love is God…

 

sometimes, we put our fingers in fire

and we get burnt

we give a kiss we are not supposed to,

we touch bodies in places we are not supposed to,

we follow women & men into other rooms

where moans roam around as goats on hills,

we say a word we don’t mean to,

we dress a lie in our mouth with wordy colours,

and when our misdeeds are full,

we lock ourselves up and cry

our hearts into an ocean of brokenness,

and then we begin to say prayers of forgiveness.

what if I told you God has been broken for you?

what if I told you He was moved before you were?

will you dare believe that forgiveness was yours

before you opened your mouth

to cough out echoes of sadness?

 

this poem is a sermon.

love is God

dying for us on a tree.

love is God becoming a rock

for us to build houses on.

love is God

telling us He will never leave

so we can raise our heads high to live

love is God

saying we don’t have to cry,

we don’t have to hurt ourselves,

we don’t have to cause our fingers to tremble

as we punch alphabets on our phones

when we write poetry at dawn.

 

this is not a poem of sin.

it is a poem of God

not wanting us feel things

that are beneath us.

God is light & love & life

who doesn’t want us stumbling in the dark,

but let us not cry if we stumble,

let us not ask God to forgive us,

let us not ask God not to leave us;

for who else has forgiven if not God?

who else will stay and smile strength

into weakened bones if not God?

 

we will not return

to places of agony again,

and we know if our legs do stray one more time,

2 more times, 3 more times, many more times…

love is God.

 

the poetry of God…

 

my mind is not a slate

for men to write alphabets of sorrow on.

1. the poetry of God is written on my mind,

and Jesus is the poetry of God.

God is a fine writer

who writes sonnets of love

and serenades you with reckless abandon.

who else has read Jesus?

he is lines like a valley of lilies,

he is alphabets like a gathering of stars,

he is words like a convergence of milky clouds on blue skies,

he is beauty

like sunrise on oceans,

like sunset on blue seas,

like fine music on silent nights,

like a full moon on a night loud with howls of owls…

God is a fine writer

and He has written finesse upon my mind,

and out of the beauty of His poetry

i write this poem:

 

sorrow is a song I will not borrow

neither today nor tomorrow,

joy is the way I will follow

whether today or tomorrow,

and in the full moon, I glow;

laughter is the place to go,

and though winds of sadness may blow

and rivers of tears may flow,

into brokenness will I not grow;

and it shall be so

that when I walk by this moon’s glow,

no darkness will against me crow,

for I  have not borrowed a song of sorrow,

and God’s poetry shall every night be my lullaby & pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

God is not…

 

God

is not in the whispers

of war dooms and wavering(s)

that comb through the hairs

sprouting wildly in a man’s ears

early on a morning lade with doubts.

 

God

is not in the fire

that eats up the body

of a man’s dreams and joys,

that licks up the water of his passions,

that melts his hopeful bones into extinction…

 

God

is not in the earthquake

that swallows a man into darkness,

that roars from crooked crannies into cities

seeking whom to devour, and bury in the earth

of failures, of gloom, of doom, of carnage, and dearth.

 

God

is the yes in a believer’s heart.

God is the victory and the trumpet,

the triumph and the triumphant song

playing on the harpsichord of heaven

(and heaven is in the heart of the believer)…

 

 

God

is the sound of rejoicing,

the laughter and the cackling,

the reassurance and the confidence,

the leaps and the dances and the new wine…

 

God is!

 

I am a believer in God;

and God is the yes in my heart!

 

 

 

 

Adebayo Kolawole Samuel is a budding Nigerian poet who lives in Akure, the capital city of Ondo State in South-Western Nigeria. He is regarded one of the most talented young, contemporary African poets and his writings, which he says are based on the conviction that “words are one of the world’s greatest assets,” have enjoyed wide readership, especially on social media platforms.

Adebayo is the winner of the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (April, 2017). His writings have been published on several reputable platforms.

He studied Agricultural Extension and Communication Technology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.