Thursday, November 5, 2009

Sunset Dreams: Inspirational Poems for Women and African Metal Art Paintings

Sunset Dreams: African Art Metal Painting
Size: (8.1 x 11.75")
Price: $150 (Free Shipping)

SUNSET DREAMS
On the Brink of Womanhood
(Inspirational Life Poems for Women by Injete Chesoni)

She stands on the brink of womanhood
Staring into the sunset horizon
Pondering her future
Proudly staring it down
Convinced that she will make it
Although she has no clue how
She squares her shoulders
And resolutely raises her head
She holds her neck proudly
Staring defiantly ahead
She places her hands on her hips
And thrusts out her budding chest
Convinced that if she looks and acts tough
She will make it
Through the difficult days ahead
As the sun sets on the horizon
Her youthful days slowly go down
Buried along with the sinking sun
Tomorrow a new day will be born
And her life as a woman will start
In the gentle glow of dawn.

The inspirational poem above, "Sunset Dreams" was inspired by an African Art Metal Painting of a young woman that I completed in August. This life poem is part of my Women's Poetry Collection and deals with change and the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood. This poem also symbolically represents my beloved continent of Africa, its growing pains and my hope that it will one day fulfill its promise. - From Women's Poetry, African Poetry, Inspirational Poems, Change Poems and Life Poems by Injete Chesoni.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A Halloween Poem and Vintage Halloween Art Postcards



Spare A Thought for Troubled Ghosts on Halloween
(A Halloween Ghost Poem by Injete Chesoni)

On every Halloween
They come out in their ghostly sheen
Eerily dressed in silver white glows
Their faces masked in pale sorrow

They mourn and sway
And shriek the night away
Wailing because they cannot enjoy
the glories of day anymore
For they are ghostly souls
Doomed to glow
Only in the night

No longer for them
The pleasures of daylight
Their lot is cast
They are now creatures of fright
That pry this earth
In the darkness of night
Scaring all humankind.

And on Halloween
We mock their plight
As we dress up
And frolic in earthly delight
I am a ghost we say
With mock display
Dressed up in costumes
as we bob and sway
Ne’er sparing a thought
For the troubled souls
Who are trapped on this earth
As ghosts and ghouls

Friday, October 9, 2009

Nobel Peace Prize Poem: Human Race Embrace

President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. I will leave it to others to debate whether or not Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. For me today’s Nobel announcement represented hope and in my Twitter comment I called it a "Nobel Prize of Hope." It represents hope on two levels. A sincere hope that President Barack Obama and other world leaders will pursue the peaceful resolution of conflicts rather than opting for war and a symbolism of what Barack Obama stands for Hope and Change. Barack Obama’s father is a native of my home country, Kenya, the home of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai who inspired me to write a poem on environmentalism. The poem in this blog post is inspired by the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize and the art piece which I created prior to writing the poem. This peace poem, “Human Race Embrace” is about moving beyond divisiveness and racism and embracing each other as part of one human family. While it is a tremendous burden to put on one man’s shoulders may President Barack Obama live up to his name “Barack” which comes from “Baraka” the Swahili word for blessing and may he help bring about the blessing of peace in nations around the world. You can read more about Nobel Peace Prize winners and my take on Obama winning here.

Embrace: Abstract Metal Art by Injete Chesoni
Acrylic Metal Painting (8.25 x 11.75"): SOLD
Email minjete@gmail.com to Buy Artwork

Human Race Embrace
(A Peace Poem by Injete Chesoni)

Two heads are better than one
So the saying goes
United we stand, divided we fall
We have been taught this lesson
Many times over
Embrace me my brother
So that we can stand tall
Let us join together
For as one we can conquer all

Let us join together in love
So that we may soar above
All of the challenges
that this human life brings
Together we can find
Heavenly wings
With which to fly
Beyond the confines
Of limited earth-bound thinking

Let us join together in
One human race embrace
Let us move beyond the color
Of our brother’s face
The limits and confines of race
As a measure of who we choose to embrace
For at the root of it we are all one
A multi-colored family of man
And together “Yes We Can,”
Improve this world for all of its earthly sons
So let us join our hearts and our minds
In one peaceful unified
Brotherly Embrace
for the benefit of all mankind.

This is a peace poem in honor of the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize and the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate President Barack Obama who ran on a message of hope and change and who represents a part of the multi-colored human family having descended from a black African Kenyan father and a white American mother. May we one day learn to see beyond the divisivness of race and nationality. "Yes we Can"

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A Gift Of Love: A Mother's Poem and Art Gift

Abstract Metal Art Gift: Mother's Pot of Love
Acrylic Metal Painting: (8.25 x 7"): SOLD
Email minjete@gmail.com to Buy Artwork
View Gifts for Mothers Here


A Pot of Love and A Mother's Pride
A Narrative Poem About Mothers Love
By Injete Chesoni


In our kitchen above the stove
Sits a pot my mother calls love
It’s a strange little pot you see
Decorated with eyes that always watch me
Much like my mother’s eyes follow me

One day I decided to ask my mother the story
that lay behind her little pot of mystery
She sat at the kitchen table
And took me up on her knee
Then began to tell me the pot’s history

When I was a young woman
A little older than you
My mother came home
With a package wrapped in blue
She called me into the kitchen
And gazed down at me
Then handed me the package
much to my glee
I tore off the blue wrapper
expecting to find
Baubles or jewels of some kind
Instead what I found
Was a pot drawn with eyes all around

My mother sensing my dismay
As I put the odd little pot away
Smiled her gentle smile
And said in her loving way
I know you don’t understand this gift my child
But you will one day
And on that strange note she rose
and strode over to the stove
To begin cooking our supper

I stomped out of the kitchen with my odd little pot
And tossed it in the corner wishing it would rot
Many years later after my mother died
Is when I finally realized
That the pot was her way of letting me know
She would always be watching over me
with a loving glow
Stored in the eyes of the pot
that she gave me so long ago.


I looked up at my mother as
tears rolled down her face.
That’s the end of the story she said.
I reached for the pot
And caught her teardrops
As they slowly slid off her face
And for the first time that night
I saw the pot with different eyes
It was a pot of love and a mother’s pride.


A Poem of Thanksgiving for a Mother's Love from Mothers Poems, Narrative Poems and Story Poems by Injete Chesoni.