Words.

Free.

I have dreamt of you:
That I clawed at your face,
Whilst you begged for mercy.

I delighted in it,
The thought that I could hurt you,
Just as you hurt me.

I licked my lips,
The vengeance I would have gotten
Seemed so tasty.

I shook my head,
The resentful woman in the mirror
Wasn’t who I wanted to be.

I walked away,
Knowing that my distance from you
Was timely: I became free.

Written by
©Ivie M. Eke 2017.

I Love Music: The Sisqo/Dru Hill Edition.

 

photo: genius.com

 

 

photo: wikepedia.

 

Hey, Everyone!

 

Let me be honest with you: When I think of the RnB Group, Dru Hill, only one person comes to mind: Sisqo. Is it a good or a bad sign when the lead vocalist of a singing group captures your attention to the extent that you have no idea what the other group members are called?

 

(At least with Destiny’s Child, I knew the names of the two other members aside from Beyonce, namely Kelly and Michelle. Wait, what where the names of the other two in the original line up? And then there was yet another lady who left after a short while…I’ll have to consult google).

 

Anyway, here are 5 reasons why I am a fan of Sisqo/Drull Hill:

1. I first became a fan of Dru Hill in the mid-1990s when I watched the video of their song, Tell Me. They had a solid string of hits which were a mix of soulful ballads and dance-worthy songs.

 

Okay, now on to the Sisqo portion of this list.

 

2. Here’s a fact: Sisqo is a great vocalist.

 

Here’s another fact: Sisqo does not understand the concept of ‘toning things down’ when singing as part of a group.

 

Lord.

 

His is the only voice I could ever identify in any of Dru Hill’s songs. When I heard that he had released his first solo albulm, ‘Unleash The Dragon’ in 1999, I was not suprised.

 

3. Sisqo is mostly known for his infamous song, titled ‘Thong song’. Yes, He sang a song about thongs. He also basically sang the same verse twice, and then recited it once. No one noticed, we were all captivated by his (excessive) vocals.

 

And what vocals they were. They just kept going on and on and on, which would have been great, but…he was singing about thongs. Oh well.

 

Fun fact: One of my first, really short posts on this blog was about Sisqo; you can read it here.

 

4. Sisqo’s videos were always fun and full of energy, and he always found an excuse to do backflips to solidify this point.

 

5. Dru Hill and Sisqo’s songs remain timeless RnB music classics.

 

Dru Hill Songs:

Tell Me.

In my bed.

In my bed (So So Def remix).

How deep is your love.

You are everything.

We’re not making love no more.

5 steps.

 

Sisqo Songs:

Thong song.

Thong song remix (featuring Foxy Brown).

Incomplete.

Unleash the dragon.

Got to get it.

Dance for me.

Can I live.

 

Are there any Sisqo/Dru Hill fans out there?

 

P.S I heard that there is a 2017 version of ‘Thong song’ out right now. I am yet to watch/listen to it.

 

Written by

©Ivie M. Eke 2017.

 

***All videos are from youtube***

 

Puppy Love.

 

 

We used to talk on the phone for hours.

 

About every random dream of ours.

 

He knew the depths of my ambitions.

 

I knew the heights of his passions.

 

I used to dream of him and his chocolate skin,

 

He said he saw my smile in everything.

 

Our love was like a 90s RnB song,

 

With harmonies and modulations within our hugs.

 

Our love was sublime, but time was cruel to us.

 

Within months it dissolved, it had run its course.

 

 

Written by

©Ivie M. Eke 2017.

 

What Love Did To Me.

I melted.
I giggled.
I floated.
I gave thanks.

Look at what love did to me.

I cowered.
I cringed.
I folded.
I crumpled.

Look at what love did to me.

I stretched myself. 
I contorted myself.
I flattened myself.
I changed myself.

Look at what love did to me.

I cried loud tears.
I cried silent tears.
I screamed.
I disappeared.

Look at what love did to me.
I lost myself.
I lost myself.
I lost myself.
I lost myself.
Look at what love did to me.

Written by

©Ivie M. Eke 2017.

Hopeful.

Ivie’s Musings: I Need A DJ Khaled In My Life.

Hey, Everyone!
I decided recently that I need an upbeat person to follow me around daily, someone who shouts affirmations in my ears, possibly with a catchy Hip Hop beat playing in the background.
Please read the job description for my person DJ Khaled here.

 

Happy reading!

 

Ivie.

 

Who Are You?

What Happiness Means To Me.

 

Hey, Everyone!

I recently wrote about What Happiness Means To Me for inspiredbyglory.com. Please read, leave your comments and share after reading.

 

Thank you!

 

Ivie.

5 Challenges I Have Faced As A Writer.

Hey, Everyone!

 

I have been writing on this blog for almost two years (imagine that!) and I thought I would share some of the challenges which face daily as an independent Nigerian writer who is based in Nigeria.

 

I can say that I am a much more self-assured writer than I was a the beginning of this journey, but I still experience some challenges which are as follows:

 

 

1. Impostor Syndrome.

Now, this is a big one. It took me a long time after I started writing to actually call myself a writer. It felt fraudulent to refer to myself in that manner. This was because in my head, I felt that you had to have written several books and be very recognizable publicly before the title ‘writer’ could be attributed to you. So I would always tell people that I wrote on my blog, not that I was a writer.

 

Again, being a very sensitive person, I would feel myself shrink and be rendered speechless when anyone said, ‘Oh, ok, you’re just a blogger’. Now, I have absolutely nothing against bloggers-but I am a writer who writes on a blog. These kinds of statements were made either out of ignorance about what I actually did, or as a means to belittle my efforts.

 

So I spent a lot of time not believing I was a writer, but at some point last year, I took control of my own narrative. I am a writer, always have been and always will be.

 
2. Writers Block.

I define this as a situation where I have the best intentions to write but I see darkness instead of bright lights in front of me. I think, ‘Okay, Ivie, you are going to write today because it is Saturday’, and I would sit in front of my computer…and I have no words to type.

 

This used to bother me A LOT when I started this blog, because I wanted to be consistent and always have something interesting to say in my posts. Now I understand something-I can’t force myself to write. What I do try to do when inspiration doesn’t occur spontaneously is to map out a structure for what I want to write. If it is a story, for instance, I write what I think the story is about, how I want the story to end, and then I am able to work from there. It might turn out that I end up changing the initial idea, but at least I have something solid to work with.

 

 
3. Poor Internet Connectivity and 4. Power Cuts.

I might as well lump these two issues together as they are very Nigerian problems which I face daily as a writer. Constant electricity and steady internet connectivity, two very vital things which are important for being a writer in this present age are still viewed as luxuries here in Nigeria.

 

If inspiration strikes at night (as it often does)and I wake-up to darkness because there is a power cut, it means that I cannot write in my journal.

 

If I decide to write on my phone, iPad or Laptop, it means that I can write for as long as their power lasts.

 

If I then want to share something on social media or save a draft of a story on my blog, I have to cross my fingers and toes and hope that the gods who reign over my internet service provider would do the needful and allow the internet connectivity to be stable for a reasonable amount of time.

 

I have basically turned into a writing acrobat of sorts in the bid to juggle all of these issues. So far, I have been able to make this situation work for me.

 

 
5. Incomplete Ideas. 

 

When I am inspired to write, I often face weird scenarios where I have an idea about how to end a story-but not how to start it. Or I would get an idea for a poem with rhyming lines, but end up getting stuck at the third line.

 

Before now, I would obsess over these, seeing them as writing failures. Now, three journals later, I just shrug. I just put down the ideas in any form that they come to me, and then from time to time, I go back to see what I can do with them. This is a more realistic approach for me, and I have been able to make writing gold out of what previously seemed like dust.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Please let me know in the comments if there are challenges you have faced as writers and how you overcame them.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Ivie.

©Ivie M. Eke 2017.