Month: January 2015

LETTER TO MOMMA, FROM HER BOYS

Momma, a lot of words heard have remained ingrained on my heart but some reverberate more than others. Dad always will say to us that he prays we find a wife like his’. This is one thing he has always said even before we could really understand the import of that statement.
Here we today celebrate another 365 days of God’s goodness in your life and we cannot but be grateful we have in you, the wife of four of us like Dad would always say. It is no doubt that you are our wife, Daddy’s wife; our girlfriend, our paddy, a wonderful woman of God, a Proverbs 31 woman and even more than I can write.
From you we have learnt the essence of living a life of sacrifice. Doing good even when its not as appreciated as it should be. Your good deeds have opened ways for us in ways than one, known and even unknown.
Your loyalty in the face of crippling challenges many years ago is one thing that defined the role of a wife and mother. With paucity of funds, you made sure we had what we should. Even in our lack of abundance in those days, you still parted with something for those who were not as blessed as we were. That is one thing that readily stays in memory. You stood as a rock while the family tried to stay afloat, till we got back up.
Sometimes we feel you do too much, what Yorubas would call ‘aseju’. Retrospectively however, we have understood that your supposed aseju is because you would never settle for less. You are always trying to make things as perfect as they can be, and for that I would never stop appreciating you. If I exhibit a bit of perfectionism, it comes from you.
Never will it be forgotten how you dressed us boys up back in the days. Our regular end of the year gifts as the neatest boy in our whole grade back in primary school was a way of paying you back for always making us look immaculately neat. Thanks for strictly adhering to the principle “cleanliness is next to Godliness”.
It is with pride that one can call you a wife that can keep the home front going in the absence of her husband. Years when Father was on transfer to different places, you made sure to fill in for him, doing your best to make sure his absence was not felt. With you alone, no controversies trailed you over any misdemeanour as seen in some people. Need I say more?
When many would frown and scare friends of their wards away, you welcome all with open arms. When our cousins dare not show their then partners-to-be to the world, you Mother are the one who hosted them and made them feel a part of the family. Happily, most of them are today married to the partners from back then. Even now, all friends are welcome not minding their gender, tribe or religion. Many can attest to that fact.
We grew wrapped in the love you showered on us from then till now. You and Dad will only advise, not enforce what you want on us. You both support us as we go on in different areas to make a mark. Your industry is one that cannot be overemphasized. Thanks for raising independent kids.
Let us close with the lines from the writings one of us once did for you:
“Mothers there are
Mother you are
And I so shudder
That you so matter”
Happy birthday Mom, we always would celebrate you. Emi gigun ati Alafia
Love from your boys…

OSCARPOEMS IN 2014

So I got this blog’s 2014 annual report from WordPress a few days ago and it looked something worth sharing. Before I go on to do that, I should appreciate everyone who made the year 2014 one to remember on the blog.

The year was to start on a very slow note due to the busyness on my day job and a little bit of that evil thing that affects those of us who do a little bit of writing. Lumi (@lumi_slim) however told me he had something to share and he got us underway with his four-episode Orekelewa. Bimbola Adebayo (@bunmi_bimbola) also ran Office Life while a few other posts added up to give a total of 53 new posts. I appreciate you guys, thanks for your inputs.

We also had Isaacola A.A (@newnaija) as a guest. His story, DECEPTION ran in the early part of 2014. Episode 7 of the story gave us the highest traffic in the year with 995 views. That was on June 16th 2014 which also doubled as the busiest day of the year. Appreciation to my wonderful encourager, Isaacola A.A. (@newnaija) for that serial.

Dayo Alajiki (the one I call Best Girl) encouraged me to make a story out of weddings I have recently attended and that birthed my first serial, BEST MAN DUTY. I was going to write six episodes before posting but Ayobola Raji (@RAyobola) arm twisted me into starting the serial on September 13th. Huge thanks to you two who ended up as important parts of my 2014, beyond the writing part of things.

The longest streak on the blog was between December 5th and 6th and the best days on the blog were Saturdays. It is no coincidence that BEST MAN DUTY was a Saturday affair.

Huge thanks to everyone for the comments. It would not be out of place to mention the top five commenters on Oscarpoems blog for 2014. We had IsaacOla A.A (@newnaija), Lumi (@lumi_slim), Bimbola (@bunmi_bimbola), Paul (@Paul_Ogogo) and Titata (I call her Mama Tee) as our top 5 on Oscarpoems in 2014. I would not fail to say thanks to others like Sally (@moskedapages), @baracutie04, Adenike Ogunwale, @alapala01, @Yes_Planet, @topeabiiba, @cynthiaurie, Tabitha and a whole lot of others who regularly urge me on with their comments. Of course I would also appreciate ghost readers and those who read on the blog and discuss what they read on BBM. Big ups to you too.

Many referrals Oscarpoems got in 2014 came from Twitter and Facebook. However, thanks must go to Sally (@moskedapages), the boss lady at www.moskedapages.com; my oga IsaacOla (@newnaija) of www.isaacolanewnaija.com and of course Toyinfabs of www.toyinfabs.wordpress.com. Thanks for sharing links from here and referring people to read what we have.

I apologize to staunch supporters whose names I cannot mention. This has been a piece I started since December 31st but cannot finish due to commitments from the day job. Talk of a farmer never having holidays when others have. Of course, Dolapo (@kaygeegal) deserves loads of thanks for her patience with me. We’re gon’ do those stories this year bae. I remember I owe Alice (@emini_anoti) a collabo too.

Nothing planned for the new year apart from trying to get better with each piece. I am not a new year resolution person. I have goals but I take each day as it comes.

One thing is sure however, you will get to read stuff you will enjoy on here. Happy 2015 everyone, and don’t stop reading the things that disturb my brain that I try to write, and the stuff people get to share via this platform.

Hugs and Kisses everyone…xoxoxoxoxoxoxo