstasy in two skins of fire, to tango.

Mellow in shy lights, she
Dispels my fear of self-denial;
Reassurance and comfort in her modesty.

Svelte is my sweetie,
In her velvet robe of virtue,
She piques my utmost craves.


©Uche (2006)

“Truth and Consequences”


Things would not have been so bad
If we had the things we never had
From the cradle to the grave
Yet, some of those we had, away we gave.
Still from the cradle to the grave, we crave.

Life would be an incomplete picture
If we could take away time and virtue;
And, the truth always hurts like a bad tooth,
This is of little essence when it must have to be told.

Freedom is right here, right there and over there at your feet
But it remains far from those who forever sit on the fence;
And in the midst of all education and religion of sorts,
Wisdom from truth is still very murky
And unclear, therefore yields no better fruit.

Yet, shall the Judge of the earth not do right?
When we imprison the truth
In the hearts of the sons of this earth.
Afraid to take offence,
Or have a chance to face
The truth and its consequences?

©Uche (2002)

“The Water’s Edge”


We fell on our faces under love’s burden;
These angels heard us cry, and
With outstretched hands became our friends.
As lush and rich as green foliage in the sun
May your dew remain fresh for every morn’,
Living love in a life that ends.
And when you may have grief to tend,
We want to be the strong and caring ones
To bear fruits of the blessed seeds you’ve sown
Until life’s troubles pass and sorrows end.
In soul and spirit you are so beautiful
That you bring comfort to all you’re near:
Our pains soothed we remain thankful,
For in you we have learned a gift so dear.
The Lord make you boundless as the sea.
As your seeds become trees along your water’s edge,
They shall bear fruit each season without fail.
Living love in a life that never ends,
Clara and Cresta: these angels make paradise prevail.

©Uche (2004)