Dignity: A Collection of Poems

By Tochukwu Callistus Ipere

Think about the lost lessons of old
The green leaves offered by archaic strongholds
Which become cooks in the hands of time
And taken as seen by legends and myths

Think about the best part of you
That is always ahead scouting for wisdom
Begging yesterday to become tomorrow wisely
Still begging for favour from dignity from above

Think about the crying point of you
That rues in the quiet about mistakes
That waits to make amends with friends and neighbours.
And keeps wanting to get better with impressions.

Think about the blind side of you
That takes the wrong as right in the matter of
Achieving an end prompted by gullible zealousness
And painted by fallacies not fallacies at work.

Think about the reasonable part of you
That understands the light in every action and inaction
That feels the need to stop and just go on
That feels guilty of smearing dignity in demeaning colours

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Apr 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462857449

Tochukwu Callistus Ipere

Tochukwu Callistus Ipere is a contemporary Nigerian Poet born in Enugu. Tochukwu is a native of Ideato North in Imo State, South East Nigeria. Tochukwu was educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the Chartered Institute of Administration, CIA where he qualified as an Associate, (ACIA) in Corporate Administration and Finance in 2011. He currently has three publications (all collections of poems)to his credit, The Creeping Fire Of Hope SGS,IMT Enugu ,1999, Dance Of The Golden Baby, Delta Enugu 2000, Get The Way, Madonna University Press Enugu 2011. Tochukwu Ipere has won many awards as a poet these include: 1. The International Poet Of Merit Award 2001. 2. National Judge/Advocate of poems @ website http://www.poets.com 2005. 3. International Poetry Achievement Award 2007. 4. Editor's Choice Poetry Awards 2006,2007,2008. 5. International Who's Who Golden Poet Award 2007.6.International Poetic Ambassador to the International Society of Poets 2007. Tochukwu was an executive member of the Association of Nigerian Authors ANA Enugu State chapter from 1999 to 2003. He is active online and the founder of a Causes page called Support African Poetry. He has a Post Graduate Degree in Education PGDE with the National Teachers Institute NTI Kaduna. He is currently studying for a masters degree in Educational Administration in the National Open University of Nigeria(NOUN). He has interest in music and is a song writer. Tochukwu has up to 800 poems to his credit.

Book preview

Dignity

A Collection of Poems

Tochukwu Callistus Ipere

Copyright © 2011 by Tochukwu Callistus Ipere.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4628-5743-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-5744-9

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This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Dedication

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DIGNITY

DIGNITY II

DIGNITY III

DIGNITY IV

DIGNITY V

DIGNITY VI

DIGNITY VII

DIGNITY VIII

DIGNITY IX

DIGNITY X

DIGNITY XI

DIGNITY XII

DIGNITY XIII

DIGNITY XIV

DIGNITY XV

DIGNITY XVI

DIGNITY XVII

DIGNITY XVIII

DIGNITY XIX

DIGNITY XX

DIGNITY XXI

DIGNITY XXII

DIGNITY XXIII

DIGNITY XXIV

DIGNITY XXV

DIGNITY XXVI

DIGNITY XXVII

DIGNITY XXVIII

DIGNITY XXIX

DIGNITY XXX

DIGNITY XXXI

DIGNITY XXXII

DIGNITY XXXIII

DIGNITY XXXIV

DIGNITY XXXV

DIGNITY XXXVI

DIGNITY XXXVII

DIGNITY XXXVIII

DIGNITY XXXIX

DIGNITY XL

DIGNITY XLI

DIGNITY XLII

DIGNITY XLIII

DIGNITY XLIV

DIGNITY XLV

DIGNITY XLVI

DIGNITY XLVII

DIGNITY XLVIII

DIGNITY XLIX

DIGNITY L

DIGNITY LI

DIGNITY LII

DIGNITY LIII

DIGNITY LIV

DIGNITY LV

DIGNITY LVI

DIGNITY LVII

DIGNITY LVIII

DIGNITY LIX

DIGNITY LX

DIGNITY LXI

DIGNITY LXII

DIGNITY LXIII

DIGNITY LXIV

DIGNITY LXV

DIGNITY LXVI

DIGNITY LXVII

DIGNITY LXVIII

DIGNITY LXIX

DIGNITY LXX

DIGNITY LXXI

DIGNITY LXXII

DIGNITY LXXIII

DIGNITY LXXIV

DIGNITY LXXV

DIGNITY LXXVI

DIGNITY LXXVII

DIGNITY LXXVIII

DIGNITY LXIX

DIGNITY LXXX

DIGNITY LXXXI

DIGNITY LXXXII

DIGNITY LXXXIII

DIGNITY LXXXIV

DIGNITY LXXXV

DIGNITY LXXXVI

DIGNITY LXXXVII

DIGNITY LXXXVIII

DIGNITY LXXXIX

DIGNITY XC

DIGNITY XCI

DIGNITY XCII

DIGNITY XCIII

DIGNITY XCIV

DIGNITY XCV

DIGNITY XCVI

DIGNITY XCVII

DIGNITY XCVIII

DIGNITY XCIX

DIGNITY C

DIGNITY CI

DIGNITY CII

DIGNITY CIII

DIGNITY CIV

DIGNITY CV

DIGNITY CVI

DIGNITY CVII

DIGNITY CVIII

DIGNITY CIX

DIGNITY CX

DIGNITY CXI

DIGNITY CXII

DIGNITY CXIII

DIGNITY CXIV

DIGNITY CXV

DIGNITY CXVI

DIGNITY CXVII

DIGNITY CXVIII

DIGNITY CXIX

DIGNITY CXX

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all my friends from the University of Nigeria to whom I owe a responsibility of keeping the candle lights aglow.

It is also dedicated to all my professional colleagues from the Chartered Institute of Administration (CIA).

I also wish to dedicate this book to all the choristers I have met in my time as an organist and composer in Enugu, Onitsha, Warri, Lagos, Calabar, Kano, Aba and Abuja especially St Mulumba’s Catholic Youth Choir, New Haven, Enugu.

FOREWORD

Tochukwu Callistus Ipere is no novice to poetry. His 2nd collection, Dance of the Golden Baby was published in 2000. He is a member of the International Society of Poets and has received several awards from that society and from the International Poetry Library.

The present collection stretches our understanding of dignity in all aspects of life personal, national, in love, in politics, in work, in everyday affairs. Within this overarching theme, Ipere presents us with all the faces of a young man struggling to find himself in the Nigeria of the new millennium. In resolving the issues thus presented, he draws on both traditional culture and religious commitment. A few poems exhibit joy, most the stress of reconciling great hopes with severe constraints.

The incidents are typical of Nigerian life: trying to placate a policeman in the hope that he will ignore the broken headlamp, managing a debilitated car and cajoling a girlfriend to ignore its condition. While learning to cope with these mundane demands of adulthood, our youth must also learn the emotional requirements of his new status. He quotes the proverb, You cannot take your bath in the open anymore.

The wide range of specific settings is contained within a unity of form. All the poems consist of four to five stanzas of pentameter. Indeed, Ipere’s individual voice is most apparent in the rhythm of his poetry. Its relentlessness emphasizes the urgency of the theme. Time will not stay, and a young man cannot ignore the imperative of creating his own identity, defining his own place in a turbulent world.

Mary Ellen Chijioke Godfrey Okoye University October 2010.

PREFACE

The onus of being dignified lies in the elements called to duty in the process and in the eyes witnessing the achievement. The events of today make up histories of times gone by performing a progressive engravement of points o recall on the sands of time. The salute to dignity comes out of glories, graces respects and honours derivable from the twists and turns of events of our daily lives. The dignity as ascribed to man has attained a level of recognition, placement and acceptance which must be met in the judgment of the observer before dignity is proclaimed, discovered or witnessed as being overtly manifest. The dignity of man is inferior only to the dignity of God and is subordinated to God’s power and providence, say to all the nations; The Lord is King! The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with justice… (Psalm 96:10)

The dignity of poetry is found in its ability to entertain many shadows of opinion along one central spine of guided understanding. The respect of poetry lies in its subtlety and power in communicating fully using a few words, lines and stanzas. The critical function of poetry then is taking a positive stand that advocates for values that uplift the dignity of man in all the spheres of life portrayable in writing.

Poetry writing is implied in lyrics, speeches, songs and verses of anthems and pledges of nations, communities, schools and states and is therefore bedrock of dignity on which other ethics and aesthetics of life are spawn and decorated.

DIGNITY is a collection of poems that has tried to examine the critical depths of the want of dignity, the terms used in achieving it, the pathways described in spotting it, the walks in the works of improving it as well as the trials and tribulations met supporting it, sustaining it, repairing it and upholding it. There are lamentations, praises, descriptions, ascriptions, denotations, connotations, allusions and pun in the literary engagements detected in the run of this poetic storyline.

This is a contemporary make over a step into what may be called the future of classic poetry from Africa.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I, hereby, acknowledge with profound gratitude the help and friendship of the staff and students of the Institute of Ecumenical Education (IECE), Enugu and Godfrey Okoye University (GOU), Enugu; especially the moral and spiritual