Blessed eyes, like the one Adam adored,
I danced in a song, and the flowers twirled along.
The sea and the rose, the Lion and the lamb
Verbalized her beauty all night long.
Then the moon cuddled us in,
Between the open and the closed dusk,
For such eyes, comely than the stars
I dreamt awake and kissed till daybreak bid us awake.
K.Oni
Many are the dreams of young girls from the west and eastern sea,
For a man to hold the torch that was ignited by the star,
Called the Sun.
But buried beneath the grandeur of the green sentience awe
Lay gold and silver, diamond a jewel precious and wildly adored,
But the clay is often ignored!
I am clay, but God made men from the dust
Not from gold, or the light that blazed from the sun.
Ordinary things, is often what makes life drive along
On the road of tribulation, I am yet to see what this clay has not endured.
K.Oni
What love is
I knew not till I felt Christ's breath on me.
Dead I was but knew not
Until I was made alive.
All mankind walks in a grave
Until the Grace of God
Makes them awake,
And see Eden for what it is
That God is Eden and not the splendour of the scene.
O, I am poor but God loves the poor,
O, to be meek and as such
Christ will rock me to sleep on a stormy sea.
The devil keeps an alert eye on me
Because I pray and for every inch
I say may God be praised,
And sweet words, but from Christ, I will not depart
For no one has the words of eternal Life!
K.Oni
Here I Stand on-road crossed before,
Look ahead or behind, or side to side?
I see her brazen face
Rejection is a daunting stance.
But still, as I ask heaven for the face
That will grace my years
A lovely bed;
My feelings are not pretense.
Dear one, who my faults endure
Know this, that I would die
Before I leave you to fence
For my family, I will provide
And If I should fail,
What no failure has failed,
Let me die a death no one has died!
K.Oni
I beg if my pleading is not a crime,
And time is not time but a rhyme often spoilt by an inconvenient line,
Of sin, I often found laughter at the end of the east,
Where north and south never meet.
K.Oni
What does she want I wonder
I squandered all of my morals
In the misery of plenty.
I learned how to write
When I stole from the library,
A coroner's remark
Got me thinking does everyone die in the dark?
Let me learn about the season
I paid reason and asked why there was a fight that led to treason.
Everyone knows, but they all deny
That there is a God, but they put I
And would rather worship the sneaker in the aisle.
Who prays for forgiveness
Unless the media expose what is unacceptable
And the commentators turn to preachers.
I see this in sport
But whee is the morals,
I have never heard of them quoting Christ.
I wish I could rest, but the drink brings the best
And I surrender to the dizziness
I am in love with a spark,
Little women on the eve of the English dawn.
Forgive me I never learned how to dance,
I prayed to play, but never to overcome the sin I displayed,
Double vision, the highlight I desired, and nothing more.
But Christ incline, That I prize him above all
And to this, I wish I could bow
And live like St Anthony on the hills.
K.Oni
Let me write of never-ending days
The bliss, the scorn
All I was concerned about was if her love would stay.
I walked past the green hills of joy
And asked the clouds that each night watered the morning grass,
If she loved me and she said for me to ask the sun.
Brave I, without shades, looked deep
Almost blinded, I would with no eyes if I could kiss
Her all day long, and in the night spread a feast
Invite all the gods, only to preach of her peace.
K.Oni
I wrote of her long ago
Now pregnant and each night
I pray for safe keep.
Wonder I, if I would have left
Or grew deeper in her British eyes
That never slept.
God remains the only being that I adore
I have lost friends and family to my loss.
But she is well, I am glad and pray
That the good Almighty will keep her unhurt.
K.Oni
If I should rise before I fall
Into the darkness that never stalls
Know I, If you know yourself to be self indeed
There is a bright mark, Only if you have eyes to see.
I wonder, If wonder is anything at all,
I stand tall if standing small is anything at all,
I am wild if being calm is a brutal storm,
Then I am, what I am, what am I?
Each night I face the storm!
Come here, let me see peace if she can be seen,
My dreams, escalate beyond Jupiter's streams;
And care I, Lately, I care for nothing at all
I call a friend, who was an enemy in disguise!
In New Zealand, where the hills leap for joy
My Skeleton, she would flesh me
But eschews everything I adore.
Eyes like a cat, caught in a Lover amazing awe
Dreaded delight, too many dreams of her in the night.
The moonlight shines
Here I, in dreams that dreamt the stars,
Infinite demise, eternity will decide
If she was a cousin to beauty's charm.
Is life a stream, an ever-ending spring?
Or a short discomfort
Moody with her needs.
Myriad mystery,
She was almost six feet tall
Novial defeat, My love was ocean deep
But steep was my ill,
A coldness brought me to the shore
Where I took a pause
And cursed the day where her sky
Spread over my hill that almost leaped for joy!
How many nights did she weep?
One hundred times or a thousand times,
And even if heaven and earth or cupids arrow
Did with all their powers spend,
Could never move my heart to love her dearly.
K.Oni
I see us running into the distance
Until our sunsets on Christ's shores.
But you will not walk with me
You bid me farewell
And prayed that we never meet.
I sighed and said what a loss for me
I groaned and moaned and threw my hope.
It is what it is, what fun I would have had
To gaze upon her beauty all of my years and more.
I asked the horizon will you walk with me
Go the distance through this desert heap?
I told the wind she can come on by
And gently weep with me tonight.
Another Eve, am I a Cain?
Even he was blessed with a kiss-
I know my stains, they cry to me
But can a leopard change his skin!
K.Oni
Like Jacob’s delight in seeing Rachel
So was mine for you -
But give me seven years to gather my wealth
And then shall I be worthy of you!
K.Oni
I will realise all of my dreams,
Much of it consist of holy living.
May I reach the heights I believe in
By God's grace I will be what he wants me to be.
K.Oni
God has appointed salvation for us. What great love and He will keep us in perfect peace because we trust in Him. God is amazing and wonderful. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of all. He is altogether lovely and Great. May I trust Him and love him at all times!
K.Oni
Can I be positive
When negativity is in view
Life is in decline
I have rejected optimism.
I feel the drain
The rage and the disgrace
I avoid all of my friends
And dwell in my own insanity.
The kings of kings
Forgive me for disgracing you
I wish I paid attention
And obeyed all that you wished.
Stronger gets stronger
The demise of my incline
besides I despised
The thinking of the mice.
Tell me that you love me
Or say that you despise me
One way or another
life is what it is meant to be!
K.Oni
I want to tell her that I like her
But it is no use.
There is a bottle in the cider
Or is it the wine I will abuse?
The melancholy drifts in
I smile in the blue.
The rain is in the clouds
Like there is love in my hue.
I had a dream of freedom
But I am chained to her lips,
The feeling feels like I am sinking
But the titanic is not in view.
I am but a shadow
The light is hid in a distant mood
I understand her feelings
There were many that I censored with my gesture, I never meant to be rude.
O, why this feeling that makes me turn to sin?
Its haunting, I pray for forgetting
But I tempt myself by glancing at her likeness.
I am not a slave
I chain myself to her inflexibility.
What am I doing?
When there are souls to win for eternity!
K.Oni
As a Nigerian who came to England at a young age, I can relate to Olusoga as he tells his personal story of experiencing racism although my family did not go through the racism that he went through. The only time in my youth I ever felt racism was when I was waiting at a bus stop and some white boys threw eggs at me. Whether it was racially motivated I cannot say for certain but I sure felt hatred for those who did it.
In secondary school, I felt that teachers loved me and if I ever got into any trouble I always got off lightly compared to my other black friends. I loved history class because the teacher that taught us was also our basketball coach. He taught me about principles and being disciplined and treated everyone the same. He didn’t care about the color of your skin but by how much you worked and took his instructions seriously.
He didn’t hesitate to kick you out of the training session but if he saw that you were trying and had no talent, he had a lot of patience. In his history class, I learned about the Tudors and Henry Viii and a few other things but one thing that was strikingly absent was the role of black people in Britain before the slave trade.
It was refreshing that Olusoga traces the history of black people in Britain from Roman Britain to the Tudors and then to the positive contribution of black troops in the first and second world war. Olusoga aims to remind us all that British history is a shared history and this book is an uncovering of black British history.
The book is comprehensive as Olusoga covers a wide period of history as he traces the connections of Black people from Britain, America, and Africa. He details the impact of the slave trade on Africa and focuses on certain individuals who had a significant impact on the abolition of slavery that is often forgotten.
The book is powerful and it accomplishes what it sets out to achieve which is to uncover the forgotten history of Black people in Britain and in the British empire.
K.Oni
She is my delight
Each day I do not fail to think of her good looks.
O, how pitiful my portion
That I must lament this yearning
And each night brings dreams
That will never be realized.
O, to message her now and confess
Will only bring a brutal refusal
Which at this moment I cannot bear.
I cannot understand this life
Every deep fancy has escaped me.
My lot is suffering and loneliness
For every girl, I which to labour for seven years
Has passed me by.
it is not utterly so
But blueish eyes
And graceful face
Glorious sunshine and the queen of my soul.
K.Oni
Life is what it is
We must face every decision
Look into the mirror and take responsibility.
No hiding, for we all die
And in death, not all is forgotten
Unless forgiven
So repentance is required of all,
For we must all face our maker
Especially those who have longed disbelieved!
K.Oni
Life is war
Torn to pieces by my lust
The demons encore.
Deadly desires of Wealth
The three taboos
Immersed in my flesh.
Loyal division
God and the devil?
Lucifer is content if I serve the pair
Because God will always be in the rear.
Holy Spirit, avail me in this battle
Numerous promises broken, I've become a chattel to sin.
But life is war,
When did I stop fighting?
Did I fall asleep in the struggle,
And caved in, became content with the shadows.
The prophetic word given
Was who will I serve?
I chose Jesus, but this is a daily vote!
K.Oni
