Mind Home in Sayings

Never interpret a
     Proverb until
You have first spoken it in
the original tongue.
Or never interpret a
     Proverb at all.

Die a little
    each day and
be happy so.
When that day comes,
    too little was left
to matter.

Music, good or bad, is
noise, when you don’t
    want it.

When your ego dies,
you live, perhaps
    a little longer.

Life burden
    death relief.

A bag gives you
    baggage—
be wary of one.

You can’t be
    a good man.
You can only be
    better.

Only water that flows
     is clean.

I guess the only death
     I can accept is mine.
I'll be too gone to
trouble for it.

Work is
     in the tools
and eye.

Mortality - the
     great creditor -
everyone owe
you!

No politician is
     worthy of trust. Because
trust is the first thing
you give up for
     politics.

When everything man does is right
as they see,
everything they do is wrong and
marks the end of humanity.

Man falls
     when their ego is
babied. So, man's
a baby.

All engineering is
    reverse
engineering.

I have my billions
    in the things 
I believe. In
the things I believed
I left my billions.

Look, I haven’t finished
    with my life. And,
  by the time I am
it’ll be too late to
correct... yours.

Even if you can't change people,
maybe you can't,
still believe
you can.
You could.

Tell a true story.
    today.

Love is never a
    feeling.
It is cold, deliberate,
undying.

Beyond love for 
    good speech, 
     good grammar, 
    good English, 
good English is 
good business.

That it may depend on faith 
     to be good, God 
has made 
good 
not matter. 

Yield. Always.

You should enjoy
    the poem, then
make sense of it.
Keep both—
    Sound. Sense.

To manage time,
you must leave it
    alone.

To keep time,
you must leave it
    alone.

Idle time is
    the best 
time.

I learn
    like a child.
That is, by
copying others.

While I live,
now is
enough.

Ego is error.
Man their ego.
Man error.

How can I be proud,
    when I only learn by
copying others.
I, too, will be
     copied.

If it’s good what’s new 
     about it? If bad 
it’s new. No,
not new, news.

I made do with
    yesterday, that if
I died today, it
didn’t matter.

Learn to be
    happy without. 
With won’t matter. 

Then you’ll always be 
     happy—with or
without.

Don’t fit in.
Stand out.

Don’t teach.
    Coach.

Life and Death
    deserve no worry—
you’re either one 
or other.

I asked for death 
when I found in my head
      no more sleep left. 
What'd I get? 

A job,
    a career,
a mission—
pick one.

Every death is an opportunity 
    for a Nigerian to be noisy. 
But it’s not the death. 
It’s the burial. 
     Death is quiet, burial 
all the noise.

Wake up only to two things,
    care and the satisfaction
you did.

Criticism, like
    correction, is
consultancy.
You been paid?

Had you stuck w/jazz,
you’d not be this razz.

Look carefully— 
when you have found
everything,
you would’ve found
nothing.

It takes a man
    to be a woman.
It takes man
to be both.

Cream corrupts
    coffee.

When you have mastered
     calm,
you have mastered
life, this one.

Be extremely kind
     to everyone. But,
be familiar with
but a few.

The powerful you
     protect will either eat
     up the people. Or
be eaten up by
the people.

There’s really no
     such thing as a joke.
To joke is make reality
painful less.

For everything there's
its time and place. It's
just not every time,
not every place.

They were taught how
     to get poetry, not
          to enjoy it.

Let not the world
     determine your faith.
But decide
     the fate of the world
with your faith.

It’s easy to love
     your neighbor until
they need
your help.

Quality has a lot
     to do with taste.
But a lot not to
do in it.

So, “write” and “right"
     sound the same, right?
I bet you couldn’t know
which I said first, no?
Well, read this.

Be ready to fail
     at life...
If it doesn’t kill you
     then you can
do it again.

If he is a boy
     Man is his name.
But if he’s a girl
     Hmm...

Keep secrets
     that hurt none.
But tell the lies
     that don’t.

Above all tell
     the truth.

As for heart shapes,
     heart shapes are
     everywhere.
But love, love, love, eh,
     who can find?

Only humans can ac-
     cept awards.
Only humans should
     get 'em then.

Happiness is
     keeping promises
made to self.

They dug me.
     They got their want.
They left me empty.

Because they
     left me empty,
water filled me.

Now they come
     for my water.
They can have it.

Embrace
     disappointments.
Never get grouchy
     about them. For

in them are things
     to learn. Indeed,
     disappointments can
be deep.

Little coincidence
     telephone rhymes with
     tell.
It’s what we do there--
     tell a phone.

The problem with any
     is it's one syllable 
too many. 

Woman is
     their excuse. 

Man's no more
     the parent of woman
than he is a child
of dust.

Plants can't grow
     in sand. 
It's too fine, too
comfortable.

You can't be fired if
you're not
hired. 

Timeless is
     timely. 

The writer is sinning when
     she's in the writing. 

Long before the child is born,
     longer than 270 days,
it has been made. 

Government has
     bulldozers, we have
mouths. 
Problem with the latter is
the former swallows all
     and groans louder.  

As if life's path
     wasn't tough enough,
they went and
invented math.

I'm not a friend of length. 
But a foe of
     brevity.

Ejaculate, that's 
     what penises do. 
But sex is for two. 

No two human beings
     compare. 
Because we're humans,
not oranges. 

The brain doesn't see stripes. 
It sees a zebra. 

The moon smiles at us. 
Then it's full again. 

Lie
     has its place. 
Everywhere. 

There was a storyteller
     of pain in my head. 
And she had a world
     all of her own. 

And she pulled me
     with her into there. 
That world was
     Nigeria.

Sound advice
     no need two ear
     to hear. 
But need two ear
     to hold. 

Governments 
     make terrorists. 
Novelists
     expose them. 

Viet Nam. 
The CIA. 
Another generation
     of mystery novels. 

You can turn a human
     into a machine. 
We have former humans. 
But you can't make
     a machine human. 
No former machines. 

To mature
     is to stagnate. 
To arrive to die. 
Go slow
on why. 

Masturbation
     isn't sex with one. 
To the extent it's sex at all,
     it's with many...
with any. 

They named the planets
     by their gods. 
The few they found by 
the few they made. 

The little things they
     found wandering...
have taken deistic
proportions.

You've played the game so well you think you're good. You got the art. You got the talent. But not the science. 

The science is the reason you have fun. The reason we have fun, the fans cheer. 

Let the coach take care of the science. Because science is only best done from the outside looking in. Or from the inside looking out. 

But you with the art have only to play. Though in the inside. But you won't be needing to look out quite much, except to hear your coach. 

To play is art;
     to direct science. 
Together,
game fun. 

To give is to receive;
     to make to take. 
But much better to
     be the former. 

To be president--
     US, UK, U anything--
is to be Cain--
Kill, smile
     at dinner about it--
Why, am I my brother's keeper?
Of course, not!

To be friends is
     to share the same ideas
     of fun. 
Same ideas of
none. 

About 3,000 years ago, 
     a man by the name of Cain 
understood death meant. 

Silence. 

End life. 
End Abel. 

Silence, Abel!
Silent Abel!

Was he wrong? 
About death,
I mean. 

"Your face. 

"It'd never have betrayed all the secrets your mind sought. To keep. That had to be kept. 

"Secret.  

"But, as do all faces, it’s stuck with two eyes. Two eyes you couldn't shut.”...

He pulled the trigger. 

Instructions from mothers. 
Gossips. 
Word on the streets. 
A film. Or two. 

A poem? Or few?
Novels. 
Blockbuster Hollywoods. 
We've learned to watch. 

We've learned to hear. 
We've learned to listen. 
We've learned to follow. 
Through. But a poem? 

Yesterday's gone.
Really. 

East and West 
     take turns 
who to take 
who to give 
     the wind 
     they get from 
nowhere. 

I can't be aware of 
     what peace I got (do we?) 
when I die. 

As much as I'd love to. 
I could say, phew, at last!
But I can't (do we?).

Then what's the point 
     in dying at all? 
O, it's death's thing.

Adam,
Dis-
Eved
.

We're only as full of life
     as we think we are. 
For we're all at the
     end of it. 

The problem with America is
     the American Dream.
It is all the problem with
the rest of the world. 

Never say
     "She passed away,"
     when you can say
"Died."

Because for one, you
     are sure of the latter
     but not of the
former. 

Two, the latter is
     shorter and should be
     easier to
say.

Are you serious,
     it's taken me 35
     years to turn 35!
And I could have 35
     more to hit 70. 
Such a long time
to be man!

They have buried
     God in the
Christ!

They will build 
     their homes with
     half windows.
Full "window" for light,
half wind.

What do you do?
I think. 
What do you think?
Me, you. 

To matter is to be told
     to, by two--
(them, you). 

Never scratch
     an itch that is
not there. 

It's not possible for
     one person to listen
to everyone.

But it's possible for
     everybody to listen
to everyone.

Like apples,
     our difference is
only skin-
deep. 

It's called toilet,
     for it is small. 
Not the bowl
nor the room. 

But the toil
     itself. 
Small, short. 

Even the Devil
     himself says
"God bless you."

Little:
     I'm hungry. 

Ring:
     Let's go steal!

Middle:
     What if we're caught?

Index: 
     We will escape!

Thumb:
     Count me out. I'm not
     one of you!

If it has to happen
     I don't want to be 
aware of it. 

I don't want to know
     it happened
or how it did.

Let it just happen
     when and let
it be. Did it?

What is a haze?
It's what my head has
     always. 

Eat 5 times a day. 
4 times grass, 
     one bass. 

What if all the healing
     you're needing were
     locked away in the oil
     of cucumber skin?
Well, now you know!

To live is to regret,
     to die neglect. 

Don't require more than
     you can acquire.
Nor desire more than
you can require.

Repetition is the
     skill we learn first. 
It's our best skill, too. 
Then, too, it is the
     skill we abuse most. 
Our worst thing to do. 

If you don't want time to move
     look at it,
the clock. 

Yes, the second hand will
     be moving,
always does. 

But the other hands will
     never,
seem not. 

That chewing for your gut's
     sake may not be boring,
     God has put a tongue in
     your mouth. Chew.
More slow.

In a noisy evening market,
     the calm seller is the
     most noticed.
She sells the most, too. 

The world doesn't want you,
they want your name.
But don't go getting one
That is hardly you.

She said, I will
     look forward to my man. 
But not depend on him. 

He says, I will
     look forward to my woman. 
But not depend on her. 

Glamor and God are equal
     before man.
You can't have the one and
keep the other.

"I killed myself to prove
     I'm man enough!"

He wrote that?

O, the Bible --
     "better is a live dog
than a dead lion."

I can only clean
     one toilet--
mine.

More important than food
     I found was mood.

Breath alone will do,
     and it's free.

Man can't create desire,
     and has not.
All desires are great and
come from God.

Man can create fulfillment,
     and has always.
All fulfillments are great if
they keep God's ways.

You've gone past 
     a trinity now.
You have a body, a brain,
     a mind, and you.
And you are in control
     of all three.

Since sex is no sweet wine,
     I do it with my senses intact.
Not to say that I lose all tact
when I to the other recline.

If it's up to your mind
    you'll be sitting.
If it's up to its brain
you'll be sleeping.

Now who is it up to
     if it's up to you?

Insist where your
     emotions
resist.

Every inch into
    technology is one inch off
your emotion.
Because     
technology and emotion
are incompatible.

Water does not keep
     around a hot mug.

Writing isn't fun,
     reading is.
No piece of writing unless
you're needing it!

Shepherd, keep no more sheep
    than you can count.
If one went missing how'd you
     tell its amount?

Though they can be found,
     men are not sheep.

It's not the right worry
of people who don't read,
they're not the ones
for whom you write.

Friends start
     with those who want
to be friends.

It takes a bed
    to know we're still
    man and woman.
Man and woman.

But how costly
     beds are these days,
     how costly beds are.
These days.

Never think of how much you know
    and how far it could take you.
Only think how much love to sow,
how high it will make you.

The battle of good and evil
    is not witnessed, but imagined.
For it takes place in the heart--
somewhere around heaven.

And yet the victor or victim
cannot be told on the face.
But the holder of the heart
    and owner of heaven knows.

You weren't sent to Babylon
     to touch anything you see.
But that you may see
     that Babylon used to be.

Because a good movie
     leaves you nothing to imagine.
I always love a good story.

Smart mouths
     make no
smart talk.

The villain's been taken
     seriously. 
And now?
We're all villains for our own
     safety. 

If all you see on the plate
     is the hole in the donut
that's all you might have. 

Because donuts are made
     with holes, of holes, and
will always have a hole. No?

Let your deliverance 
     not make your heart race,
for it is coming.

Make it your aim
     not to write fast,
     not to write slow. 

Make it your aim
     not to read fast,
     not to read slow. 

Make it your aim
     not to write or read
     as much as you can. 

Make it your aim
     not to write or read
     as less as you can. 

But as much as 
     you find is needed
     to change your world. 

Or as less as
     you find is necessary
     to change the world.

The mind was made
    to heal your body.
But when the latter
    forgoes the former
    or refuses to sustain it,
both die.
The mind is first
    to die, the body
follows.

Criticism
   looks for
distance.

If you have peeled 
     your banana it will point
toward you. 

It will say only one
     more thing to you--
eat me, eat me.

Because it grew
    too fast, it aged faster.
Even faster, old me.

The cancer grew
     too fast, sorry master.
You died before me!

East is not a point,
     but an area.
And as an area it
     touches West.

Where it touches West
     is a point, points, 
     and a line, a border.
A borderline.

Nee a doo bee
     bia wee yeregue lo.
E bia wee gbora lo e.

He who will do evil
     does not brag ahead of it.
Nor let it be a bother.

Let a strong password
     not make you feel secure.
But a caring not whether
     or whether not
you're hacked.

It's fine to see
     inaction as action,
but not an action.

Stupidity has
     its own audience.
It thrives. It does.

Not everyone rocking
    at the club
is there for rock.

If you should know what
     or whom they won't
return home to!

Where "home" is their
     mind.

The brain does not
     make sense
in pleasure.

1. It does not make sense.

2. It doesn't want to.

3. It can't listen.

The brain won't listen
to the mind
in pleasure.

A messy mind
     likes everything.
But everything 
     can't be liked.

So there are no
     messy minds.

Then everything
     can be liked.
Because there are
no messy minds.

Action
     doesn't have to be as reactive as
Anger.

If you want it 
     private
leave it in your
     head.

Do we cry for the dead
     or for our own miss?
Do we feel pity
     for the dead or for us,
     our own loss?
Does a dead lose their life
or we a life?

Write (yes, tell) every story
     as if it'll never be read.
A story is to be heard,
     not read.

Goodness comes
     unexpected. 
Like Adam waking
     with a start and
finding Eve. 

Boredom has more
     stress than work, is
debilitating. 

My beef with knowledge
     is it makes powerful people
     insulting unawares. 
And stupid, powerless. 
Knowledge is its own
     stupidity. 

We don't floss
     in Nigeria. 
We toothpick.

It takes two
     to talk. 

Life doesn't have an
     undo button
for being unfair.

It wants to be taken
     more seriously than
a game of solitaire.

You'll come to hate
     whatever sound or song
you set as alarm song. 

Because man does not
     need alarm to wake up, 
nor be used to one. 

Thank God for
     disappointments. 
But don't get 
     disappointed. 
Get disappointed
     but don't be
disappointed. 

Death
     scratches the itch of
     life.

Your actions must excite you,
     otherwise, drop 'em. 
So must your ideas. 

The children weren't
     brought up to be used to
     older ones, only
themselves.

God has kept sleep
     free.

It's a free mind that sleeps,
     not a rich man.

Life comes down to
    what you like to do. 
And that is your talent,
     who you are, too.

Your prayer is as powerful
     as you're convinced it is
     powerful. 

But it doesn't work just
     because you're convinced,
     you believe. 

God wants to show fondness
     for your conviction. 

You're better off
     covering two few books twice
     than four once in a lifetime. 
Two few good books. 

Throw things at life
     or it will throw things at you. 
Because to live is both
     to throw things
and to not.

Had she spent more
     time thinking than singing
     she would've sang better. 
For she was a woman,
     not a songbird. 

Fight
     to be remembered. 
No, write. 
Yes, write.

Legacy is (worrying
     about your life after death,
     when you should be)
living, alive. 

You shall know more
     when I'm
no more. 

Because I didn't desire
     to die, I chose it 
unawares.

When your emotions
     present flight or fight,
fight.

The women agreed
     with themselves, quite
     satisfactorily, "we don't have
     image problem!"
Image problem isn't 
     manifest, it can only
     be confessed. 

Prayer holds its power
     in its secrecy, its quiet,
     its no-telling the other. 
To pray is to withdraw. 

The living worries
about what the dead is
unaware of.

Because to live
is to worry, or so
we thought.

Since the kid couldn't tell
     when they were praying
     from how they quarreled...
She'd rather not quarrel 
     with their God. 
She'd rather not pray
     nor quarrel. 

Don't do in private
whatever you can't
in public.

The world is a business
     of points of views. 
Go viral and win, or
     be rivaled and
abused.

Try not to hurt
     anyone, but not 
afraid to hurt. 

Because to hurt is human,
     to heal, too, so to
hurt can't matter.

Water and oil
     will never mix. 
Always takes heat to
separate them. 

Ego trip or
     road trip,
choose. Driving
and ego
never mix.

Bread was never meant
     to be fine. 

We never tell lies
     in business,
only false truths and
true falsehoods.

We went to school
     that we may escape 
     farming and village. 
Afterward. 

We didn't go to school
     to revolutionize 
     farming and village. 
We could've. 

Advice that is toughest
     to follow is your own. 
It's also the best. 

May the pressure 
     of making a living not prevent
you from making a living. 

Don't tell people
     what'll happen to them
if they don't stop smoking.
Show them
     what'll happen for them
if they stop smoking.

We don't hide
     to sex.
We go into
     a private room.
Sex is private,
not a secret.

Advice is the business
     you never admit 
you're in. 

Organic is slow,
     nor does it stop 
to grow. 

"Ah, I'll be so
     happy if...!"
Why? 
Why not just be
     happy?

My beef with death 
     is that we don't miss
     anyone there, no dear!
Maybe that's why people
     hate it, this death!

I can't meditate--
     I fall asleep,
always.

Love is as
     pronounced as people 
     can say they love. 
They always do. 

They're proud of
     what belongs to them,
     telling you, "say this, say that."
But those saying that
     are sounding better, being
enjoyed even better. 

Every idea
     is fine.
Execution
     finer.
Presentation
finest.

And one day death
     will say, "I have had my fill
     of you all. 
I will have no more."

Don't start with an audience,
     or you'll wait forever. 
Start after an audience, 
win it forever. 

It takes a man
     to propose to
     a woman. 
Or it's not a proposal. 

It's a folly to
     vouch for a man's 
     rectitude before he's died.
You can find out. 

Be extremely aware
     and beware.

If you have not read
     others with understanding
     you cannot read yourself so.
With understanding.

Each nation develops
     as fast as it is free from
the yoke of Europe.

Don't think
     it's difficult.
Ask if you must
     do it. 

No marriage takes place
     without permission,
     not personal but official. 
But why, why is that?

O, so radio waves
     are everywhere?
Who put them there?

The world hasn't seen
     a single good writer,
     but awesome editors.
Be an awesome editor.

When you obsess
     over what you hate,
you promote it.

Some of us have
     chosen what we have long
     longed for--to be private figure.
We are private figures.

Call no one
     mentor before
     she picks you
as protégé.

The power of
     Germany was
     Jewish.
It was its science. 
It still is. 

These are the three 
     in me (of me?). 

One wants to,
     one doesn't and fights
that wants to. 

The third just
     doesn't know, with silence
confusing to both. 

I wish nobody shared
     my name. 

He was named
     David to be
like that one. 

Who did Jesse
     have in mind to so
name that one?

Which is better,
     cigarette smoke
or that garlic choke?

The notes
     that hold the soul
     are in no hurry
     to drop it. 
They hold on...

It's safer to be
     ignorant than 
believe in magic. 

There's hope to
     get out of the former
than survive the latter. 

We're only as great
     as the ideas we create,
curate, or co-create. 

You can only speak
     in your own behalf.

Only God can
     put up with man's mind.
So only God should
see what's there.

The eyes
     can't keep a
secret.

Only long for
     where you
     belong.