2 poems by Coby Daniels: Suicide Notes & Possibilities

brown and gray concrete building during day

(c) Margarita CSilva (unsplash images)

Suicide Notes     (possible t/w)
There are days when all I want
Is to get out of my body
And stand outside of me in silent 
OBSERVATION 
of this tragically beautiful, 
broken being that is myself 
And yet,
Like a stay of execution;

The weight of hope weighs down on my soul
and stays my hand.
Hope steers my head clear off thoughts
On how peaceful, eternal silence would be.
My free spirit strains at the chains 
this world binds her up with-
I feel my free spirit choke on a pain
much more intense than the agonies 
borne by a woman in labour.

My skin
Is another oppressor 
in this playbook:
She holds me by the scruff of the neck
And pulls me back into helplessness.
I look around into the faces of many
that I, time and again, stood behind.

They watch me from the corners of eyes,
Mock pitying but condemning my soul
into eternal damnation.
I send a strongly veiled:
'Hello, how are you?'
in hopes someone would read between the lines
But no;
Nobody really cares.
I turn to the last strains of happiness
Floating around in my beserk mind.
They are worth nothing but straw 
in this swiftly churning current
that sucks and carries without;
Everything that stood once proud, 
beautiful, unbroken and full of life

But then I ask my mind to hold still
Just for a moment
Tell my body to fight back
For I am a mountain
Strong and immovable
And when tomorrow comes
Here I will stand
Whole and unbroken again.

Possibilities

Maybe, just maybe:
I’m chasing fleetingly after the wind
And when it rushes out of my sails
I’ll come crashing to reality.

Maybe,
This castle I build in the air would not crumble
And then I can live an enchanted fairy-tale with her
Only, it may so suddenly end.

Maybe, just maybe,
Dreaming big will finally have paid off
And I’d be able to stop sighing
Because then, I would have found you.

Maybe,
It’s all a mix up in my head
From the knocks I got for being a bad boy
From the long-gone moments of my childhood.

Maybe, just maybe,
You are not meant for me
But trust me;
It’s you I see when I close my eyes-
This vision makes me drowsy
every single moment I’m awake.

Maybe,
We are meant to play different roles
And by luck,
our paths crossed at this point in time
But is there no way to reverse the fates?
To choose only one path, and make it ours?

Maybe, just maybe,
There’s a lot more left unsaid
Of heartbeats fading like bright colours
under the sun.
This could be real and yet untrue:

Maybe, 
I deserve a punch 
to knock me out of this intoxication
Because maybe, now I'm lost; 
Searching for a needle in the haystack.


Bio: Daniel Asamoah Yeboah is a Ghanaian poet, educator, novelist, spoken word artiste, University of Cape Coast alum and former president of the Creative Writers Club, UCC. He has contributed to several zines and journals. He is a volunteer, nature lover and reader. He says poetry is a gift that when not given back to society, haunts its creator, the poet, that births it perhaps for the power it wields in changing the ways of men.

A Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Coby Daniels

with Coby Daniels:

Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?

Coby: I started writing in 2nd year of high school at age 17. Precisely February 17, 2010. First time I ever wrote a poem. My influence was basically nature and then there was this poet from Nigeria, P. O. C. Umeh. He wrote Ambassadors of Poverty.

Q2: Who are your biggest influences today?

Coby: My biggest influence today wouldn’t be standout. My style is influenced by so many amazing writers I have read both old and contemporary.

Q3: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing/art? Have any travels away from home influenced work/describe?

Coby: I grew up in a quiet neighbourhood in a very busy Ghanaian city (Kumasi). The place didn’t shape my writing as much as life experiences did. I had to assume certain roles beyond my age so there. I went to university away from home and that was one of the most inspiring years of my life as a writer. The beach was close by so you could imagine musing under the sunset and a cool breeze.

Q4: What do you consider the most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far?

Coby: That would be my forthcoming collection, Shards and other poems, due somewhere in August.

Q5: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be an artist/poet?

Coby: February 2013 when I began to publicly share my poems.

Q6: Favorite activities to relax?

Coby: I listen to lots of music, I enjoy a good film from time to time and I love to read

Q7: Any recent or forthcoming projects you’d like to promote?

Coby: Yes, Shards. I’ll share promotional material as soon as they’re out.

Q8: What is a favorite line/stanza from a poem of yours or others?

Coby: “Trust is a broken reed pipe still trying to make beautiful music.”

Q9: Who has helped you most with writing?

Coby: It’s quite a list but I’d say my best friends, Afia Owusuaa Owusu, @KwamenaWrighter, Prince Kwesi Mensah and Bertrand Azags.

Bio: Daniel Asamoah Yeboah (a.k.a. : Coby Daniels) is a young Ghanaian poet, novelist, spoken word artiste, and proud alum of the University of Cape Coast from where he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in Education Degree. He was also president of the Department of English’s Creative Writers Club. He has featured in several journals including the maiden and second editions of the Lunaris Review Online Magazine. He has performed some inspiring poems on platforms in Ghana such as Moonlight Cafe, Indigenious Minds, VerbzCafe and has been greatly influential together with other creatives like The Village Thinkers in instituting the poetry revival in his university campus with selflessness, zeal and enthusiasm. He is a social volunteer and
aspires to positively impact society with his writings and volunteerism. He loves nature photography and is a voracious reader. Find him on: IG & Facebook: coby Daniels, Twitter:
@coby_daniels and his blog: http://www.cobysthinktank.wordpress.com

2 poems by Coby Daniels : Lunatic & Society’s Nunc Dimitis

3 poems by Coby Daniels: Lost, Contemplation, Broken Mirror

Twitter: @coby_daniels

https://cobysthinktank.wordpress.com/

2 poems by Coby Daniels : Lunatic & Society’s Nunc Dimitis

Lunatic

They tell me 
My mother is a lunatic
She lost it the day
My father forgot her
They tell me
A lot about my mother
Like how she is the root
Of all these problems
They demonize my mother
And I listen to them
Create pictures of a suicide mission
My grandparents should have aborted
They tell me
Not to take sides
With my last line of defence
They tell me
She is a problem
The kind nothing can ever fix
They tell her
Swallow your pain
And walk past this suffering
Like it never happened
I watch them excuse the validity 
of my mother's existence
With a lack of respect
They tell me
Your mother hates us
They tell me
She dissed them
They tell me
She is a loner
They tell me
One day you will end up
The same as your mother
They tell me, I listen
They tell me
She is a burden
A weight that would drown me
They tell me
But I don't hear
The noise begins to drown them.

Society's Nunc Dimitis

There have been times 
When we only dreamed of the future
The kind of dreams
That promised us a better society;
We still dream of this objective vision
But isn’t it all a negative mission?
Because we are in this present future
But from what I see,
We don’t need no preacher
To tell us we painted the wrong picture

My generation is in remission
We are the ultimate cavemen
Expressing our feelings and emotions
By way of cheesy emojis
No point in wearing a smile
When a grinning, yellow, round face 
does it better
We are detached from reality
We live in close contact with LED screens
That understand our every sequence
In a way that
Our next-door neighbours never will

Better safe to bump fists
And shake hands virtually

That way, everybody keeps their pride

I am conflicted but I am not alone
You got no best friends
We are in this together
No need for counselling or therapy these days
Just write a blog post
And give everyone a piece of your
Mind

We say, 
No one cares anymore
But what if we all are in the wrong place?
Because virtually,
There’s real love going around
On a certain roller-coaster ride called
SOCIAL MEDIA
The one place, with society at its best
We express our love
With twelve thousand Facebook likes
Instagram sees all of our best moments
And apparently,
A hundred thousand retweets are all the flowers
You will ever need for heartfelt sympathy
Snapchat proves psychology wasn’t wrong
Because truly,
It exposes the base side of all men-
Kittens, puppies, donkeys and chickens

Civility is a long-lost distant cousin
Diplomacy to a lot of you is an alien
So we take our grievances to social media
Where everything goes viral-
Our pain, anger, obsession, hate

We cut connections with the block button
And condemn immorality with sensational leaks
We turn around in mock disbelief
And say, ‘Look! Society is so rotten’
Now, that is what I call amazing

My generation is a realisation 
of the past’s projection
And I think
This is what they saw
In their dreams of a better society.



Bio: Daniel Asamoah Yeboah (a.k.a. : Coby Daniels) is a young Ghanaian poet, novelist, spoken word artiste, and proud alum of the University of Cape Coast from where he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in Education Degree. He was also president of the Department of English’s Creative Writers Club. He has featured in several journals including the maiden and second editions of the Lunaris Review Online Magazine. He has performed some inspiring poems on platforms in Ghana such as Moonlight Cafe, Indigenious Minds, VerbzCafe and has been greatly influential together with other creatives like The Village Thinkers in instituting the poetry revival in his university campus with selflessness, zeal and enthusiasm. He is a social volunteer and
aspires to positively impact society with his writings and volunteerism. He loves nature photography and is a voracious reader. Find him on: IG & Facebook: coby Daniels, Twitter:
@coby_daniels and his blog: www.cobysthinktank.wordpress.com








3 poems by Coby Daniels: Lost, Contemplation, Broken Mirror

Coby Daniels

Lost

I am on a march now
To a place that opens
Upon the vista of Heaven
But I keep losing my way up
Jacob’s ladder
Please help me find the compass
That leads me right to you

For I am lost now
And
You are Babel
Re-orienting my ability of speech
I speak in different thoughts
And think in different tongues
I never seem to make sense
Anymore
There is a revival
That has left me understanding
The mysterious language
Of the lost
Like

Those who see without eyes
And only hear with ears closed

Contemplation

I am stuck in conference
With the dark night
Listening to the fireflies
Telling me tales
Of

When the moon fell in love
With stardust

Outside
Hangs a veil of fog
Thicker than a slay queen’s lashes
And as heavy as
The beat of a million songs unsung
Marking time inside my head

I want to reach out
And touch the stars
But then I pause
Because

My dreams are in a line of fire

I don’t want to burn to ashes
Pursuing my dreams
So I listen to this tale
The fireflies tell

Much like some long forgotten rhymes

Broken Mirror

Let my reflections
Of once upon a time
Bleed on the shards of a mirror
Now broken

This verse
Should have been
A tale of two cities:
Time and Space

Standing still because;

You became
The only thing in my world
That brought me
From the abyss of forgetfulness

You taught me that
Remembrance is not always a curse
But a beautiful song too

Trips
Down memory lane
Have now become incisions
Letting out bad blood

Letting out insanity

You remind me that
Some broken things
Are never meant to be
Made whole again.

(c) Coby Daniels

Bio: Daniel Asamoah Yeboah (a.k.a. : Coby Daniels) is a young Ghanaian poet, novelist, spoken word artiste, and proud alum of the University of Cape Coast from where he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in Education Degree. He was also president of the Department of English’s Creative Writers Club. He has featured in several journals including the maiden and second editions of the Lunaris Review Online Magazine. He has performed some inspiring poems on platforms in Ghana such as Moonlight Cafe, Indigenious Minds, VerbzCafe and has been greatly influential together with other creatives like The Village Thinkers in instituting the poetry revival in his university campus with selflessness, zeal and enthusiasm. He is a social volunteer and
aspires to positively impact society with his writings and volunteerism. He loves nature photography and is a voracious reader. Find him on: IG & Facebook: coby Daniels, Twitter:
@coby_daniels and his blog: http://www.cobysthinktank.wordpress.com