I, God Poem by Olumide Omoyele

I, God

Rating: 5.0


I am a God
Ordained at the
earliest point in time
The blood of ancient dynasties
flow through my very veins
even now as I look in many mirrors
and see my ancestors
Great men and women of
illustrious triumphs and achievements
Of pride and of the credo of humanism
Of incantations and ceremonies
Of sacrifices and revered cultures
Of constant jubilation

Men, like gods, are
Intoxicated with prestige and
sacrifice and appeasement
I walk with a swagger, expecting
men to bow in my presence; and to pacify me
Even though I am today
sometimes ridiculed
in distant lands
Still, I rise

In the knowledge that I
gave birth to all of
humanity and
to every civilization
though I am told I have
made no contribution
to art, science, thought or technology

But I am rescued by the unimpeachable
fact that I penned
the very manuscripts of civilization;
and was present at the
Beginnings of ALL of
Man's progress
Birthed from the Nile Valley
to Timbuktu

My history was ambushed
Stolen by thieves who came
dressed as friends,
curious explorers I thought them -
so I welcomed them
with feasts and special
performances by legendary dancers
I presented them with gifts of
ivory and gold and salt
to take back to their kings and queens …
and so they returned for more
and more and yet I did not mind
I thought it was awful nice
of them to navigate in perilous
waters just to pay my sunny land a visit...
I prayed they'd remember
to make sufficient sacrifices
to their gods and goddesses
of water, to keep them
safe in such journeys...

Damn!
Such unforgivable naivety
borne out of my painfully kind nature

Since my hospitality they
repaid a thousand-fold
with great violence and fury, and the
nonchalant theft of my children
whom they cruelly chained and
shipped off to faraway
lands across the Atlantic
to Europe and later the Americas - what agony
to which the original
inhabitants of that latter terrain
must have been subjected!

I, who ruled empires,
Of farmers, philosophers and physicians
Of warriors, historians and craftsmen
I, who left behind my Neolithic Age,
a whole two thousand years
before anyone in Europe could
read or write or weave clothes
or even domesticate animals!
Yet, for a time, I was successfully
incapacitated by their most
effective creation, racism

But my capacity for rejuvenation - stuff
of legend! - shall be told for
ten thousand years
So, even now as the chains
of oppression weigh heavily
on my embattled shoulders
Still, I arise without bitterness

I talk big and with unadulterated pride, even
in the midst of nothingness,
oblivious to the risk
of disparagement
I celebrate excessively, I shrug
off my disappointments like the mere
flicking away of a harmless, humming fly
I just get on with it
I can hear it like the
little whispers of gossiping children:
How does he keep going even as
we try to stifle his ascent? How
does he keep smiling even
as we work tirelessly
to break his spirit? He is a demon
surely not of this world

They are right
of course, as surely
a god I most certainly am




From the book A PLEA FOR MEMORY
http: //www.amazon.co.uk/A-PLEA-FOR-MEMORY/dp/1491886765/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&qid=1386765503&sr=8-1&keywords=a+plea+for+memory

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Jim Boone 13 July 2012

OMG Olumide, You are a Poetry God - give new meaning to I Am that I Am. Wonderful, thought-full Poem. So powerful, I Am still trembling. Whooooh

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Jim Boone 13 July 2012

OMG Olumide, You are a Poetry God - give new meaning to I Am that I Am. Wonderful, thought-full Poem. So powerful, I Am still trembling. Whooooh

0 0 Reply
Hayden Shreeve 07 July 2012

This poem... Would have to be one of the most fascinating poems I have ever read. Your I-theism is something to be admired, you have shared something special here. I give it 10/10, by far the most exciting poems I have read. Standing ovation, well done!

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