African Poets Quotes

“One

We are pulled
to each other
like paper clips
into the embrace
of magnetized iron
like a lightning rod
hailing the finger
of thunder,
and we can't
say why.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Black Girl

Your
skin
is dark
chocolate
dipped
in honey.
You are
a delicious
shade
of melanin.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“It is about representing the unrepresented. Because their pains are my pains. Their perseverance, my perseverance. And their pleasure, and small triumphs, when they do have them, are mine as well.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I can never be divorced from them. Because they exist within me. I am her, the molested and the raped. I am him, the detained and the sold. I am they, the legions of people killed in regional subsidised genocides without names and buried in anonymous tombs.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I Will Be Silent is not just a book to me. It is more than that. It is a call to witness. It is a series of poems which proceed not from the heart but from the gut of tribulation and endurance. It is a book which bears witness to the collected voices who cannot speak for themselves because they have been silenced.”
― Valentine Okolo

“Most times I feel the emotions of others when I write. In those moments I become that which I write about. I see with their eyes, I hear with their ears, I feel with their skin. In those moments I cease to be myself, and become someone else. I become her, they, it. I become someone’s dreams. And relive, sometimes, their nightmares.”
― Valentine Okolo

“I write from a place of suffering. From a place of joy. I explore the two extremes in my poetry.”
― Valentine Okolo

“First, they should close their eyes and feel. And then write what they felt. Some of the notable works of literature (which includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, science fiction and so on) were written from an abundance of feelings. If you don’t feel what you have written, don’t expect someone else to feel it too. (Unless, you want to be too intellectual and write drab college textbooks.)”
― Valentine Okolo

“Your writing has to move you first before you expect it to move someone else. Write what you feel first. Then put it away for a while, and then look at it again with the eyes of a stranger. If you read what you had written earlier with the stranger’s eyes and say to yourself: “Wow! Did I write this?” Then someone else will also be wowed by it as well.”
― Valentine Okolo

“To me words are life. Words carry with them a strong creative force. A force that makes things happen.”
― Valentine Okolo

“I empty my mind. And do something else that is not related to what I am writing about. Sometimes I take long walks, and focus on being in the present. As I walk, I take note of the rise and fall of the land, the diverse faces of people, the roaming animals, and the sounds coming from cars and motorcycles. Most times when I do this ideas flow to me freely, clearing my imaginative inhibitors.”
― Valentine Okolo

“In genocides rape is most times weaponized by the aggressive side, and the suffering sides to such wickedness are women, old and young. Such actions tear at my core and reveal mankind’s depravity at its worst.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I most times don’t plan a poem in advance. Some poems, if I may use the expression, fall at my feet, almost fully formed. They are a few poems, however, that I do make plans to write in advance. And in order to write them I have to enter into a period of poetic gestation. A period in which I allow the idea of the poem to take root and grow within me until it is ready to be birthed. Sometimes the gestation period may take a few days. Sometimes it can take months or even years.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I like writing organically. So I don’t force anything out. I allow myself to be. I allow myself to feel. I allow the words to come to me like the wind. And I try to catch whatever message that is whispered in the breeze.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“What is Raven from my perspective? I believe it is the collective consciousness of the suffering masses melding into one voice. I believe it is conscience personified. Perhaps, a messenger with a message. Or even, the depths of my consciousness rising to the surface. Whatever it is, “Raven” started me on a quest. And I have been on this journey for quite some time.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Most times the poetic in life is found in many things around us. You would find it in the deft play of a football player on a soccer pitch. An orange sky with the descending sun at twilight. The laughter of a toddler playing with dirt. Or the feel of the wind caressing your face. Poetry most times is found in the profound.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“For me poetry is not the exclusive domain of academia. Stuff to be studied and dissected in college classrooms like a lab rat to find out what makes it thick. It is a form of human expression. The transference of human emotion from one person to another whether it is written or performed.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Each time a child goes up as an incendiary, something within me rips open. Until a day of reckoning comes I don’t think I will ever get over the self-immolation of each of those children. And my words are inadequate to show the depth of my grief or my anger. Nothing can. Only my deliberations with silence.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Portrait

True
beauty is hidden
in the fringes
of softness.
Something
which summons you
to experience
but not
to possess.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Scales

Balance
is
profit
and losses.
Acid
and alkali.
Vinegar
and sugar.
Depression
and
euphoria.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Earwax

Allow me
to slowly undress
your hair
and make love
to your ears.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Kiss

Twin lips,
surrounded by
white light.
The breath
from my mouth
make you quiver
like a jellyfish,
marooned
on the water shore.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Kiss Too

Your lips

are

liquid wax.

You kiss me,

I burn.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Bright

Dazzle their eyes
with your
florescent smile,
pitch tent
with the waking
sunset.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Watermaid

You walk
like a river
and I see you,
gliding over the tide,
each evening,
your feet
barely making prints
in the sands.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Swimmer

You are
a water nymph
from the ocean
rising.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“What are we?

We are
a combination
of sand
and gunpowder,
cosmic energy
and sawdust.
We are
black holes
and novae,
children’s laughter,
and tears of time.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Moment

In my arms
you are
a trembling
leaf
licked
by the
erotic tongue
of the wind.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I sit by the embers of our dead love, still burning for you.”
― Elizabeth Awori, These Things

“I was sane till love conspired with my mind, now all I think about is you.”
― Elizabeth Awori, These Things