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Annus Mirabilis (For Stefn), By Nnamdi Elekwachi


My friend wrote consistently poem for each day until he had 365 for the year 2018, a task he undertook. I looked for a way of celebrating this and penned this few lines for him. Stefn Sylvester Anyatonwu, this is my laurel wreath for your poetic head, do sir, wear it. Congrats! Nnamdi Elekwachi 

Annus Mirabilis (For Stefn)

A twelvemonth unfurled

Just as the challenge did unfold

Year and task before our eyes fall

He took up the gauntlet
A poor bard, drawn in an epic for
Three-sixty-five-one-quarter days
Armed with only muse and pen
A prisoner of his mind 
That torturer that had him racing
On the flabby feathers of hope 
A flight and sojourn of the willing 
That landed him to "I made it!"

Brevity it takes to pledge
Greater brevity lies in daring
But to do is brevity at best
Ages and men passing may forget
Might they a feat this noble? 
A daily goer of life who led it
Like eternal lines printed on 
Marbled consciences

When modernity exhumes antiquity
Let time and tide enthrone history
To sit over the affairs of this world
Where the fair and the ill are judged 
That when their future queries our past
May that past echo:
"My age harbours what you seek
Poetical calendar... 
A gift from my age to yours"
The volumes they turn over 
Bringing us thus 
Head and shoulder high, heart filled...
Before the courtly palatial council of posterity

Here, I stand 
At the threshold of new beginning
That which his precursor heralded
A witness, I am
That for this bard,
For arts,
For poetry,
And for good
A.D 2018 was an Annus Mirabilis!

Written by Nnamdi Elekwachi (Aficionado)
For Stefn Sylvester Anyatonwu
Aba Poetry Club

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