Category Archives: sadness

Suffering Agony, suffering, hurt, anguish
Sadness Depression, despair, hopelessness, gloom, glumness, sadness, unhappiness, grief, sorrow, woe, misery, melancholy
Disappointment (Dismay, disappointment, displeasure)

Shame (Guilt, shame, regret, remorse)

Neglect (Alienation, isolation, neglect, loneliness, rejection, homesickness, defeat, dejection, insecurity, embarrassment, humiliation, insult)

Sympathy (Pity, sympathy)

sadness

The Well

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Well, remember Otis Redding saying “You don’t miss your water”, such truth exists everyday. Greed makes us forget what we have, till it’s gone….

Nobody sees the hole in the ground whence the buckets bring life.
The ropes are made of glass, the silence of their drop into darkness
Leaves no awe. Nobody claps when in heaves and puffs, a third day
Miracle happens and pours its bounty into waiting vessels on arid
Earth starved of life so long the cracks would show, like a
Web cast to trap the Earth in a black widow’s embrace; nobody
Cheers.

     Yet, the sad day comes when the rise is as barren
As everything else around: sand, dust, grit, death. The tongues
Seethe in the noon sun seeking solace that they never sought,
Noticing the absence of what was there but was never thought
of. The glances walk from eye to eye, face to face, to whisper
Questions that none can answer. Yet no answer will change the truth:
      The well went dry, then men will cry.

(c) nyonglema

sadness

Tomatoes in the Wagons #stopWar

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When I think of the wars in Cameroon, my mind goes to Asa’s Fire on the Mountain: “Could it be love for your country, or for the gun you use in killing?” she sings.

I think she missed the “greed” question, that could desire to sacrifice human life to sustain the funding of the war, and generate income for some uncanny souls. Well finite are the resources, finite are the humans


Tossed around in the wagons, the tomatoes bounce on each other
Squashed one at a time on a path they didn’t decide
On a path they must follow like human life.
Then the owner calls to the controller
And the engineer, yet noone hears
And squash, splat, squash
Till all left
Is just
One…

(c) nyonglema

sadness

Trust #onLifeSupport

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A big thanks to Social Media. Yeah, thanks.
We’re all connected now, whispering with our thumbs,
Sharing the crumbs of our lives, and connected
Through our lively screen to millions of others
Like us with their friends. Dear friends.

My Facebook page says I have 261 people whom I
Can confide in, share my cleanest and dirtiest,
Hold on to theirs, share deep memories with.
Facebook calls them my “Friends”.

My Twitter page says I have 75 disciples.
They hang on my every word, and I’m the disciple of
Nearly as many as well.

Well I noticed that keeping my secrets in the minds
Of my 261 was a little challenging through F2F …
You know the good old face-to-face with no listening walls?
So I just blast it to them all at the same time.
My life’s their entertainment, and theirs mine,
And theirs theirs.

Then I noticed I couldn’t keep their secrets in my mind
So, I just browse, like, retweet and forget,
Unless it is critical.

Then I noticed that nobody trusts anybody anymore.
Then I noticed that elections will be contested,
Conspiracy theories like poisoned mushrooms
Will cloud our vision till reality recedes to oblivion.
I noticed that everybody will see the Devil everywhere,
And since social media has trained us to be different
By conforming to what different means,
Which simply means be like everybody else,
But in a different way:
(just look at our smartphones…the only difference is
The letters on them …so mostly same, but different),
We are starting to see a Devil in the mirror
But the comments say “You’re good, you’re cool”
With a thumbs up, a heart, a wink and more,
So we believe them, but of course with a pinch of salt.

(c) nyonglema

sadness

Something fishy #discrimination

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My colleague wants the Art of Zen, in French of course
Translated from Japanese…I suppose, for they started it.
But she wants it from the UK…I’m like: “That’s horse –
Shopping in the middle of the ocean…they’re more likely
To stock it in English, you see. But I’ll search in Italy”.
Then, I find myself in Dakar at some point, and while walking
In the mall, a bookstore calls to me. I go toward it.
They don’t have it, neither here nor at Mermoz. But the thing
That hangs on my brain like a shroud, while the lady pours
Out the information is the fact that English books are here.

Think about it: this is an all French country, colonised
By France, having spent all their lives with them.
They had books in English, and games too …to my surprise.
Then I asked myself about other countries, which should be
Carrying these as standard, where books would be
In every stall in 2 languages as per their constitution.
And my heart sunk. I felt pain for every single one of them
In such countries, where language replaces skin’s function
In the minds of those who wear hate like a hat I despise
And cower to the custody of morbid segregation and fear.

Well, prejudice is a but a bug in the universe’s most infant app
And it takes mere (not sheer) will to wipe it off our map.

Take up your napkins boys…it only seems hard.

(c) nyonglema

sadness

At the gate #missingYou

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So many faces, but none of them is you.
You know this feeling of the crowd anonymously many
And the voices I want to Shazam, for none of them is yours.
My plane is late again, and this pain lingers on
Like a foul smell in the air. I wish to be airborne
That I know you’re not a car ride away
That I’d know that I can’t hold you for good reasons
That the sword may go through the heart and kill me
Than linger over my chest like a purgatory leading to hell.

The pain will come, the pain will run as long as I’m not near holding you here, kissing you there, telling you that, whispering this, listening to those, holding you close.

But for now I’m at the gate, and the plane’s late.

I’m looking out the window to where you are, and I can’t go there, I can’t see you here.

So many faces, so many voices but I’m steeped in the silence and absence of you.

(c)nyonglema

sadness

A Moment of Bonnie Tyler #Eclipse

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For Jodie Moment, strong pillar of the Fab family, friend, sister.
Jodie, for us it’s a Total Eclipse. Let’s cherish our friends and family while they live, for you never know when you turn around, and poof they’re gone.
May we find comfort in God, like you have found peace now with Him. RIP sis.

Amen.

Every now and then I said a prayer that
Every time you try, it would work out, that
Every hope you harbour will come to be, that
Every time you cry, you may find comfort, that
Every time I see you, I’d see that light, that life

But now every time I’ll see your laughter jumping from still pixels on a screen, I’ll miss that light and that life,
I’ll think of you pulling that microphone to safety from the strength of that voice, a mere extension of your strong person,
I’ll think of you teasing Balla, wearing laughter and joy like roses adorn the flamboyant gardens of March singing Alleluia
I’ll be sad. Maybe I’ll cry. I’ll ask why. I’ll listen to “Somewhere”, I’ll listen to the “Prayer”. I’ll listen to our own Bonnie Tyler, now fallen.

Fallen while going up the Everest of life
Fallen too early, and it feels so wrong.
Fallen…no
Moved on to our Maker.
Moved to receive you reward.

Every now and then, I know we’ll look to the sky, and
Every now and then you’ll smile back as we recount
That once there was an angel that sang and laughed sorrow away.
And you’ll sing “Turn around, ride on”

(c) nyonglema

sadness

In my hood #abnormal #legoPoetry

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I ask myself  If the world turns different, and
if the paintings  From the depth of my hood or
Around the world  the scribbles on my wall,
Feel sames as  if peeled-away hope, is all  
That on my wall.  lives and hope ask
Am I just crazy?  For: wanting to be!

(c) nyonglema

I’m going to one day make a #LEGOpoem that really works. I’ll keep working at it and sharing what I get with you, no matter how imperfect. Maybe it will inspire somebody to combine 3 poems in 1 in this way.

This is a reflection on the paradoxes of my home, where the laws are strong, but the law is weak, leading to a bleak picture where hope fades into the horizon…the norm is what is abnormal!

sadness

Truth or dare? #RIP #hope

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No neither.
I see… I see bird droppings zoom out the sky and
And…
Humans drop looking for luck in different spheres.
The crowd panics. Not felled yet, trees stand
And run for the woods where leaves shield.
And…
I see droppings hit the leaves, souls leave the trees.

Truth or dare?
No, neither.
Silence is the ether that burns the soul of the soldier.
Nobody believes the wood was felled,
As no noise was made when it fell in the woods.
Everybody says deforestation is a lie.
There were no birds, there were no trees,
There is no Earth, there is no you, nor me.

Just truth caught in a dare:
Dare to exist,
Dare to pervade,
Dare to be exchanged or dare to grow.
It lurks in the backdrop of wood becoming coffins.
It seeks to become a speaker box,
It seeks the Carpenter to heal the wounds,
But as is the case often, nobody wants to be true or dare.

Pride rides the pain of the thuds on Atlas’ load,
Rippling through his bones, and he bumps on the trees.
Then he screams: “Speak ye truth! speak to each other, in truth!”
And the leaves rustle,
And they listen.
And the felling stops,
And the yelling stops,
And truth dares to bare itself on the forest floor as
A shoot luscious green, midribs transfigured
In the shimmer of the star of the amber dawn.

(c) nyonglema

Communication can hurt or heal, it all depends on the wielder. But I’ve seen the simple exchange of perspectives lead to new solutions yet unheard of, which lead to bright futures for people whose positions hitherto seemed so radical that no consensus was possible.

Let’s dare to challenge our status quo. The future is ahead of, not behind us

sadness

Growing ghosts #harvey

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The rain dance is drugged beyond reason to the point
  That the grass bends beyond reason till their points
Wave in the sludge pulling them downwards.

There’s hope, as new life springs from rain like the ides,
  But there’s lost lives and tears spring from rain like the ides
While families gather their seeds but can’t find any space.

Harvey’s on his way, but oh how those in the Sahara wish for one,
  Yet heavy damage’s done and they all sad-hearted wishing for sun,
While families gather lost seeds, and God reaches to heal each face.

(c)Nyonglema

sadness

Petals #old #time

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Ripe the garden plants, bright the flowers they bear
For bees to frolic and play till in future fruits be bare.

But I look at the flowers and see the petals fall.
Have you seen it before? Beauty and the Beast?

One petal drops to the floor: Thriller’s gone, the man in the mirror
fades into history, losing colour, washed by tears and more

The picture of the next petal on the iPhone blurs out while Steve rests
And Amy goes to buy the next one beyond our gardens with mellifluous voice

Harmonising Whitney, oh that’s a petal of my childhood I’ll
Misstep with tears as it sways and twists in the miracle of her wind

Not fast, not furious, gently falling, while Paul Walker walks
The stairway to heaven, staring at another petal on the aging rose

Of my youth’s laughter…oh Robin, oh Bernie, watch those petal go
Shall you make one more laugh infuse the pallid petal back to life?

And shall Chester and Prodigy harmonise with Anne Marie Nzie as another
Petal falls?

I watch them go, the falling petals, like the hair on my head,
Like the black in my chin, I watch the clock take one by one
And replace with something new, different, strange, something afraid
To ride my roller coaster heart, unlike those petals first to join
When life was a song, and the future was sunshine and childhood fun.

(c) Nyonglema