Times and Seasons: A Collection of Poems

By Uboho Bassey and Sam Akpe

In her fourth collection of poems, Uboho turns her attention to the Times and Seasons of our existence - the inescapable transitions between our experiences.
Sometimes people will step into a scene of your life and think they know the whole story, but the scene is not the entire story. The present scene is nothing but a phase you pass through. Don't stop the story just because you don't like the scene. It may be just a chapter of your book. It is not your destination.
While grappling with the desire to find meaning in life’s journey, we find the truth in the book of Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

God has enacted certain eternal principles regarding time. In congruence with nature, we all experience the four seasons of Summer, winter, autumn, and spring. In this book however, the times are represented as waiting, wilderness, waring and winning seasons.
Times and Seasons is written to remind you that your dreams, praise, hope, faith, and love can carry you through every phase, every season of your life. You hurt and you heal, you build and release, and it’s all part of the same process: it’s life. Whether you are in a season of stagnation or expansion, each season is a signal that you’re not stuck. And even though you’ll lose some things, like the trees lose their leaves in fall; you’re strong enough to keep going long after you think you can’t. Our individual paths are unique and when you understand time and season, you will envy no one.
If you want to know how your present season is evolving, or why the last one had to end, or when the next one is coming - read these poems. Let them ground you in the truth that every single shifting season brings with it new life, another chance and an experience you are here in the world for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669826897

Uboho Bassey

The Author, Uboho Bassey is no longer a slave to those frightful fears of existence.. She has fought many wars alone, on a private battlefield strewn with pain. Unbroken, she walks confidently in the promises of God for her life, knowing and trusting that she was created to achieve divine purpose; and soaring over the limitations that once held her in bondage. She is not afraid to explore the unknown territories of the world. She is a survivor, focused and determined to redirect her life and rewrite her story. She believes that her writing creates a dialogue with people, giving meaning to emotions in contexts just like other mediums of art, music, painting, photography, sculpture, fiction or poetry. And she wants them to experience it, the rich feelings, the real language of life; expressed in our stories, in our passion and in our purpose. Her spirit is laid bare like an untameable fruitful delta, conscious daily of delivering promise. She writes to inspire others to embrace hope.

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Uboho Bassey.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are taken from the American Standard Version Bible (Public Domain).

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™

Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Print information available on the last page.

Rev. date: 06/01/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

842626

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

I Believe

Foreword

Waiting Season

Waiting

The Young Girl I Used To Be

A Time for Praise

The First Thing

51,000 Thousand Reasons

A Beloved Son

A Son Like No Other

A Most Charming Daughter

A Daughter So Extraordinary

My Parents

Female

He Knows My Name

Standing in Awe

Akwa Ibom State @33

Akwa Ibom State 34 Anniversary!

The Village Square

Ibom Air @2 Anniversary

Aflame in Beauty

Mother

Tidings Of Cheer

I Am an African Child

Ibom Woman

I Am an African Woman

Nature’s Evocation

MBÖPÓ

An Ode to Women!

A Song for the Land

Like A Calm Ocean

A Time for Dreams

The Dream

Dreams

On A Clean Slate

Break of Dawn

Flawed

Our Dreams

She is the Girl Child

Yesterday’s Child

I Could Be

Our Own Story

African Waist Beads

How He Sees Her

I Found It

The Familiar Road

What was She Thinking?

Just Before I Sleep

A Cheery Tricennial

A Different Sunrise

November

Let Me Describe Her

Birds in the Rain

The Lily

Womanity!

Obonganwan

Like A Champion

Wilderness Season

Wilderness

A Time for Love

No Other Gift

Back to Life

My Heartscape

This Valentine

Take My Heart Everywhere

Love Is A Pledge

Love Fearless

A Sweet Reminiscence

The Heart of Love

There Was A Time

He Calls Me Mkpantuk

All The Rush

A Wild Adventure

My Handsome Man

Spells of the Heart

How Do You Remember Me?

Reborn

She is Mother

Happy Father’s Day

Renewed Vows

Loving You

My Lover’s Heart

Embers of Love

On the Precipice

I Am A Poem

A Time for Hope

Irony of Life

Everywhere Hurts

Lessons From Life

The Bridge of No Return

Mindless Horror

This Too Shall Pass

A Chessboard of Pawns

The Face Of Evil

The American Dream

Coronavirus

Childhood Friends

To Whom Do I Tell?

We Are All Waiting

Changing Tides

A Farewell Wish

A Ray Of Hope

Gifts

Promise Me

A Tale that is Told

The Burdens I Carry

I Waited

Why Do I Feel Crushed?

Face to Face

Cycles of Yesterday

New Hope

Warring Season

Warring

A Time for Faith

If We Told Them

What Took You So Long?

Stronger Still

Dear Childhood

A Graveyard of Illusions

A Nation’s Shame

Soldiers Lost

Funeral Eulogy

Kobe Bryant (1978 - 2020)

This All Ends Someday

Warring Hearts

A Field of Daisies

I Saw A Woman

A Mother’s Love

Why I Smile

The Night Rain

Archived in My Heart

Archive of Love

Lost Along the Way

I Do it for Me

A Woman Beloved

Broken Unto Death

The Evil of Night

The Life of an Abused Wife

A Nation at the Brink

A Time for Freedom

We Are Called

Hear The Bell Toll

The Lonely Path

The Fight

Don’t Call Us Common

She Warrior

Why Did You Leave?

No Need

Imprisoned

Who Wins?

We Stand Free

The Chances I Never Took

Love is the Reason

The Brook

The Wait is Over

Yoked Together

Silence of the Heart

That’s A Woman!

Let’s Teach Our Daughters

A Little Longer

Freedom’s Manifest

Falling Apart

Where are They?

Daughter of the Earth

New Seasons

Winning Season

Winning

A Time for Power

Warrior!

I Looked for You

Beauty in Every Smile

Crossed Paths

Forty and Fortified

Dear Classmates

Meet and Greet

The Jubilee Sun

Mother’s Magic

Sisterhood

A Miracle

My Miracle

Stripes of Motherhood

Nature’s Brush

Alive on Celluloid

My Brave Sister

My Sunshine!

My Son’s Bride

Dear Future Son-In-Law

A Refined Treasure

They Talk About Us

The Locust Years

On Bended Knee

Patients Safety

Spring Rush

A Time for Victory

The Light of Truth

The Beautiful City

Mystery of the Night

I Was Never Alone

Destiny

Hello Abuser

The Narcissist

My Quiet Place

The New Me

A Gift to Self

The Shame of Traditions

Guilty Before Proof

A Biased Scale

April

Breathed His Last

A Heavenly Destiny

Freedom’s Clang

I Am More

I Am The Full Circle

Sedum Sieboldii

Give Me A Sign

My Destiny

The Older I Get

Hills of Friendship

When the Waiting Ends

I Love this Christmas

DEDICATION

Dedicated to God,

keeper of times and seasons,

To Whom I am grateful.

"But the God of all grace, who has called us

unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,

after that ye have suffered a while, make you

perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."

1 Peter 5:10 (KJV).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Each time I have written a book, a host of people have held me up – just as Aaron and Hur held Moses’s hands to ensure the victory of the Israelites. This book has come at a time when I faced stagnation; when so much was in the air and my footing was unsure - an uncertainty that was as unsettling as it was frustrating.

For every season of my life, I have been blessed with people – likened to when God’s cavalry arrives to deliver you from quiet desperation. A rescue that has given men the start to find a new lease of life through the relationships God has waiting for them, aligned on the pathway of life’s journey. I have realized if you don’t give up, there are good people to help you push through the hard times.

To Sam Akpe, who most graciously agreed to write the Foreword to this book, I say a big ‘Thank you.’

To the one who said to me repeatedly, I believe in you, and in who you can become, what joy in seeing others bloom, and knowing you had a hand in helping them grow! I salute you.

A depth of gratitude goes to the people who helped identify the potential in me, and invested in that potential with their time, energy and resources. We had this vision together, and I am grateful we saw it to fruition.

I am thankful to my family, my parents, my brothers and their families, who became an unwavering rock of support, shelter and comfort to me.

Finally, I am indebted to my children, whose love continues to astound me.

I am honored to be their mother.

PREFACE

LAST Christmas, my daughter said to me, Mum, time is quick, we are almost at the end of the year now. Some days later she exultantly announced, "it is the beginning of another year!’’

Yes! It is a new dawn today - the old days are gone and the new day begins. In my place, there is an adage that says, Whenever you wake up, is when your morning begins.

Perhaps this is what the famous writer Nathaniel Hawthorne meant when he said: "Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.’’

No one can stop the wings of time, except hold the memories, the lessons, and the gifts. If you are just awakening to the reality of your situation, you have the choice to make the best of your day, or begrudgingly crawl through it with complaints. You could choose to leave the shadow of your pain behind. It all depends on your attitude towards life. Figuratively, it could be a new day, a new phase, or a new season.

Sometimes, people will step into a scene of your life and think they know the whole story. But the scene is not the story. You might have to go through a thorny place, a slippery place, an uncomfortable place, or an uncertain place. Just because you are in an uncertain place does not mean you don’t have a certain purpose.

Let me tell you the story of a Lily plant. This Lily plant had died completely in a friend’s garden during the dry season. In fact, the base wasn’t visible anymore, and he contemplated uprooting it and clearing off the space where it grew. Gladly, he never got around to doing so. But with the sprinkling of the first rains, burgeoned a tiny sprout. One morning, a few weeks later, we were awakened to the glorious sight of one of the most beautiful lily flowers.

Therein is a life lesson...don’t give up on yourself. There is a time and a season for everything under the sun. It is in this understanding of the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:1, that I have surrendered to the truth: Life is in phases and seasons. It is for this same reason that I have chosen the title of this book.

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

If there is a DRY season, there MUST be a RAINY season. If your season now is dry with hardship, believe me the rainy season of favor will soon start. There can never be one season in life.

He changes times and seasons...

(Daniel 2:21)

Timing is important. Dreams are coming true this season. This is where you start your comeback. This is the chapter that changes your story.

And there is so much more to your story.

What you are seeing may not look like what God has promised; as a matter of fact, it may be totally parallel. You need to understand that the issues you are currently experiencing are part of the bigger picture to get you to your destination. There is so much more to your story than a failure, a broken promise, a betrayal, a catastrophe, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, the crash of a business. There is so much more to your story than a season of your lifetime.

You may say but for how long?

While you are waiting, do not lose hope for faithful is He that has promised. Remember Job? Look at him in Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

If you had seen Joseph at one point in his life in the Old Testament book of Genesis, he would have been in a pit. In another scene of his life, he would have been in a prison. But if you had seen Joseph at the point in his life that was the culmination of his calling, he was in a Palace saving many lives.

What do you do when things do not add up while waiting?

Some of you need to know the scene you’re in today is not your story. It is not your destination. It is just a setback, a layover. Do not stop the story just because you do not like the scene. It is the power of a full-cycle moment. It is the power of staying with the story even when you do not like the scene. It is the undeniable power, the triumph of this Lily plant that made it through!

What if it is not over yet?

What if your best days are not behind you?

If you are feeling on edge, worried or anxious, you are not alone. We all face setbacks, challenges, and disappointments. Oftentimes, things are not as we want them to be. Despite our well laid plans and best efforts, our circumstances may consistently defy our reality. When we are not where we want to be, how should we respond? When the successes do not accompany our tests and trials, what should we do?

Everything God is doing in you and through you right now is preparation for the future only He can see. You can discover God’s ways for staying in peace and controlling your thoughts, emotions, and attitudes so that you can step into the fullness of your destiny.

If our lives are to mean something worthwhile, we have to deal with this fact: that completely controlling our lives is an act of futility. We can exercise a bit of control, but far more of life’s events will be well beyond our control. If we fail to deal with this properly, we will live in frustration.

In congruence with nature, we all experience the four seasons of summer, winter, autumn, and spring. In this book however, the times are represented as waiting, wilderness, warring and winning seasons.

Try to picture in your mind, Joseph at the bottom of the well, or in a dark prison in Egypt. He would have looked at himself in prison clothes and possibly shackles or handcuffs, and wondered where the Joseph that was supposed to rule over his brothers was? See if you can imagine Moses running away from Egypt into the wilderness, a murderer, a fugitive, leaving the only life he knew from birth, or of David, hiding in caves, running away from king Saul who sought to kill him.

Truth is, I have come to understand that these seasons oftentimes overlap and intertwine. One can be winning in one area of life, and be warring in another. One season does not necessarily preclude another and neither do they alternate. God can make one fruitful, even in the land of affliction as seen in the case where Joseph named his second son, Ephraim (Genesis 41:51). The Israelites were in the wilderness wandering, and yet had a winning of having overcome captivity and slavery in Egypt. They also had winnings of Manna served daily as meals while waiting, quite endlessly, to be taken into their promised land: A Land flowing with milk and honey.

I have heard it said, Longing is good for you. It is the echo of miracles to come.

They say this, but most often would