Ariadne’s Notes: World Poetry would like to give a warm welcome to Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, a wonderful performance poet who will be featured on the World Poetry Café Radio Show. Please read her poem ‘Peace in Her Piece of The World’
Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido is an international Performance Poet, Speaker and Master-Certified Leadership Trainer & Coach. She is the author of the upcoming books “UN-Locking Your HeART of Leadership” and ‘Today, I will not bow”. Her portfolio of poems has been featured across different media platforms and performed live in Canada, USA and in several African countries. Two of her poems were recently selected by Danish Publisher L&R Uddannelse to be included in a new educational book Africa Unfold by author Anne Hess Thaysen.
Nicknamed a ‘reminderist’, and a self-described life-connoisseur, her message is simply: “To use the power of written-spoken-sung WORDS to connect, heal, empower, change and transform our inner and outer worlds. Words have power in the meaning and interpretation we choose to give them and all of life is synchronistic poetry in motion!”
Juliet was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria; she immigrated to Canada about a decade ago and currently splits her time between her birth and adopted homelands. Juliet spent many successful years in the corporate world in different diverse roles and fields: Engineering, Financial Services, International Business and Sales.
In 2010, she co-founded the Whole Woman Network, an Empowerment and Leadership Social Enterprise focused on world-class and integrated leadership coaching, training and consulting for African women, at home and in the diaspora. The goal is improving the overall well being of women, by educating, engaging and empowering them to become leaders and organic catalysts of transformation for themselves, their families and communities.
She is also the strategist and visionary of the F.L.O.W initiative: Financial Literacy for Women, a global financial coaching & leadership platform, for women and youth, particularly in developing and under-served communities.
Juliet simply loves life and the whole human experience! She’s a huge proponent of work-life integration and artistically crafts her roles as wife, mother of five, community builder and businesswoman.
Her other passions include: Traveling, Fund-Raising, Belly Dancing, Volunteering, Coaching & Mentoring, Angel Investing, Writing, Exploring World Music-Cinema-Literature-Cultures.
She shares her portfolio of poems on her poetry blog: (www.kegoonyido.com), her reflective posts on her Facebook page: (www.facebook.com/wholewomannetwork) and blog: (www.wholewomannetwork.org).
Follow her on Twitter: @wholewomaninc (professional), @julietumeinc (personal) and on LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/julietumeinc
Poem: ‘Peace in Her Piece of The World’ by Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido
She tried valiantly to say a heartfelt prayer and sing a song
To utter the words you seek, for unity, harmony and world peace
And yet the only lyrics that escaped her dry, parched tongue
Was a silent, solemn and selfish cry that her hellish life will cease
That she may not awake to the wails of a mother’s weeping today
As she holds a malnourished, lifeless child, at a breast bereft of milk
That she may not behold the anguished face of a father, who’s on his way
To sell off his daughter for some bags of wheat, grain and fine silk
Yes, peace in her world is but a very small and fragile thing indeed
That she wakes up tomorrow in dignity and not sunk in deep despair
Afraid that the soldier who raped her yesterday also left behind his seed
Peace to her is a flicker of light, a lonely, small yet mighty bud of hope
That the world does not look away in apathy or pity but with care
That someday, she may sleep to the sounds of music and soft voices
Far away from the endless wars, bullets, grenades and harsh voices
These are her words and you’ve allowed her say her piece
And in listening to her, you’ve gifted her world with peace.
(c) ‘Kego Onyido 2014 (All rights reserved).
