2022 is almost over. Before we pull the curtain on the year, check out our top ten most popular poetry.

Two Poems | Romeo Oriogun

"Graves do speak to those who listen,
they do speak to gravediggers,
those who stand at the threshold
of life, preparing bodies for departure,
 
and in their conversations,
the dead are silent."

Oriogun’s poems were shortlisted for the inaugural Isele Poetry Prize.

It Comes in Waves | Samuel A. Adeyemi

"You should not
watch me as I rage, 

as I punish myself 
for the tumult of my 
spirit."

A new poem from Samuel A. Adeyemi.

there’s more | Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike

"a family flees Mogadishu in a truck     in Nador     a man skirts the muezzin’s call        
a woman soothes the heart of her man in Juba     a boy tells his dad about     motley lights beyond Awka"

“there’s more” won the inaugural Isele Poetry Prize.

Self-Portrait of Grief as Fire | Zaynab Bobi

"how do you hide the tongue 
that keeps fighting your teeth 
when you try to call your mother’s name,
or her favourite meal, or the proverb 
she says when you pick on your younger brother?"

A new poem from Zaynab Bobi.

Three Poems | Chisom Okafor

"Cut your heart open, you say. And I open:
Who says the dead are farther away from us 	
than the distance between my failing heart and yours"

Okafor’s poems were shortlisted for the inaugural Isele Poetry Prize.

Three Poems | Kelli Russell Agodon

"maybe this is why I keep a switchblade in my bra
you never know who needs freeing or who is drowning 
    in what’s been thrown away"

Agodon’s poems were shortlisted for the inaugural Isele Poetry Prize.

Two Poems | Rahma O. Jimoh

"Can history still be called its name 
when it repeats the same outfits,
and its toxins dished to us
like yesterday's leftovers?"

New poems from Rahma O. Jimoh.

Four Poems | Echezonachukwu Nduka

"It opens with a guitar solo. Synths & hi-hats set the tone for rebirth.
It is 3am & you are up with a glass of wine & a bit of rage.
Is this what relaxation means to the troubled?"

New poems from Nduka.

At Night I Sing My Heads to Sleep | Matt Hart

"Hang around in the gloom of the known if you want. To your boredom.
I know its mission is submission and I will not forget it;
let no one forget it."

A new poem from Hart.

Two Poems | Precious Okpechi

"i hope you understand, it’s not eluded
            me completely, this urge to
                   centre an attraction"

A new poem from Okpechi.