WEEKEND SPECIAL: STILL I RISE By Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Written by Maya Angelou

WEEKEND SPECIAL: THE CLOUDS ARE GATHERING By Jerry Okooboh (O'Jerry)

The clouds are gathering...

Congregating in the sky

Our fate to decide

Blood and grime to rain

Just so they can sit and reign

The clouds are gathering...

Becoming darker by the day

Dancing to the music of death and decay

Ready to rain down chaos and cataclysm

Just for their self-serving reason

The clouds have gathered...

Pregnant with evil inside of them

Though they promise to bear gems

The smell in the air is hardly of rain

As it is of the putrid stench of rotten grain

The clouds have gathered...

Our hearts are numb with fear

Because the rainy days have drawn near

And we do not want umbrellas for dwellings

Nor do we want brooms to fight the flooding

The clouds have gathered...

And now our future is wobbling on a foot

But hand in hand and boot to boot

We will stay and fight the looming flood

And protect our future even with our blood

Written by Jerry Okooboh (O'Jerry)

WEEKEND SPECIAL: WHY I LIVE By Clement Aghedo

I was yesterday
I am today
I will be tomorrow
All for which I live

Do I live for you?
Do I live for me?
Do I live for humanity?
Do I live to be happy?
Do I live to be sad?
Do I live to be rich?
Do I live to be poor?
Do I live to love or hate?

I live to be alive
I live to survive
To survive hate
To live by faith

And there is more I live for
For HIS name to be praised

WEEKEND SPECIAL: BEFORE YOU JUDGE ME By Olu Jacobs (Olu D'Poet)

Friend,

Before you judge me in your own MONOLOGUE

Remember to check yourself first in your own DIALOGUE

My own actions are visions for a better INCUBUS

So do not judge me from a point vaguely RIDICULOUS

Every man has left his shell to hurt a FLY

Why then must you lambaste when my success go HIGH?

Let no man be quick to criticize ANOTHER

As no man is immaculate to his own BROTHER

If you perceive that I go ASTRAY

Do not back-stab my laxity to educe

Help me to my seat of attention

An bring me back as you PRAY

Friend,

Before you judge me, first remember your own MISDEED

For even so, we are never perfect INDEED

Written by Olu Jacobs (Olu D'Poet)