I Heard

I have been searching for another like you

But those words never cease to haunt me

One day you will wake up and not find me

You said those with tears in your eyes

They didn’t mean much to my uncaring soul

But with the grief of a child, I now remember

I have wished for nothing else but what we had

But I heard you are now happily married

I never knew there weren’t two of you out there

Reaching out for you in others is now a mirage

How can I forget your tears when you said to me

“I love you but you are hurting me”

Now I wish I could even say that to you

As long as I have you in my life

But sadly, I heard you’re now happily married

You gave me your all and I gave you nothing

I now know it hurts not to be in love with you

Just like others before her, she’s nothing like you

I heard you are now very happy but I cry

A river of my tears flood the pillow we shared

How much pain did I cause you? I miserably ask myself

Where was my selfish heart when tiny drops of hurt tears

Ran a river down your heart and your love sailed away

I heard he makes you very happy

  

Sitting at a corner staring at the pieces of my heart

Broken by those I thought were sexier than you

My pride is gone but heartache keeps me company

I am sad but I heard your laughter now rings out

Can’t believe I sacrificed all you had for me

On the alien altar of uncertain scarlet women

And now I am paying for my waywardness

I just woke up and realized that you’re gone

I heard you are now happy

Emeka Amakeze

Your Happiness My Sadness

I’ve been searching for another like you

But those words never cease to haunt me

One day you will wake up and not find me

You said those with tears in your eyes

They didn’t mean much to my uncaring soul

But with the grief of a child, I now remember

I’ve wished for nothing else but what we had

But I heard you are now happily married

I never knew there weren’t two of you out there

Reaching out for you in others is a mirage

I remember you say tearfully

“I love you but you are hurting me”

How I wish I could even say that to you

As long as I have you in my life

But sadly, I heard you’re now happily married

You gave me your all and I gave you nothing

I know now it hurts not to be in love with you

Just like others before her, she’s nothing like you

I heard you are now happy

Squeezing out a river of your tears from the pillow we shared

How much pain did I cause you? I miserably ask myself

Where was my selfish heart when tiny drops of hurt tears

Ran a river down your heart and your love sailed away

I heard he makes you very happy

Sitting at a corner staring at the pieces of my heart

Broken by those I thought were sexier than you

My pride is gone but heartache keeps me company

I am sad but I heard your laughter now rings out

Can’t believe I sacrificed all you had for me

On the alien altar of uncertain scarlet women

And now I am paying for my waywardness

I just woke up and realized that you’re gone

 Emeka Amakeze

I Have Something To Say

You’re the fairest of them all and they never cease to be awed as they laud and applaud the handiwork of God and none ever jawed you my love. Your beauty is not flawed because you’re not a fraud. I will fight and claw to make your path broad.

Because I’m your knight that always comes to your fight. You make me recite how much skin-tight my love fits to your heart. I will hold you through the night till our spirits are truly light with the delight we know how well to excite.

A dearest friend you've been and you alone I will always send. I will bend even to break just to make amend to blend in your life my love. They can’t comprehend how much I depend on your trend because you don’t pretend.

How long has it really been since my soul desires to be seen by you. I will trek even to Berlin to feel you addict me like caffeine because I’ve truly missed you and your Africa cuisine. I’m keen not to allow anybody come in between us.

I’m so proud you’re well-endowed and you give me the happiness of a crowd, you make me scream aloud when you exude that appeal that puts me in the mood and I make you reach for the cloud. Your love feels like food to my soul.

You’re aware I value you more than air because you’ve shown me how much you care by making me an heir and I feel like a billionaire in this love affair. I swear nobody out there will dare to compare with you my rare luminaire.

Never met any that’s half the woman you are and as I quaff of your love and because you’re not a diamond in the rough, you make me feel like a chief among my peers. You make me laugh even when times are tough and make me call bluff of those who think I should‘ve had enough.

Assuaging my fear with each passing year, you’ve made me appear drunk without a drop of beer and fearless like a brigadier. I will commandeer whatever you find so dear and make all your worries disappear and veer you away from every wear and tear.

I’m not in contest for your love because you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. You’re my crest of affection and my chest can’t contain all your zest even if compressed. I’m blessed you’re mine and will stay away from all that you detest.

I will always have something to say about the way you make me sway and Cupid will first betray love before I delay to tell you how much I love you from day to day. I will whisk you to fantasy land straight away and never allow you to stray.

I still have something more to say my love

an Emeka Amakeze poetic expression.

She Died

She leaned on my shoulders and never woke up again

Her hot tears scalded me as they streamed down my back

Lifelessly she hung by me and nobody else felt her pulse

Couldn’t see her lips move but felt she had a bit to say

They argued and agreed she was as dead as a door nail

I am here now and you can talk to me I whispered to her

Her pains, fears and heartbreak took shapes before me

Fought back my tears as my heart melted to her ordeals

Urged her to agree with them that she was totally dead

Lost to the world of everything else but the two of us

Tiny warmth, strength of a woman within her heart

Fanned into unquenchable embers of affectionate flames

By the words I sang into her ears and rubbed into her skin

I told her she didn’t need to worry her pretty head off

She raised her head, looked me in the eyes and smiled at me

I smiled, she smiled, we smiled and our hearts glowed

And her feelings and soul died to all that hurt her in the past

Held her tenderly yet with arms so firm like no other

My strength and aura were the assurances she needed

Kissed her and promised her that everything is alright

And she never woke up to the fears that brought her to me

an Emeka Amakeze poetic expression.

What Love Is

In our limitations as humans, love has had varied meanings or holds diverse definitions for different people and as such, what a loved one may offer us as love may not quite feel like what we know as love. But how could this greatest gift and luxury ever given to man hold as diverse meanings to him as we see today.

Love is love and has neither degrees nor shades. If it’s not love, then it’s not love. It is believed that God is love and since he created man in his own image and likeness, man therefore is, essentially love. He desires to be loved and cannot function properly without love. Even those that don’t believe in it do so out of fear of a previous experience or one that is witnessed

In our quest to get the purest of the essence of love and make it different from that which we already know, we fashion out those soothing words we often hear such as “unconditional love”, “perfect love”, “true love”, “real love”. All, in an attempt to define that special feeling that we yearn and always search desperately for!

We are however, our own obstacles to understanding love because any time we think about love, what first comes to mind is how that man is going to take care of me or how that girl is going to submit to me in bed. In all the fancy names we call love, our thoughts are always in the direction of what to get out of a relationship, and conveniently forget that love contends the soul and makes it ready to give instead of seeking to be given. To be in love is to place ones personal needs and wants after that of the beloved one without complaining and without expecting any remunerations and to be fully involved in the fulfillment of the self interest of the loved one.

The best person to write a manual for a gadget is the maker of such a gadget and since God is love, we should look up to Him for the meaning of love. Until we look up to our maker for a clear understanding of what love is, we will desperately continue to seek that which we vaguely understand from each individuals experience.

Love your neighbour even as Christ loved his church. He died for his church. Has this any place in your definition of love?

In the long and winding journey of life, when infatuation, beauty, sex, wealth and other such details that influence our definitions of love slowly vapourize and it dawns on us that we do not have that commitment and understanding that only love can give in a relationship, we withdraw into our shells and lick our wounds of heartbreaks and then, try to convince ourselves that we don’t believe in love. It is only in love and after love has grown in our hearts that we see and experience physical attraction, desire for marriage partners and friendship that can boast of commitment and understanding.

And God did say what love is and it goes thus

If i speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, i have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

If i have the gift of prophesy and know all the mysteries and knowledge; and if i have faith, so as to move mountains but don’t have love, i am nothing.

If i dole out all my goods to feed the poor and if i give my body to be burned but don’t have love, it profits me nothing

Love is kind and is patient

Love doesn’t envy

Love doesn’t brag

Love is not proud

Love doesn’t behave itself inappropriately

Love doesn’t seek its own way and is not provoked

Love takes no account of evil and doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness

It rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things

Love hopes all things, endures all things

Love never fails

That is what love is.

Let Us Laugh Again

Laughter is used to express fun and happiness and it is very essential in life but it is not just laughing that is the core of the matter, it is the heart or the spirit of the laughter, the mood and the attitude. When it is disposed to laugh at the incongruous and the contradictions that life experiences, then renewal of life is enhanced.

The person that laughs will not be offended even when ingratitude, quick temper and possessiveness manifest in life and will always find a reason to still be happy and gallantly throw his gauntlet at the vicissitudes of life and wait on others to understand and to be infected by the laughter. A sincere laughter is contagious and never goes solitary.

It is quite unfortunate that in our society today, many people have forgotten how to laugh. You can hardly see anyone indulge in that kind of laughter that makes one break teacups and tumblers as legs and hands are spread in carefree and careless abandon out of joy and contentment in this our present extremely busy society. That laughter that makes tears of joy flow out and keep the faces ever smooth, fresh and young has given way to raw and sad faces which anger and sadness are daily wrinkling. Some can at best afford only some dry wan and ashy smiles that disappear as soon as they show.

Laughter does not necessary have to come from jokes, comedy and comedians and ridiculous events. That type of laughter can only be temporal. The type of laughter that lasts is the one that innately regards life as a joke and sees the funny aspects of whatever that is done to us or we do and then evokes that careless abandon laughter that comes from within.

That laughter, has indeed become a luxury in a society that is madly in need of laughter but is too busy to do the things that will put it on their faces. Clergymen pastor churches where everybody wears a serious and pious frown because they think that laughing with their congregation will portray less of their anointing. A society where a General Manager will refuse to laugh with the members of his staff because he thinks it will lessen his dignity, a father would not dare share jokes with the members of his family so he wouldn’t be too familiar with his wife and too close to his children and a society where no one is ready to share a smile with the next person on the street, because of the fear that over familiarity breeds contempt.

Laugh at the world around you, especially when the need arises and even when it hurts.

I know a man who laughs and makes sure that those around him are genuinely infected; Mr Leo Ewuzie, you are celebrated.

Personality Development

A man is as good as his destiny, nay, his thoughts. Thus the heart of every matter settles in the heart. And in the life of a man, his health, his ability to relate well with others and his level of success are inextricably interwined with his personality - good or bad.

The personality of a man is a functional by-product of both some internal and external factors. He is internally affected by his thoughts, mental pictures, his mindset and imagination whereas externally, he is influenced by his physical environment - what he sees, hears or feels. Negatively or positively, he is affected by his society and the people he interacts with. But the development of certain traits and abilities would make us to be either loved or hated, liked or just tolerated by others.

A loathsome personality would most probably scare people away from a man and place him on the highway to perdition. In the same vein, a pleasant personality traits or behavioural patterns create an enabling environment for success, accomplishment, recognition, love and care.

If you are personable, you will be able to improve your circumstances, modify your situation and influence other people. Developing your personality positively is a sure way of distinguishing yourself from everyone else. This is done through conscious and sustained efforts, as personality traits do not evolve spontaneously.

Negative thoughts and actions produce bad feelings, depression and regrets but good thoughts and actions lead to joy and happiness. And it goes beyond that as people like to associate with easy-going and agreeable personalities even though they may not be personable themselves. Personable individuals appreciate every little positive effort made by others and more often than not, extol virtue generally in people.

Personable people are made, they are not born and you can be one.

Emeka Amakeze writes...