1st Korea-Nigeria Poetry Feast

(in commemoration of World Poetry Day 2011)

 

Date: March 21st 2011

 

 

Time: 4.30~7.30pm

 

 

Venue: Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria Studio

 

 

Attendance: 80

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I REMEMBER

Alkasim Abdulkadir

Read by Miss Wheel Chair Nigeria, Grace Jerry

 

I remember the road to your heart

Like I do the lines on my hands…

I crossed valleys of indifference

Climbed hills of despair

Then, we met on the mountain top of our desires.

 

We swam in the rivers of our emotions

And bathed in the suns of our days…

Seasons have gone, yet, I remember...

My fall from the mountain top of your heart…

 

I know the lines of my hands just

Like I remember the road to your heart…

 

 

 

IMAGINATION

Aderemi Adegbite

 

Your imaginary image

I etched esoterically with Botticelli’s

Petrified paint-brush.

 

Your magnificent statue

I captured with the agonized chisel

Of the euphoric Michelangelo.

 

Your pictorial figure

I snapped with Leonardo’s mystical

And plush left eye.

 

Locked in your eyes

Of allurement I dissolved like salt

At the ocean's feet.

 

Your beauty betrays

My creative Muse

In my imagination's studio.

 

 

 

NATIVE EARTH

Ovie Cross C.

 

Ashes and dust

Earth wind and fire

Deep blue sea in awe

Sands of time

Diverse colors of the rainbow

Faces and shapes of heads

Brown men

Black men

Nomad and settled

Under the world’s umbrella

Diverse tongues and speech

Voices distance far

Learning to live and to love

Alive to fear and to hope

To cry and laugh together

Bound together by a string

Red colored blood

Rasta man

European

Japanese

Red India

 

 

 

 

From Here To There

Akeem Akinniyi

Performed by Oluwatoba Oyewale & Susan Duru of Arojah Royal Theatre

 

Because everywhere is home in this fenceless world,

I open my heart to you with an eternal embrace.

The earth here is same as the earth there,

may our ship of friendliness never capsize.

 

You are my brother, who I see the sun in his eyes.

You are my sister, who I hear the moon in her laughter.

We are humans, other nouns can follow.

 

I don’t have to read your palms to know what destiny we share

I don’t have to know where you are journeying from

nor do I have to know who you want to see

before I welcome you with water and smiles.

 

Stranger is the language of the suspicious,

let the meal of friendship slake our thirst and sate our hunger.

 

In the difference of languages,

the wind of this world brought us together.

In the difference of cultures,

we have come to know about one another.

In the different colours of our skins,

we have come to see the diversity of the world.

 

Under a roof of a sky that never changes,

breathing an air that we never see but feel,

drinking water that has no colour,

let us make the world smaller with the words: sister, brother.

 

You don’t have to know my name.

 

 

FRIENDSHIP

Benjamin Ubiri

Read by Mrs Irene Mbanefo, Representative of Ministry of Education

 

The wind is not careful

When she carries the words

Mucus you spewed on my name

Under the nymph tree

My friend

 

Friendship walls

Have itching ears and a sonorous cord

But you have turned their song

Into a sour grape sea

Cut open by blunt blades

Stained amity

 

My heart is a river

Chrism ripples

Dripping

Like a botch sack

Grains

Headed farm-ward

Where is the harvest my friend

 

I hear the voice in your eyes

I see the falter in your heart

But I am still unshed

 

 

 

 

HOW WOULD WE EXIST....

Mousumi Roy

Read by the Representative of Minister of Culture, Miss Lizzy Ihezue - Iwuamadi

 

How would our existence scream?

since infancy

was at the mercy

of others....

reaching cliff

from civilization

stepped off the World

Mysterious planet....

 

constitutional World

our entire past life

passed by...

through tremors in veins

and jarks in gray matter...

 

Untamed Untaught

was the primeval world

gentility, sophistication

instead of nature

primordial pagan

passed by...

though waving of

a billion leaves

 

 

 

 

 

My Korean Friend

Olasakinju Jerry

Performed by Adesewo Fayaman Bay of Arojah Royal Theatre

 

In my dream I met a beautiful Korean lady,

Maybe because of Bibimbap I ate two days before in a Korean Restaurant in Tokyo.

She spoke with a soft voice, and her colorful hanbok shone like a rainbow.

She asked me if there are traditional dresses in Nigeria.

I proudly told her of Aso Oke with a befitting Abeti Aja

Clothes that my Yoruba ancestors invented long before the Internet;

Her laughter roared when she learnt that Nigerians like dancing;

She showed me a picture of her school friends doing munmu,

A civil dance that always beats happiness into Korean people’s hearts!

And I was surprised when my friend agreed to try fufu someday

While recommending me to lay my hand on kimchi!

 

 

 

 

Two Nations, One Soul

By Kester Osahenye

 

Intimacy styled in hues of adjectives:

crony, chum, pal, and buddy

I found you thirty years ago and today

I can call you my friend.

My sovereignty threw choices of relationships

to my alleyway.

Cautiously but steadily

I was attracted to alluring voices,

In my unease for friendship

I couldn’t dictate the good from the bad,

Then I walked friendship lonely path,

ensconced in my choosy reverie,

Like a nubile bride selecting from litany of suitors.

 

I made choices that illuminated my paths,

and embraced my weakness,

Your friendship is endearing,

yet absorbed my diversity and cultures.

You kissed my lips and caressed my hearts

with your songs of kinship.

Heart to heart and hand in hand we’re building this friendship.

My hands didn’t write the brilliant rhymes and rhythms

of your Seoljanggu,

Yet my heart mastered the scintillating tempo and pitch like the taps of Atilogwu dancers.

hwimori rhythms are reminiscent of my Fuji or Apala staccatos, which sway my heart to bliss.

janggu drum sounds like the Yoruba talking drum, that churns out mellifluous tunes.

Your hanbok spews colourful labyrinth

like the Aso-Oke cloths.

 

We may look different

but could espouse the dissimilarity in our ally.

Under your tutelage

I can know beyond the acrobatics of Taekwondo,

While you master the myths of Kwaris acupunctures

and Binis bone-setting,

Like Siamese twins,

we became inseparable with the bonds we share.

I’ve asked myself why I chose you.

I chose you because of your divergence.

That way our friendship breaks the vestiges of cultures,

And turned to a lifetime honeymoon.

 

 

 

 

 

IN A TAVERN

Denja Abdullahi

Read by Denja Abdullahi

 

Where else would joy be found

if not in the tavern?

Beloved of gropers, refuge for lonely souls.

Come drown life’s injustices

with fluidity of tavern’s lore

come improve waning sights

with sparkles from a raised goblet

come re- awaken forgotten Libido

as highfalutin desires wiggle and rumble pass.

Let the frothing brew of knowledge

Banish all thoughts of what is and what is not,

friend, you can’t be a Joshua nor an Elijah

but you can become a monk in this sensual monastery.

Fill your eyes fast on mirages

burden your buds with exotic brews

smell wafts coming from that primal garden

count fervently your beads of pleasure

make this tavern your seminary.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BLACK TAG

Yemi Adebiyi

 

I am a victim of invasion

When cleansed

The dirt remains

My invaders are gone

This land

Their magic touch retains.

 

I am going back

Back to where I belong

To lead my life

Here I am not myself.

 

He changed my tongue

Make me sing his praise

And taboo my values

That he did to me.

 

At the art gallery

Where I perform my duty

Saints were paint like him

And Satan like me.

 

In his diction

I am an abomination.

 

Ajai, great ancestors of Augustine

Babayaro of Braimoh

Chukwudi of Cornelius

Your children are turned against you

And you are silent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cross section of the audience at the Poetry Feast.

Mr. Suh Jeong Sun delivering the Welcome Address.

Dr Jerry Agada, President, Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA) with the
Opening Remarks.

 A Poet enthralling the audience with message of poetry.

A wider view of the audience.

Miss Song Ju Young of Korean Cultural Centre reading a Poem titled: Daughter by
Yearn Hong Choi.

Toba Oyewale of Arojah Royal Theatre performing a Poem titled: I AM
LAUGHING by Kim Sung-Hui.

Representative of  the Minister of  Culture, Tourism and National Orientation,
Mrs Lizzy Ihezue - Iwuamadi reading the Poem titled: HOW WOULD WE EXIST
by Mousumi Roy.

Adesewo Fayaman Bay rendering the Poem titled: My Korean Friend by
Olasakinju Jerry.

Miss Wheel Chair Nigeria, Grace Jerry reading a Poem titled: I REMEMBER by
Alkasim Abdulkadir.

Representative of  the Minister of  Education, Mrs Irene Mbanefo reading the Poem
titled: FRIENDSHIP by Benjamin Ubiri.

Ambassador of Republic of Korea to Nigeria, His Excellency, Amb. Park Young-
Kuk giving the Closing Remarks.

 A Female Poet receiving her Prize. 

  Denja Abdullahi receiving his Prize.

 Another Poet receiving his Prize.

Hajo Issa, one of the Featured Poets receiving her Prize from Dr Jerry Agada while
Ambassador Park Young Kuk looks on.

Group Photograph of  Dignitaries, Featured Poets and Prize winners.

Guests at the reception.