Friendship: Just Like A Palm Tree Poem by Izunna Okafor

Friendship: Just Like a Palm Tree

(for Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest,2020)




By Izunna Okafor


From the crusts of lonely loams
It gently roots inner and outer
And softly pullulates harder and taller
To register its purpose to mankind.

Like the trunk, the bond glues harder
To the closely open hearts of soil
Who signed for mutual reciprocation.

Its oil heals internal and external wounds
Smoothens the rough path in the journey of life
And generally satisfies the ravenous and thirsty mind
Amidst love, sweetness and uncommon affableness.

It is a shelter
To those who faithfully embrace it
It is a protection
From both the seen and the unseen blitzes.

Though it might be swayed or troubled at times
The frond fans away fears, worries and anxieties
And breezes up pleasure and comfort
Drawing from the wind and coolness of the heavens above.

From its base to the apex
Valuable is every tranche thereof
Beholding its mutual and universal foredeal
Both in the long and the short runs.

Just like a palm tree
Friendship is fecund, impactful, virtuous and gainful
Though bad may fitfully come therefrom
That, the good utterly outweighs.




About the Poet:

Izunna Okafor is a Nigerian writer, journalist, essayist, publicist, administrator and an Igbo Language Activist who hails from Anambra State, southe-astern Nigeria.
He writes both in Igbo and English Languages, and has published enormously in both.

Okafor, a graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University and SprinNG Advancement Fellowship, has won over 25 literary and journalism awards; and has four published books to his credit, in addition to hundreds ofpublications, which cut across journalism and creative writing.
He is the initiator and host of Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology