World Poetry Day: Musings from Guardian Digital team

It was Williams Wordsworth, one of the finest Romantic poets, that gave poetry one of its most popular definitions.

Poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity,” the pastoral poet wrote in the preface to his Lyrical Ballads.

While that definition may not capture all that poetry is, it is true that the literary genre is often used to express “powerful feelings” and its ability to do this is even rooted in oral tradition.

“Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures,” the United Nation wrote to mark the occasion of 2019 World Poetry Day.

To mark the day, we asked members of the Guardian Digital team to pen poems. The entries ranged from the serious to the one with a hilarious title.

See their entries below. Which one do you like the most?

Voice – Abisola Olasupo
All I wanted to do was to go home
Maybe a cold shower would have helped
watch my best tv show till nature calls
But the sight of him disturbs me

His eyes pierce my skin
I wished I had stayed back home that night
The voice is still in my head
I want to end it all

I blame myself at the thought of it
Maybe it was the gown I wore that night
I should have listened to Mama
Maybe it was too late to take a walk

Is it my fault he can’t control his lust for me?
was it me that unleashed the devil in him with my eyes?
Did my smile induce him to ravish me with his hard palms?

The voice in my head has stopped
I never meant to hurt him but I ache

Market March – Solomon Fowowe
Not your colour
Outside your palette
Sell me the mustard curtains
Just don’t touch

Not your size
Bigger than looks
The plus-sized tank top will do
Just don’t touch

Not your spec
Way too intricate
Do you sell Tasers
Get your hands off

Life, a friend, and foe – Dennis Erezi
Life, oh life
You are beautiful to behold

Your pleasures are endless
But so sad you are like a biscuit

No one knows when you’ll crack
You are hard to comprehend

Your cruelty is boundless
Your joys are limitless

Oh life
I ask that you are fair
Be fair to all ages, status, and race

‘Turninoniown’ – Timileyin Omilana
Your smile turns me on
Your laughter makes my heart turns on its own
I will go on and on
Just to make you my own

Life is a paradise of wishes
The more you live, the more you wish
Only true love can deliver the wish
God is the true love

Broken no more – Tonye Bakare
You seized my vagina
Like a land colonised

My bosoms in your hands
Are a plaything, joyless toys

Pain

I know it,
A maniacal, unyielding twin
Tied to my whole being
By your stinging whips

Scars

Your words burn me
More than your canes

Your phallus burrows my depth
Like an angry, wretched hoe

Tears

I was your victim,
The one you left
With the gift of
festering tears

I was your vanquished
The one you emblemed
With beads of tears

I was your doormat,
Seated at the door
To your hellhole

Rise

Know this, Maniac ruled
by his dangling balls,

I will shed off this
Torn skin, I will rise
With the early sun anew

And I will burn bright
In spite of your darkness