Dike Okoro, a poet and short story writer, teaches at Concordia
University Wisconsin, Mequon. He was a finalist the Iliad Poetry Award
and a recipient of a Sam Walton Fellowship. His poetry, stories, and
nonfiction have appeared in Witness Magazine, World Literature Today,
Yellow Medicine Review, The Caribbean Writer, Reverie and elsewhere. He
is the author of the poetry volume, Dance of the Heart. He received his
PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
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| Sea, Sky Painting PD |
Confirmation
Now armed with the lessons of
Life, I carry with me
The sea and the sky
Wherever I go.
And when strangers ask
Why I labor the flesh
To resist fresh
Mistakes, I remind
Them that we all
Belong to the earth
And must fetch hope
From the sky's sunny home,
If we desire peace from
The sea within.
Don’t forget
When you plant a tree
You preserve your father’s lineage
When you protect a river
You honor your mother’s sacrifice
When you break bread with kisses,
You forgive hisses
When you shield from the heart worries
You prolong your life
These are not lines
For talks and walks,
But treasures reaffirming
Life’s invaluable lessons.
Lagos, night
For hours I stalked the sky’s glows,
And since they pelted me with silence,
My heart wandered like the solo wind
On the deserted bridge.
The breezes fondled my eyelashes
For rough edges I never knew
I had, and vagrants,
Scuttling here and there
Like people running for cover in the rain,
Left more blames for time to name.
~Dike Okoro