Gospel

Poetry

akotz

Official Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1roQTVj0Q8

Music: "Threnody" by Goldmund. 
- Written and performed by Igor Oro. 

LYRICS
As I stand on this street corner and watch these two roads meet i suddenly feel at peace
Maybe its because at my feet lies the intersection of two distinct paths merging at a point of vulnerability
Maybe because its a reminder of you and me, and the blissful bond we once shared
Without a care in the world, my arms wrapped around you to shelter you from the cold
Two souls kept warm by each others company 
Two hearts dancing in the rain playfully
Two minds with the same thing in mind, you want me to be yours and i want you to me mine
I don't know maybe i'm crazy 
Maybe time has finally out played me 
Maybe i've stopped seeing beauty in the little things
Maybe i've stopped appreciating the gift life brings 
Maybe i'm in over my head,
Or maybe i just miss the familiar contours of your body under the chalk white sheets of my bed
I don’t know, maybe this is normal
Maybe i stopped being myself after you left,
Maybe this is all a test
Maybe i failed and i couldn't clean up the mess
Maybe thats why the rain suddenly feels colder on my skin
Maybe thats why whenever i try to apologize i don’t know where to begin or where to end all these things that i typed up in my mind and i wanna tell you but i just cant bring myself to hit "send".
Maybe i fucked up and i won't admit it 
Maybe i'm a coward
Seems like i've got all the time in the world maybe i should do something about it
I mean, every minute feels like an hour
Maybe i'm a fool for distancing myself from you
Maybe thats why i couldn't admit i loved you
Because for some reason i couldn't accept that maybe, 
just maybe,
You might have loved me too.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/b79b26" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

"Maybe" - A Spoken Word Poem

For the one that got away.
Written and performed by Igor Oro

(Music credit: Dustin O'halloran - "We move Lightly")

LYRICS
I've never had the chance, to tell you how beautiful you look in the moonlight 
how the rays of that starry night hit you in ways that words simply can't describe, but I'll still try. 
They make you seem alive, all that energy you have stirring inside, finds its way onto the surface and radiates from your skin in ways that make the sun look dim...by comparison. 
I've never had the chance to figure out your flaws - see, I don't care about your strengths because it's your weaknesses that make you worth it, it's your imperfections that make you perfect. 
I've never had the chance to wake you with soft kisses, to whisper secrets underneath bedsheets - never had the chance to sweep you off your feet and make you mine, I mean, if heartache were a prison... Lord knows I've done my time. 
I've never had the chance to lie beside you and feel your heart beat, to admire the divinity encapsulated from the top of your head to the soles of your feet - to fight off those endless waves of sleep - to struggle to keep my eyes open because I'm afraid if I close them, you won't be there when I wake up. 
Opening my eyes, you're nowhere in sight, thinking "god damn I'm such a fool.." 
Broken guitar strings make my heart sing out of tune - a distant memory of my past, it seems these words are as close as I'll get to you. 
Like, what am I supposed to do to get you to notice me? I'm right here, and I never left.. I'm just waiting for the day that you take my hand and we go away to a place that's devoid of time and space - where I can wake up each morning to the sight of your beautiful face, effortlessly crafted, immaculately spaced... I guess what they say in that song is true: God really must have spent a little more time on you.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/4e5e3b" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

"Never Had the Chance" - A Spoken Word Poem

Poetry ain’t shit
Your poetry isn’t worth a dime. 
Your poetry won’t put food on my table.
It won’t soothe the midnight blues, 
it won’t change the world.
It won’t be the lone voice 
perfectly transcribing the story of my life.
It won’t revolutionize the status quo, 
it won’t be the quantum leap to a confused generation 
It won’t be the therapeutic pathway to my mental freedom
It won’t be the words that make me wonder if you live in my head.

Poetry? 
Your poetry? 
It ain't shit

With your forced lines and packed words,
You team homophones and similar words 
together in the name of rhyme
Rhyming a thousand doe with cousin joe 
when not a single person in your family bears that name.
Using words only the dictionary knows exist.
Your only claim to success is an online published poem 
with 50 comments in 3 days.

Poetry? 
Your poetry?
It ain't shit 

With your religious words and biblical references 
you tell me to stay sober and be the change.
When all your Jesus ever drank was wine.
With your pronounced gestures and rising voice 
you tell me to be the revolution
All talk, no action religion
I should wade through the storm 
so you write beautifully about the experience?
Pseudo-profundity is your middle name
Living life with a microscopic lens 
and seeing things bigger than they really are
You speak of heartbreaks as if the molecules 
of your being were being carved out
You write about love in a magical realm as if 
there were an extra layer of fat caging your warm heart
You speak of joint orgasms in such perfect lyricism 
when in reality your partners’ orgasms are 
scared to venture outside of their bodies

Poetry? 
Your poetry? 
It ain't shit

Living life like you’re the only ones who can see the writing on the wall
Precisely nailing the measurements of mother earth’s demise
Alienating yourself with words as if the rest of the world 
were prisoners of an invisible thought system, 
and you were the only ones who could see the light.

Poetry ain't shit.
He tells me accurately in a poem, 
how poetry won’t save the world.


Poetry Ain't Shit

Travis Greene intentional

VI Music's Teen Spoken Word sensation, Akotowaa, makes a case for the arts and her #Lexivism movement in a society that frowns upon the pursuit of the arts professionally, in a passionately powerful piece that reaches the heart and mind.


Directed and Edited by Nelson DeSouza
Concept by Evans Kafui Offori 
VFX by Mohammed-Hanif Abdulai
Produced by TheGentleMan

Recorded at The Stub

Anti-Indoctrination

Chip. Chip. Chip.
Chisel approximately 3.5 inches of flesh out of the waist area
Lift the breasts to a firm position until it is perky and a perfect D cup
Add three layers of skin until the backside can vibrate with a single poke
Tone the leg muscles until men can see their reflection in your gleaming skin
Widen the hips until it is the exact curve of a bass clef 
Chip. Chip. Chip 
Perfect your body until it is a cross between a fiction writer’s
description of the girl a woman’s husband leaves her for
and a photoshop guru’s final masterpiece.
Soften your muscles, don't be too boyish
You don't want to have kids? There must be a glitch
You cannot be too skinny
You cannot be too fat
You cannot be team itty bitty 
You can’t have boobs that sag
You cannot have a small ass, what’s there to hold?
You cannot love your body until somebody says so
You can only love your stretch marks when it it is a map for a man to find your tucked away treasure
Pit women against each other let's find out who is fresher 
Tell women they're the queens and then go right ahead and be the crowns 
Checkmate, there goes the clown
You cannot want to have it all
You cannot want to follow just one path
You cannot have too much make up
You have to look natural but not the kind of natural that makes you look like you just woke up from a 36 hour sleep. 
Everything you do is a free license for critique

You keep running away from your body like it isn’t home
You keep trying to fit your body into negative spaces
Like you aren’t made up of magic
Like the sun don’t shine from your eyes
Like you aren’t the definition of evolution
The distance between beautiful and unique is where your body lies
And so go ahead and love yourself
 
You are to swallow your pride like it doesn’t have a sour after taste
You are to be a perfect balance; not too acid, not too alkaline
You are to be a conscientious being who meanders perfectly between soft and hard
You are to be a funky Friday night mixed with a tinge of Monday seriousness and a hint of Sunday calm
You are to be all the colours of the rainbow at the same damn time
Everything you do is an open invitation for condemnation
So love yourself anyway
Love the brown and the bounce out of your skin
Love the unholiness of your lips
Love the 9am happy face stitched on
Love the ugly feet and the awkward teeth 
Love the high pitch laughter that grinds everybody’s gears
Love the intricacies of your mind and how it keeps you up all night
Love the parts of you you're waiting for someone else to love before you learn to love yourself wholly 
Everything you do is an open invitation for condemnation, so go ahead and love yourself anyway 

Go ahead, go ahead and love yourself now (2x)
Go ahead and love yourself (3x)

You keep running away from your body like it isn’t home
You keep trying to fit your body into negative spaces
Like you aren’t made up of magic
Like the sun don’t shine from your eyes
Like you aren’t the definition of evolution
The distance between beautiful and unique is where your body lies
And so go ahead and love yourself


Love Yourself

This Morning

A fresco of riffs and picks, claps and voice tricks, and of course, #SpokenWordOnBeat. For anyone who has ever felt excluded from a group.

IWITP

IWITP ft. Meffstone [prod. by TheGentleMan]

Another one from Mutombo Da Poet - Some Other Place

Some Other Place

Single

Vote For Me ft. Akan

Saccharine. Unapologetically cheesy. Impossible not to fall in love with. The GentleMan and The Butterfly made music love and produced a modern classic Ghanaian masterpiece. You'll absolutely love this!

Me Ne Woaa

Me Ne Woaa ft Adomaa

A VI Christmas

I See God - Akotowaa

Solitaire is a card-game/computer-game turned word-game! This poem is for fun, and I hope it amuses you.

Producers: EDWVN & TheGentleMan

Solitaire EP

Soitaire

Solitaire [prod by EDWVN x TheGentleMan]

This poem is my way of dealing with special friendships that disintegrated before I felt they were due to. I hope it resonates with all who have gone through similar experiences.

Producers: TheGentleMan 
Extra voices: Evans Offori, Joy Adjeman

Ephemeron

Ephemeron [prod by TheGentleMan]

The voices of the proverbial "They" who tell you that your dreams are invalid.

Producers: Reynolds TheGentleMan 
Voices: Evans Offori, Joy Adjeman, Reynolds Addow, Joshua Adjeman

The Curse of They (Intro)

The Curse of They (Intro) [prod by TheGentleMan]

A response to "They" who constantly discourage an artist's dreams. This is a call to reawakening for all those who have killed the artists within them.

Producer: EDWVN 
Extra Voices: Evans Offori, Joy Adjeman, Love Adjeman

Solitaire

Undeath of the Artist

Undeath of the Artist [prod by EDWVN]

Anomaly

A very informative piece by world poetry award winner Michael Somuah Kesse about Africa, revolution and vision. 

Michael Somuah Kesse - tell them (prod. by DrumNayshin)

Abstract piece by Jude Edze about transformation of personality and the system

Jude Edze - transformation (prod. by Boney)

Yaw and Kwame rant to motivate listeners through poetry

Yaw Twum & Kwame Write- stand out (prod. by Boney)

Two spoken word artistes in the shoes of poetry's essence. This will end up giving you a broader view as to what poetry entails.

Yaw Twum & Kwame Write - I am poem (prod. by DrumNayshin)

Poetry a-capella about a real friend, trust and understanding in Pidgin English