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Poet's Talk

Poets Talk: 5 Questions with John Chinaka Onyeche

I am that song you nod and hum to but still can’t sing along with, because, sometimes, it’s too deep. Yet, it flows, attracting passersby who know nothing of the sadness within. ...

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Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Kayeon Onyeka

Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Jakky Bankong-Obi

Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Odu Ode

KSR Specials

Three Poems by Jide Badmus || The Bala Selection

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Zamfara Nights || Kolawole Oludare Stephen

Three Poems by Hannatu Bilyaminu || The Bala Selection

From Our Columnists

Poetic Soundscapes of Morocco – #Andrea

I would go on to discover that the opportunity to read poems in Morocco liberated the silenced voice within me: the empathic pain I had carried in my body, shaped by the violence of the world, by barbarity that tears away people's dignity and lives.

Reading Bewitchment in Nasiba Babale’s Pickled Moments

Seen through the symbolic lens of alchemy, Babale’s self-fashioning as “Poet of Light” works out a transmutation of value: what history has rendered base or obscured—blackness, the self denied—is worked upon until it gleams with renewed worth. Like the alchemist who turns lead into gold, she converts silence into speech and stigma into power, not through softness but through a revelatory force that disturbs settled orders. Her illumination is thus a form of spiritual alchemy—witchcraft as transformation—where revelation does not merely disclose truth but remakes the terms by which beauty and being are known.

Poetic Cloud – #Andrea

Being on a cloud, once in a while, is the poet’s strategy for finding inner peace in a world in a rush and stressed—a sensation visitors may experience through the installation's sensory experience.  

In The Poetry of Life | Nasiba Babale

That being said. What on God’s green earth is wrong with you? I do not understand you at all! You have caused me a lot of trouble, embarrassed me, put me in situations where only the Grace of God saved me, and made me look stupid in places where I was supposed to maintain my steeze. And if you cared to know anything about me, you would know that I take my steeze seriously.

Black Poets

Black Poets: Ikeogu Oke.

Ikeogu Oke was a Nigerian poet and journalist who died in Abuja on November 27th, 2018, at 51. He hailed from Ohafia in south-eastern Nigeria and was considered a deeply spiritual person. He sought to embody traditional African beliefs, notably wearing the Ohafia war dress to high-profile events to highlight his Igbo heritage. 

Black Poets: Warsan Shire.

Black Poets: Véronique Tadjo.

Black Poets: Bassey Ikpi.

You Are a Poet, So? – #Naseeba

In essence, you are just like the children playing, oblivious of the uncertainties of life; you are like the lawyer filled with angst over what the judge’s ruling will be on his case; you are like the beggar on the street, unsure of the source of his next meal; you are like the teacher pondering over the best methods to teach his students.

Found in Translation – #Nkateko

All of this has gotten me thinking not only about language and its intricacies but about existing translated poetic work, from English to other languages, and vice versa. What makes a good translation?

Swimming in the Ocean. Together? – #Andrea

I still sit in absolute darkness. A voice. A soulful voice which becomes a place of shelter, a resort: A voice to heal the wounds of darkness and to chase the ghosts. The three artists speak out images of the past, sitting on the floor when light slowly guides us out of the darkness, their voices put the memories in place.

Shelf Review with Salamatu Sule

In The Poetry of Life by Naseeba Babale

In The Poetry of Life: Seven Reasons Why I Don’t Let My Mother Read My Poems  | Nasiba Babale

No one wants a gathering of aunts. They will sit in a semi-circle, with me before them: head low and my shame a halo above my head. They will pass my poem from one bewildered hand to another. It will be a love poem. They will shake their heads; make a valley out of their mouths, clap their hands, and let out both audible and inaudible sighs. They will look at me with eyes carrying both disappointment and wonder. They will wonder how I am able to write all these things. Wonder how I even know these things exist, the child that I am. They will try to reconcile their sweet daughter with the stranger on the page. Then they will ask for the identity of the one who has taken my heart..

In The Poetry of Life: The Poetic Side of Melancholy | Nasiba Babale

In The Poetry of Life: Things I Remember About My Grandmother | Nasiba Babale

In The Poetry of Life: The What-Ifs | Nasiba Babale

Everything Here

Three Poems by Ogaga Ifowodo

Three Poems by Ogaga Ifowodo || The Bala Selection

Three Poems by Ogaga Ifowodo

Three Poems by Tanure Ojaide

Three Poems by Tanure Ojaide || The Bala Selection

Three Poems by Tanure Ojaide

Daniel Umemezie Named US National Youth Poet Laureate

Tanure Ojaide Headlines ANA Lagos Monthly Reading Today

Professor Tanure Ojaide will be a guest at this month's reading hosted by the Lagos State Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors, holding today. His latest collection, Adult Love: In the Childhood Garden, published by Konya Shamsrumi, has been longlisted for the 2026 NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature.