Lyrical Quotes Quotes

“The whole world's a canvas for our sketches
Horizons as far as the mind stretches
A work of art with soft edges
Waiting to come alive
Now's the time”
― Marie Helen Abramyan

“One

We are pulled
to each other
like paper clips
into the embrace
of magnetized iron
like a lightning rod
hailing the finger
of thunder,
and we can't
say why.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Black Girl

Your
skin
is dark
chocolate
dipped
in honey.
You are
a delicious
shade
of melanin.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Some songs can get us through the day, the week, the month, the years and right into the ages where time no longer stands but becomes a production of its endlessness.”
― Reena Doss

“Truth I have come to learn is a lot like bitter-leaf, a West African plant used to make soup in Eastern Nigeria. Bitter-leaf is acrid to the tongue but soothing and quite medicinal to the body.”
― Valentine Okolo

“For me poetry is the stuff of dreams. A world made up of words. The way these words sound to my ears and how they roll off the tongue. How they taste and how they feel. It is about the balance of the words I place on my lips and how they resonate past pages once performed. It is about the great power behind them. The massive creative force which moved a universe into existence and gave birth to life in Genesis. It is about poetic telegrams breathed out of the lungs and into an attentive ear.”
― Valentine Okolo

“It is always love at first-write.”
― Valentine Okolo

“It is about speaking with temerity and bearing witness for those who have no one to bear witness for them. Because they are poor. And the poor, unfortunately get trampled upon by the rich and powerful. They are those "underneath snake skin shoes and Mercedes tires" something which Niyi Osundare highlighted in one of his famous poems.”
― Valentine Okolo

“It is about representing the unrepresented. Because their pains are my pains. Their perseverance, my perseverance. And their pleasure, and small triumphs, when they do have them, are mine as well.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“I can never be divorced from them. Because they exist within me. I am her, the molested and the raped. I am him, the detained and the sold. I am they, the legions of people killed in regional subsidised genocides without names and buried in anonymous tombs.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Most times I feel the emotions of others when I write. In those moments I become that which I write about. I see with their eyes, I hear with their ears, I feel with their skin. In those moments I cease to be myself, and become someone else. I become her, they, it. I become someone’s dreams. And relive, sometimes, their nightmares.”
― Valentine Okolo

“I write from a place of suffering. From a place of joy. I explore the two extremes in my poetry.”
― Valentine Okolo

“First, they should close their eyes and feel. And then write what they felt. Some of the notable works of literature (which includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, science fiction and so on) were written from an abundance of feelings. If you don’t feel what you have written, don’t expect someone else to feel it too. (Unless, you want to be too intellectual and write drab college textbooks.)”
― Valentine Okolo

“For me poetry is not the exclusive domain of academia. Stuff to be studied and dissected in college classrooms like a lab rat to find out what makes it thick. It is a form of human expression. The transference of human emotion from one person to another whether it is written or performed.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Portrait

True
beauty is hidden
in the fringes
of softness.
Something
which summons you
to experience
but not
to possess.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Scales

Balance
is
profit
and losses.
Acid
and alkali.
Vinegar
and sugar.
Depression
and
euphoria.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Earwax

Allow me
to slowly undress
your hair
and make love
to your ears.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Kiss

Twin lips,
surrounded by
white light.
The breath
from my mouth
make you quiver
like a jellyfish,
marooned
on the water shore.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Kiss Too

Your lips

are

liquid wax.

You kiss me,

I burn.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Bright

Dazzle their eyes
with your
florescent smile,
pitch tent
with the waking
sunset.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Watermaid

You walk
like a river
and I see you,
gliding over the tide,
each evening,
your feet
barely making prints
in the sands.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Swimmer

You are
a water nymph
from the ocean
rising.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“What are we?

We are
a combination
of sand
and gunpowder,
cosmic energy
and sawdust.
We are
black holes
and novae,
children’s laughter,
and tears of time.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Moment

In my arms
you are
a trembling
leaf
licked
by the
erotic tongue
of the wind.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“You & I

Both of us
are like two hands in a painting,
gliding towards
each other in the dark.
Trying to communicate a message,
that no words,
but only touch can express.”
― Valentine Okolo, I Will Be Silent

“Rachel isn’t just reciting an old story- she’s living it all over again. Her life is a symphony and she’s in the translucent fringe of the opening movement.”
― Kristy McGinnis

“I don’t need to figure out what I really want because that’s irrelevant. I’m the sheet music, not the bard. Sheet music doesn’t compose itself.”
― Kristy McGinnis, Motion of Intervals

“Under the spotlight, of the streetlights
That wait for me to shine
Over the moonlight, it feels so right
I'm poetry in motion
It's part of my devotion
I play with all emotion
Under the spotlight, of the streetlights”
― Marie Helen Abramyan

“Running after my own dreams
Tripping over my own feet
Held on to my self esteem
Walking to my own loud beat
So stand tall or take a seat”
― Marie Helen Abramyan