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Reading Pleasure

~ A Blog of Books and Literature

Reading Pleasure

Tag Archives: Freedom

Superwoman!

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Events, Poetry

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Feminism, Freedom, Human Rights, International Women's Day, Liberation

Re-posting this poem in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Superwoman

Woman, thy name is suffering universal

Fettered

Leashed

Bound

Chained

By tradition, prejudice, hatred, perverted passion and

the whims and caprices of man-made rules

Liberate me to reach the stars

For there I belong

Among the firmament

Talent brimming

Superwoman

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu
08/03/17
 
Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:

Amazon
Amazon.co.uk
Goodreads

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Haiku Horizons: Free

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Haiku, Poetry

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

fantasy, Freedom, Gossamer, romance, silhouette

Done for Haiku Horizons

soaring high

on gossamer wings

a fleeting silhouette

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu
02/02/15
 
I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom

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Haiku Horizons: Decline

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Haiku, Poetry

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

decline, Freedom, hunger strike

Done for Haiku Horizons

declining food

she sinks into a decline

pinning for lost love

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu 
29/06/14)

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom

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Whimsical Wednesday: I Am Alive

11 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Poetry

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Freedom, I am alive, Whimsical Wednesday

I just joined Whimsical Wednesday Challenge by Jeremy of The Boi Poet.

dec wedsThe idea of these challenges is to use the given prompts to create a piece of flash fiction (100-500 words) or a poem. One line taken out of context from a poem can lead to a whole new dimension of creativity. The idea of this challenge therefore is to create what comes to mind from lines of poetry.

This week’s lines of poetry are below and we are to link back to Jeremy:

just drift where the breeze takes me – Green Canoe by Jeffrey Harrison
coloring the fabric of their dreams – Practicing by Linda Pastan
alive in both worlds at once – Wine Tasting by Kim Addonizo

I am alive

I colour my dreams

drifting where the breeze takes me

I am alive

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom

5.555717 -0.196306

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September Heights Day 06: Teacher

06 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Haiku, Poetry

≈ 36 Comments

Tags

Freedom, Teacher

September Heights.  Day Six. The Prompt is Teacher.

Teacher

teach me to ignite

 the glorious flame of freedom

jewel of the soul

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu
06/09/13
 

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom

5.555717 -0.196306

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Ligo Haibun Challenge: Freedom

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Fiction, Haibun

≈ 45 Comments

Tags

forced marriage, Freedom, love

The prompts at Ligo Haibun this week are two photos, a goat and penguins. My offering is based on the goat:

Freedom

My marriage to Fifi ended the day it began.

The goat was to be slaughtered for the preparation of the feast that would climax the exchange of drinks between our respective families. Papa bought it with his life’s savings in the big market near our village and he had walked it home with prideful footsteps of the rich.

PictureThe goat was fattened for three moons; it lived on nothing but fresh grass and cassava peels. Every body marveled at its smooth and velvety hide. In my anguish I was the goat and when it disappeared mysteriously on the morning of the ceremony, I disappeared with it.  You see, I never loved Fifi.

tethered souls
bucking at customs
freedom calls

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Carpe Diem’s Tan Renga: Free Like A Bird

07 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Tan Renga

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

dreams, eagle, free like a bird, Freedom, Nature

These days, I’ve not been participating in Carpe Diem.Really, it’s not only this Challenge, but I’ve not been doing much postings. So busy in the Office and even on weekends attending funerals here and there. Chèvrefeuille has a lovely haiku today, free like a bird  and I could not resist the Tan Renga.

Chèvrefeuille’s

fly like an eagle
as free as a bird in the sky
be a dreamcatcher 
 

Mine

above fluffy clouds I soar
raging winds now a whisper
 

Tan Renga

fly like an eagle
as free as a bird in the sky
be a dreamcatcher 
above fluffy clouds I soar
raging winds but a whisper
 
 
 
 
Copyright © Celestine Nudanu
07/08/13

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom

 

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Ligo Haibun Special: Going Home

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Haibun, Haiku, Poetry

≈ 33 Comments

Tags

African heritage, Freedom, Home, Nature

Last week, I got an honourable mention from Ligo Haibun for consistently writing good haibuns (two apart from this) 🙂 I say a big thanks to the judges for thinking my offerings worthy. This week’s challenge, a special one coincides with the Ligo festival in Latvia.

Going Home

‘Don’t play the drums of another land before you play our own’

My grandmother’s words came into my mind, unbidden, playing on and on like a broken record. What did I come here seeking? The vast stretch and lush carpet of greens gave me the answer. The trees whistled in wild abandon in response to the sudden gust of wind. I whistled back, happy, remembering home. Everything fell in place.

You see, in my land, men do not run around naked. That was the height of madness and it meant that you had been bewitched. But seeing those handsome virile men the day before at the fair as they strutted in their glory, I had felt some deep primitive stirring within me. Was that the secret behind this display? This feeling of oneness with nature that somehow made it all right?

Hmm! I wish I could have worn the crowns of wreath like the women I saw. They looked pretty, the luscious leaves creating a pretty contrast with their brightly hued dresses. Ha! Back home, we only wore leaves round our neck when we mourned royalty.

It’s time I went back home.

Picture

I am free at last
In tune with nature’s bounty
For naked I came

 

 

 

 

5.555717 -0.196306

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Haiku Heights Prompt: Free and Battlefield

29 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by readinpleasure in Challenges, Haiku

≈ 65 Comments

Tags

Battlefield, Freedom

The final days of the  September Haiku Heights Challenge and the prompts are Battlefield for Day Twenty nine (29) and Free for Day Thirty (30). I had wanted to do the two on each respective day but the power cuts over here are getting too erratic for comfort.

I want to add that it’s been fun as well as a great learning experience for me on this Challenge. My Haiku-craft has improved tremendously thanks to such wonderful encouragement from Susan, Susan Daniels, Rosy, Gilly, Kim, Barbara, Patti, Leo, Kathy, Amy Mckie, Boomie, Hazel, Green Speck, Bruce, Brudberg, Odyzz, Karin, Heavenhappens, 1girl4adamwest, Jolly, Dulcina, CC, Teresa, Penny, George Weaver, Len, Elizabeth, Poetrydiary, Brenda, globaldruginfo, Chevrefeuille, MMT, Sharmishtha, Stefan and many more. Forgive me if I have not mentioned your name here, but I truly appreciate you all and I remain thankful for the belief in me.  I enjoyed reading the  beautiful, soul inspiring Haiku crafted by my fellow Crafters. Hugs and blessings to you all. 🙂

Please, enjoy these two.

(Day 30) Free

Soar through the Heavens

On gossamer wings of love

Free, cries my chained heart

(Day 29) Battlefield

Drizzle and sunshine

The fickle clouds alternate

Battlefield of love

Copyright © Celestine Nudanu 

(29/09/12)

==============================================================

I appreciate your patience with me as I catch up on your blogs. Thanks a million! Shalom. 🙂

5.555717 -0.196306

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Short Story Review – The Woman From America By Bessie Head

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by readinpleasure in Non-Fiction, Short Stories

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Africa, African American, Bessie Head, Democracy, Descriptive observations, Freedom

I should have posted this review yesterday for the Short Story Tuesday slot; however, I had more than a full day and so could not write the review. Instead, what I did was to swap today’s slot of poetry for yesterday and so here I am posting a review of The Woman From America, one of Bessie Head’s collection from her anthology Tales of Tenderness and Power. 

To write about The Woman From America is to expound on a period in Bessie Head’s life when she went through so much hardship living in a mud hut in an enormous village, Serowe, Bechuanaland (Now Botswana). Desperately poor, she and her only son lived on help from international refugee organisations. (Introduction: P 12) However, Bessie did not allow her situation to daunt her; she retained her wits, sense of humour and her creative skill came to the fore when she wrote this short descriptive observations of a Black American woman, who hailed from somewhere near California (p 56) and who had descended on the village of Serowe like an avalanche to marry one of the villagers.

Published in 1966 by the New Statesman, The Woman From America is told in the first person narrative with the usual dry humour that is characteristic of Bessie Head’s stories. The first person narrative also gives the story its non-fiction quality as author recounted the tentative friendship between the two women which later blossomed into a closeness fueled by Bessie’s natural sense of curiosity and affection.

“It was inevitable thought that this woman and I should be friends. I have an overwhelming curiosity that I cannot  keep within bounds.” p 57

Through the friendship, Bessie Head gained a wealth of knowledge documented in short hand written notes all over her small mud hut. She kept these because,

“they are a statement of human generosity, and the wide carefree laugh of a woman who is as busy as women the world over, about things women always entangle themselves in – man, children, a home” (p 57)

The poor writer living on the dredges of life and the woman from America come down because of love, bonded in ways that defied the understanding of the villagers who could not comprehend how and why a beautiful woman could leave America to marry a man living in a dirt-filled village where all one ate was ground millet and a little piece of meat. They thus viewed her with some sort of fear, fascination and yes, envy.

“The terrible thing is that those who fear are always in the majority. This woman and her husband and children have to be sufficient to themselves because everything they do is not the way people here do it. Most terrible of all is the fact that they really love each other and the husband effortlessly and naturally keeps his eye on his wife alone. In this achievement, he is 70 years ahead of all the men here.” P 56

Bessie Head did not belabour the point of interracial marriage in this story. Her concerns were with the wealth of knowledge she gained through her friendship with this nameless woman; from mundane ailments of children; DPT, (Diphtheria, pertussis, Tetanus) to industrial use of electronics, atomic energy, automation and the Scientific Revolution within a blend of two cultures. “Here’s C P Snow. Read him, dammit! And dispel a bit of that fog in thy cranium.” P 59. She also drew a comparison between Black Americans who came to Africa out of a genuine love for the people and who easily assimilated, and the Black Americans from the State Department who though sociable and jovial clamped up at the most innocent questions with such mutterings as “we can’t talk about the government, that is politics.” P 59. The author seemed to question why they bothered to come at all if they were afraid of what the American government would think about their utterances. To her that was a waste of the resources of the State Department and travesty of the touting of freedom and democracy by the American government.

What amazed me about this story is its length. Only five (5) pages short, and yet the narrative was excellently packed with so much food for thought. Once again I recommend the anthology Tales of Tenderness and Power to all lovers of African literature, especially celebrating female writers.

The author died tragically early, in 1986, leaving behind her a fine collection of literary works. Tales of Tenderness and Power was the first of her works to be published in 1989 posthumously.

5.555717 -0.196306

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