DIDACTIC: "STORMS ALSO RETIRE; ENDURE" BY PROFESSOR SULAIMON KHALID

If you don’t retire first,

nor take your bowls back with you,

your own clouds will gather,

your own rain will fall,

and fill your buckets.

If you don’t fetch the net too early

to sleep, thinking the fishes

have also gone to sleep,

the space you called too wide

will carry something weighty;

if not a shark,

perhaps a whale.

If you wait,

if you can be patient,

what was not enough yesterday,

what is not yet enough today,

will become more than enough

tomorrow, when it is your time.

If you don’t rush the harvest,

the seeds you sow

that seem to grow slow

will glow, will yield,

and you will fill baskets

with what is good and best.

If you don’t trade patience

for panic,

if you don’t swap courage

for fear,

time will trade your struggles

for abundance.

If you believe in the process

and love each step,

if dawn is not yet clear,

noon will reveal you

bright as the sun,

and night will remember you

as its star.

©️ PROFESSOR SULAIMON KHALID

-Nigeria

This poem is a powerful exploration of patience, trust, and perseverance, urging the reader to embrace life's processes and timing. Through vivid metaphors and conditional statements, the poet conveys that struggles are temporary and that abundance awaits those who wait, believe, and trust in their journey. The poem's message is one of hope and encouragement, reminding us that our efforts will yield fruit in due time, and that patience and courage will be rewarded with abundance and success.