Month: August 2015

Creative Writing · Inspiration - Motivation

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe…Make a list

jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments
Catch a Tiger by the tail.
Catch a Tiger by the tail.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Decisions, Decisions.”

I love spontaneity, which I try to limit to my shopping,writing and other fluffy things of life. In such times, my guts have stood the test of time.

However, in contradiction, I don’t like guessing games when it gets to the crunch time of making a serious decision.

I sit down wherever I find myself, with my note pad and pencil (never too far from me) I run the pros and cons, think and rethink before making a decision.

If I don’t have my writing material handy, who knows, I might resort to reciting Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe on my fingers and thinking the decision to death.

Eeny: Decisions, decisions

Meeny: weigh Pros on fingers

Miny: weigh Cons on fingers

Moe: Catch the Tiger by the Tail (and hope it doesn’t bite me).

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Creative Writing

A dash of IMmortality to eternity and beyond…

jacquelineobyikocha12 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Forever Young.”

An involuntary whimper of despair escaped her glistening, vivid red lips;
Pursed in a pout as she stared balefully at the woman in the mirror;
An inordinate amount of gray had sprouted on a temple formally adorned with jet black;
The thinning patch getting more difficult to disguise;

The fine crinkled lines around the eyes, told tales of years spent and gone;
Yet her dilated pupils shone in wisdom and merry delight;
She loved life;
A bit too much;

Age had not been in the equation;
Yet it knocked on the door;
Each day, unfailingly, it came visiting;

Stretching the pout, from one side to the other;
An attempt to soften the stern look inserted by faint grooves around her lips;
Her fingers shook as she dabbed on more cover;

The girl she was before, long gone, nowhere to be found;
But it was just yesterday;
She mused in her mind;
Yesterday, her mind reminisced;

My Sweet Sixteen;
I danced with careless abandon;
The Bubbling Belle of the Ball;
The years stretched ahead;
To eternity and beyond;

And time stood still;
When he finally kissed her lips;
Alas! Age struck! Taking them all along;

But she wanted to dance again;
Just once, Just once, at sixteen;
What if? She eyed the bottle in curiosity and disdain;
A little sip could straighten the gnarled hands and feet?

Would the rosiness of her cheeks replace the gaunt face in the mirror?
Would it adjust the feelings of her heart?
Or erase the memories of her mind?

A heart that has stretched in love for decades and more;
His shuffled steps broke through her thoughts;
“Your coat, my darling”, He said;
Lovingly and slowly he wrapped her in his warmth;

Their eyes clung to each other in the mirror;
The wrinkles, the grays, the warts and all;
But all they saw was the love and friendship that stood through it all;

Then she smiled;
Letting the elixir of love take her away;
As the promise of Immortality splashed and dripped down the drain.

Hope · Inspiration - Motivation

I am no Usain Bolt, but I’ve got my own THUNDER…

jacquelineobyikocha14 Comments

encouraging-thunder-award

“Encouragement is said to be the oxygen for the human spirit. Do not forget you are carrying someone’s air with you. Encourage them. Help them breathe” – anonymous.

The Encouraging Thunder Award comes with very simple rules:

a. The nominee posts the Award on their blog and adds the logo.

b. Pay it forward by nominating others.

c. Mention your purpose for blogging and thank the person that nominated you; also add their URL to your post for ping back.

For me, this nomination could not have come at a better time. In recent weeks, I have being overwhelmed with the responsibilities of family life, adapting to new things, trying to get my writing Mojo up to speed and in all honesty, there have been some days I just felt like pulling the duvet over my head and refusing to do anything.

Nothing like a little encouraging shove from the right quarters, to get up and get it going. Thank you KeenVision for your generosity of thought.

At the very beginning, May 6th 2015 precisely, this was my very first post on my blog;

“Now, why did I start this blog I ask myself? Just to share my quirky tales and thoughts as well as get to know yours. It’s not all ironed out yet, but what is life without a few wrinkles, I ask? So lets hobble along, tell some tales, read some minds, drink some wine and have some fun. Who knows? We just might end up making a perfect medley of this and that!”

I loved to write long before I knew what it meant to be a writer – now I wish I had taken better care of my young teen journals where I wrote uncensored; it would make a good read and laugh. However, I hated the supposed rigors and strictures I felt was required to make it as a writer, I have come to realize that the notion was a mental slavery in which I had trapped myself.

Writing as we all know, is not a walk in the park. It is hard work which requires boundless mental energy, steadfast inspiration, focus, acuity and even business savvy, so the efforts of writers should never be undermined. I doubted I had the above requisites nevertheless, I decided to try.

The desire for an outlet to share my stories, poems and perceptions as well as the need for a medium that would help keep me grounded and accountable in starting something and seeing it to fruition gave birth to my blog.

I tossed all the mental hindrance out of the window: the fear of putting myself out there, the fear of not having support, the fear of not being good enough and I chose to enjoy the experience and to take each day as it comes.

I am glad I ventured, the short stint of 3 months and a few days shy of 4 months has so far wrought many positive creative changes in me. The choppy bloggy waters are full of creative and encouraging currents, and it feels good to be here.

I would like to nominate a good number, but I am limited to only 5 bloggers:

Tasha

Pam Witzemann

Sarah C

Kay Morris

Sabiscuit

May our ink pots never run dry.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

 

3 Events That Will Help You Expand Your Readership!
Inspiration - Motivation

3 Events That Will Help You Expand Your Readership!

jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

Always good to meet new people. So let’s meet and greet 🙂

Weave that Dream

Nomination …Oscar pour moi ..

jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

Oscar

A round of applause if you may please 🙂 Thank you very much 🙂
I can hear it in my mind as I take a bow.

Well, well, I have been triply nominated by awesome blogger friends of mine and yes indeed, I feel like I won an Oscar.. a blogging Oscar is a good thing you know. So let me preen a little please ;).

It is very gratifying when you are acknowledged in your little space in this humungous World of Blogging and it takes away the pinch from feeling all by yourself.

For the next three days, I will be doing posts about these Awards and will proudly post the badges on my blog.

My sincere thanks to Eloquentparadise for the Liebster nomination, to aidly193 for sisterhood of the World bloggers and keen vision for the Encouraging Thunder Award.

Your encouragement is worth it’s weight in gold.

 

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Creative Writing · Inspiration - Motivation

The Literal Door…

jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

reading under the tree

It always seems that the cover of a book is like the door,

That opens and lets you in, into depths unknown,

Where you never imagined or been before.

It might be an adventure into a city, someone’s abode, thoughts, emotions, insights and all,

A swashbuckling pirate, a queen, a romantic hero, a fairy, a rogue, a burglar, a terrorist, a philosopher, a comedian, a loving parent, a magician may open the door for you,

Have you ever wondered when you lift that first page,

What welcome you would receive?

Will you bubble up in laughter?

Will tears cascade down your face in anguish?

Will your stomach twist and knot in nervousness?

Will you break in sweat from anticipated fear, whilst leafing furiously to find out what happened?

Will the thrill of the chase, cause your heart rate to increase?

Will your heart melt like butter?

And you exhale a sigh of relief or understanding.

You will never know, will you?

Not until you open that door….

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

 

Uncategorized

11 Types of People to Avoid Like the Plague

jacquelineobyikocha3 Comments
Creative Writing · Humor - Bellyful of laughter

My Clandestine Lover…

jacquelineobyikocha19 Comments

Clandestine lover

I have a very daring lover,
He sneaks to visit when everyone is away,
Most times in the dead of the night,
Afraid of being caught in the dastardly act,

Day after day,
When all lights are off,
He sneaks into my room,
For a nibble and he suckles from me,

I tried to warn him,
Of the danger of this escapades,
But he wouldn’t listen,
He only itched some more,

Last night he visited,
Just one more time he said,
To say goodbye and move on,
To more welcoming and robust pastures,

Unfortunately, for the guy,
My husband caught him,
Right in the middle of the act,
As he suckled greedily,
To his utmost delight,

One big swat,
And down he went,
Sluggish from all the blood,
He had stolen from me,

My Mosquito King is dead!
No more night marauding,
For this pesky one 🙂

Get your minds straightened out, naughty people 🙂

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

Image Credit: Tristan and Iseult depicted by Edmund Blair Leighton; courtesy Wikipedia.

Little rants · Social critic

The Minister’s Clay Feet…

jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

going to church

He strutted and postured,
His fists pounding the podium from time to time,
In a bid to pontificate his points,
To give breadth to his enunciation’s.

His oily words rolled off his tongue,
Slick, cajoling and compelling,
To a crowd captivated by his glittering Italian shoes, which served in disguising his hideous clay feet,
His expensive shiny suit strained to contain his well rounded tub; fed fat by the grease of other hands,

His bugled eyes, beady, shrewd and greedy,
Stood out in his plump and shiny face,
With his wobbly rich jowls,
Bouncing with every step,

Amen; Shout Alleluia he bellowed,
Taking note of each and everyone of them,
Those whose envelopes bulged,
Those with the slimmer ones and those with none at all

He blessed the thieves, the roguery politicians,
And the lying tongue,
Nary a word of love or repentance was uttered at all,
Prosperity, Prosperity, Gain and more gain,
As his oily basket grew bigger by the second,

But the poor in their cast-offs,
A pity to behold, at odds with the glitterati,
Hardly a seat could they find in the pews nor warmth to enfold,
Whatever on Earth is happening to the Salt of the Earth?

What manner of pervasive erosion is leeching our hearts and our minds?
Robbing us blindly of our timeless essence and values;
And replacing them with decrepit morals,
Lack of conscience and loss of empathy,

Is it a wonder that the World is what it is today?
I guess not….,

The statement that says “you reap what you sow”, must indeed be true.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

Musings

INdeed, I missed you all…

jacquelineobyikocha26 Comments
As the sun sets in Abuja-Nigeria.
As the sun sets in Abuja-Nigeria.

 

I missed every single one of you.

From the solemn, the hilarious, the advisory, the candid, the energetically earthy blogs and every post betwixt and between; I sincerely missed every single one of you.

I have been silent, even though I have written so many posts in my mind. I have been absent from this feverish activity of blogging and from my beautiful clique of friends in blogland because I have been on a roller-coaster move visiting my home country – Nigeria.

It was an impromptu trip which was inundated with family duties and my journey sometimes took me into corners where WiFi service was a bit sketchy.

Home connotes various meanings to us. For some, it is that lovely brick house that they occupy, for others, it is where ever they find to lay their heads and yet for some, it is that place where their loved ones are.

Home sometimes, may be devoid of all the human material comforts, yet rich in every synonym of happiness that reaches deep into your heart and holds you captive.

Home has been so many places for me over the years and across Continents. Even though I inhabit a different space outside my homeland at this point in time, the drumbeats of my heart is NIGERIA!

As Westernized or as Arabian as I may become, NAIJA reaches into my depths and grabs me whole!

The land of my birth..

The land of a thousand tribes and more than 500 indigenous languages…

The land of the most optimistic and hardworking people that I have come to know…

The land known as the Giant of Africa…

The hectic and sometimes chaotic land of the beautiful and brave…

Endowed in natural resources, but unfortunately riddled with corruption…

This is the land that I call home.

It’s time to play catch-up with the hundreds of posts.

 

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha