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    Blacker Berries
    Blacker Berries
    Blacker Berries
    Ebook82 pages44 minutes

    Blacker Berries

    By Ayomide Olatunbosun

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    About this ebook

    The collection of poems, Blacker Berries by Olatunbosun Ayomide Samuel, is a collection of thoughtful and expressive poems by a young man yearning comprehend himself in a context of overwhelming ambivalence. At a time when many of his peers are obsessed with making money, Olatunbosun Ayomide Samuel has preoccupied himself with using poetry to help members of his generation discover themselves and ultimately find their bearing in the new global labyrinth.

    Aside from enriching one’s imagination, good poetry nourishes the soul. Blacker Berries is indeed a heartwarming follow-up to George Floyd’s unforgettable cry, “I can’t breathe”. The collection is remarkably inspirational, especially that it is coming from a relatively young author. Not only do the poems look inward, but they also call on Africans to see the beauty and potential in their native land.

    Olatunbosun’s poetry contains hard truth, express raw talent, exhibit vivid imagination, and fictionalize African sensibilities. The collection is remarkably nostalgic in that it is truly Nigerian and it cuts across geographical boundaries. I am sure readers across gender and generational divides will appreciate the African heritage and profound values that the poems promote. For these and many more reasons, I recommend the work very highly.

    Dr. Kehinde A. Ayoola
    Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCommune Writers Int'l
    Release dateJul 6, 2020
    ISBN9781005790233
    Blacker Berries
    Author

    Ayomide Olatunbosun

    Olatunbosun, Ayomide Samuel is a young talented Nigerian. He is currently a student of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. He is a blogger, visual poet, and writer. Due to his love for stage drama, Ayomide admires to become a part-time TV host, OAP, or actor. He is an opposer of racism and every form of discrimination that the black race faces. This is evident in his persistent expression of the African culture in most of his write-ups. During his leisure, Ayomide solely loves listening to music. He is a lover of every music genre.With over a hundred poems to his name, Ayomide hopefully believes that his literary content would be an inspiration to many.Blacker Berries is his first published poetry collection.

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      Book preview

      Blacker Berries - Ayomide Olatunbosun

      Dedication

      To my parents...

      Mr. and Mrs. Fola Olatunbosun.

      To a teacher I’d forever cherish- Late Mrs. Idowu Ogunbakin

      May her soul rest in perfect peace.

      And to everyone that has been a source of encouragement to me.

      Acknowledgement

      I appreciate God almighty, for the gift of life.

      God bless my parents for all of their moral understanding and financial support.

      Aunty Ronke; thank you for always giving audience to the recitation of my poems and advising me on critical topics to write about, right from my earliest writing days.

      Babalola Oluwaferanmi; a forever friend is what you are. Thanks for your consistent support.

      To all of my friends and colleagues that foresaw the success of this collection, may we be crowned with success in all of our endeavors.

      The coeditors of my poems, thanks a lot, fellow academics.

      Gracias!

      Foreword

      Blacker Berries is a poetry collection with forty poems in it. It is sectioned into four parts. The piece broadly dives into the African lifestyle, its history, culture, and its defaults.

      Blacker Berries talks about love as a genre of life. It gives an insight into the uneasy phase of life that every black youth experiences. It’s a poetry compilation with mythical theories of deep aspects of life.

      The poet, Ayomide, uses a storytelling point of view to make readers relate more personally with the issues addressed in the collection.

      PART I

      I Am Africa

      Our Scorching Lack

      Mighty African Rain

      Magical Nomenclature

      Whips and Cherries

      A Sonnet of The Talking Drum

      Flowing Through Our Veins

      Tales

      Dead Wires

      Black

      I AM AFRICA

      I once told a white friend;

      "I am Africa you’re not

      My warm is your hot, my cold is your hot

      That I lift my leg to cross over my neighbour- is a bad omen

      When a revered curses me, I roar ‘amen!’

      My tribal marks are my GPS

      North is my offspring, he has made a body lotion out of his hungry tears

      When I dread my hair strands I’m a criminal

      An agbada upon my deadly sleeves makes me an honourable man

      A large book of the scriptures in my sinful hands on a Sunday morn makes me a Jesus

      A hijab over my slutty ass makes me a Queen Zaria with a Hausa horse

      I am Kwei, Kalidou, Falana, Ngcobo, Awoonor, Odikwe

      I mustn’t die in my married daughter’s hut, lest my dead be passed through the window

      I am Africa, I live this way

      My masculine sibling could take my place if my wife becomes a widow

      The water that cleanses my hands after a meal mustn’t witness the next dawn

      Markets are siblings to my palaces, like dew is to dawn

      I am Africa, you’re not

      I am drunk of palmwine beneath this Orombo tree,

      Perhaps we’d commune when next I’m short of errands from maami

      I am Africa, you’re not."

      OUR SCORCHING LACK

      Our scorching lack

      Isn’t something I am proud of as a black

      Why?

      Why would every black eye stay outworn?

      Why would poverty gaze happily at us?

      Why would

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