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About Soil Unfurling From Stem
 

Soil Unfurling from Stem is a multi-author collection of nature poems from sub-Saharan Africa. Contributors include Dr Kayode Adesimi Robbin-Coker an English Language and Literature graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Dr Jive Lubbungu from Zambia, Chukwuebuka Freedom Onyishi, the current Winner of the 2025 Coalition of African Literature, a Nonprofit organisation in Nigeria and fifteen-year-old Namibian secondary school student, Utaara Tjozongoro. 
 

                In the foreword, renowned Sierra Leonean writer, Oumar Farouk Sesay explains why poetry matters. ‘Throughout history, poets have sought to celebrate, mourn, and defend the natural world, wielding the measured word and the sharpened image with reverence and urgency,’ explains Mr Farouk.
 

             This anthology, edited by British Sierra Leonean writer, Bridgette O James, also opens with the winning entry, ‘Prayer’ penned by the widely published poet: Osahon Oka (pictured). The book title comes from a line in his outstanding poem.
 

            Nigerian, Mr Oka is a Pushcart nominee whose poems have appeared in journals and magazines like Sontag Magazine, Kinpaurak, Poetry Sango-Ota, Feral Poetry, and elsewhere. He won the Visual Verse Autumn Writing Prize, 2022.

Manuscript with Zambian Arts Publishing House.To Be Republished on Amazon KDP.

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Soil Unfuling From Stem

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This is How The World Ends

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By Oladosu Michael Emerald 

 

The sea vomits up a boy with oil in his lungs.

He is ten. he is everywhere. he is yours.

 

A glacier calves like a scream in the throat.

Ants carry microplastics into their nest—

 

even the smallest architects build with our sins.

Somewhere, a pipeline sings like a lullaby.

 

The lullaby is a lie. We paved Eden with 

receipts & called it growth.

 

We tattooed carbon on the sky

& watched the stars choke.

 

Every tree wept a new silence.

Every crow spelled famine in its flight.

 

This is not prophecy. This is a mirror.

Look until your face cracks.

Oladosu Michael Emerald an honorary submitter, is a writer, artist, and actor. He is the author ‘Every Little Thing That Moves,’ an Art editor at Surging Tide magazine and editor at MAAR Review. Instructor at The Arnheim Art Gallery, and Young Artists Art Hub. He is the winner of the Off the Limit Art Contest(2024), Sprinng Poetry Contest (2024), Garden Party Collective Neurodivergent Poetry Contest (2025), and Sine Qua Non Inaugural Poetry Prize (2025). He has had works published (or are forthcoming) in Chestnut Review, FIYAH, Lolwe, Temz Review and elsewhere.



Social Media Links:
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From the Manuscript of Soil Unfurling from Stem

This Month's Featured Poet

Oladosu Michael Emerald 

Should this Poem Win the $10USD Poem of the Year Prize?

Let Me Know What You Think

Response

Landscape

By Adesiyan Oluwapelumi  

 

In the clothing of clouds, under  

the gauze dressing of trees, I am  

the thread that connects everything  

 

to life. My mother, this nurturing  

Earth, a corralled ore mined from  

the longing mouth of God, speaking 

 

through my pulse say I was born molten 

from dust and fire, woven from water  

and wind. Yet I arrived, an invisible  

 

thing. Too nascent to the world’s eyes. 

I am as a silken thread passing through  

the eye of a needle. There is a silent  

 

gathering of birds in my skull. Their  

feathers unscathed by the absent activity  

of carefree hands. They say it is a blessing  

 

to be untouched by the infirmities of the 

world's touch, yet I crave that curse of  

hands, and of eyes. Upon the gentle hillocks,  

 

I am as a shadow of algae, touch-me-not for  

I am a settlement, uncolonized by man.

 

O’ wise astrologer, take my name in  

your mouth and make me known.

For the greatest evidence of sight is  

 

through name. Let my body be a secret  

told in the hidden acts of the light that seek  

to conceal me. I, too, am a revealer of nature. 

 

The stars, like those distant suns,  

are footprints of my many wanderings,  

where I collect new worlds as souvenirs.

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About Poet

Adesiyan Oluwapelumi was shortlisted in The Annual Bridgette James Competition, 2025. He has been featured in 20.35 Africa, Poet Lore and elsewhere. He is the Poetry Editor of Fiery Scribe Review from Nigeria.

 

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Read the winning poem: 'Prayer' by Osahon OKa. Dust potted on bones. That is how I got here, Stalked here— intense growth Turned towards treetop halo— prayer Angling into heaven’s vast ocular celebration. Green is your restive colour Where butterflies brew their fever and swallows scatter their rave. On devil grass, hunker and I have flattened,— lemon grass Nosing abundance, green blade in wind tide— ready To be flung wide open, my senses

The Following Poems Were Placed, Commended or Won a Special Prize 

Entry 770822 -  'Big Lights Thunder' Matched to runner-up, Chukwuebuka Freedom Onyishi -$10 USD + Best Metaphorical Poem - $5

Entry 58622 -  'All of it' Matched to Solomon Hamza - $10 USD

Entry 50870 - 'Prayer' Matched to winner Osahon Oka - My Favourite Poem: $20 USD + $40 USD

Entry  46770 – 'The Path I Learned “Wilt”'Matched to Egharevba Terry - Judges' Favourite Piece- $10 USD

Entry 12977 – 'Sigh' Matched to Clement Abayomi - Third Place- $10 USD

Entry 30466 - 'House of Water' Matched to Daniel Jacinth​ - Fourth Place - $10 USD

Youngest Shortlisted Contestant - Fifteen-year-old Utaara Tjozongoro - $10 USD

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'Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life.' Anaka Hurt quoting Marquez. SOURCE - P. 48, The Search for Othella Savage (2025), COPYRIGHTED, Foday Mannah.

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Bridgette James

Find Out More

I'm astounded how much this project has grown over the years.

Click to Read Edition 3

Only Light Can Regurgitate The Thing Engulfed By Darkness

By Obaji Godwin

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(for Natasha) 

Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified the suspension of Kogi State Senator , Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan and ordered the senate to recall her. 

Sahara Reporters July 4, 2025. 

aerodyne of glee wafts  me                                                     to heaven’s gate. 

                                                  at the feet of Divinity 

i place garlands                                                                            of extolment,                          put my tongue in the mouth...  

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Click to Read Edition 3

Google

By Uche Chidozie Okorie

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If at all, she can see,

Google needs medicated glasses

Washed with bleach and snows.

Click to Read Edition 3

The Heart’s Dreamy Journey 

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By Ewurama Tawiah Welbeck

 

Her lover’s heart was an empty shell  

Where she poured her soul for solace. 

Ashes and gore cradled her sweet limbs  

From the pain her lover bestowed. 

Yet, her tangled legs entrapped her in muffled linens—  

Oxytocin glazed her heart with desires for comfort. 

Click to Read Edition 3

If You Can Carry Light 

 

By Terry Egharevba

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If you can meet each dawn’s first light 

as men meet kings, unbent, unshaken -

while every cell screams run -

and still hold the Earth 

though its throne lies broken 

 

If you can laugh when plans collapse 

and dance when doors are slammed and bolted 

wear your losses like leather straps 

on boots that keep moving 

scuffed, scarred, but never still 

Click to Read Edition 3

for the death of Ka’Niyah Baker from South Carolina 

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By By Traci Neal

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heaviness heaps its weight in a pile.  

hatred burns to plaster onto tongues. 

 

within the pits of our souls, we want to  

cool down from this fire, but the  

 

weather outside scorches our skin.  

we are trying to hold it together,  

 

not hang on a hook like our black  

ancestors were hung on trees, except 

 

this time, black female teenagers  

destroyed their own kind. offenses  

 

often happen. our journey is brief, a  

blink of an eye, a moment we will miss,  

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Email Submissions from July 1st - 31st to:

pennedinrage@outlook.com

Please Address Submission/s to Editor, Chukwuebuka Onyishi

The Friday Poem Submission Category is Open All Throughout the Year. 

https://ellaspoems.com/#the-friday-poem

Submit to Penned in Rage Literary Journal How to Submit Submit Free of Charge, by Email - pennedinrage@outlook.com Penned in Rage invites submissions from underrepresented writers. SUBMIT a Poem or Flash Fiction in Word Document Format Please Poem - free verse, haiku, Fibonacci, Prose et cetera preferred over meters. Maximum lines 40. Flash Story - maximum 500 words; Fiction. Nonfiction and Non-academic essays accepted. Submissions The unthemed submission window will reopen 01 AUGUST 2025 for the third online edition of Penned in Rage Literary Journal. CLOSES 31 AUGUST 2025

​EDITOR’S NOTE | August–December 2025 Edition  Theme: We Were Not Meant to Die Here.   Sometimes, there are stories we inherit, and others we are courageously forced to carry. While some echo through silence, others are patterned enough to speak even in the midst of fire. This edition of Penned in Rage is able to gather those voices together with their beauty: amazing works shaped not only by the force of anger and grief, but also by the stubborn endurance of those who have vowed to let their voices be heard. Whether through verse, narrative, or meditative reflection, the contributors summon a shared language that moves through broken systems and fractured selves, each boldly reaching deeper for something so startlingly honest.

​​​About Penned in Rage Journal

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Penned in Rage magazine is focused on publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, flash fiction, experimental prose and hybrid works, written by underrepresented writers.​ Each quarter a submission is chosen as the featured piece. The journal aims to create a community of subscribed readers who enjoy contemporary creative writing styles. Penned in Rage invites submissions from underrepresented and marginalised writers.

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Submissions: Closed until January 2026

The  'unthemed' submission window will reopen 01 JANUARY 2026 for the third online edition of Penned in Rage Literary Journal.

CLOSES 31 JANUARY 2026.

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How to Submit

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Submit Free of Charge, by Email - pennedinrage@outlook.com

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​​Submissions: You may submit a 40-line poem for consideration. Styles accepted: free verse, haiku, Fibonacci, prose et cetera preferred over meters. Maximum lines 40. Flash Story - maximum 500 words; Fiction. Nonfiction and Non-academic essays accepted.  We do not publish metered poetry of any shape or form, neither do we accept anything that offends other social groups. Flash fiction not exceeding 500 words on any genre or topic may be submitted, as may non-academic essays or creative nonfiction not above 500 words. Underrepresented writers from anywhere may submit a poem or flash fiction for consideration. We only consider submissions sent through our online submission portal https://www.ellaspoems.com/#subscribe-to-penned-in-rage-journal or by email. Please provide a brief 30-word third-person bio to accompany your submission. Only one poem not exceeding 40 lines and/or one story of not above 500 words will be considered.

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Simultaneous Submissions & Withdrawals: We accept simultaneous submissions, but we must be immediately notified if a piece is accepted elsewhere. If you wish to withdraw your submission, please email me directly at pennedinrage@outlook.com with the title/s of the work(s) you are withdrawing.

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Previously Published Work: Except for The Friday Poem, https://ellaspoems.com/#the-friday-poem we will not publish pieces which have appeared elsewhere, including social media sites.

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Publishing Rights: We ask for first time worldwide rights for accepted pieces. Following publication, all rights revert back to the author.

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Payment: Penned in Rage Journal was borne out of a small, self-funded project. At this time, we are not able to offer payment to our contributors for published works; however, the PDF version of the journal is widely circulated and published writers are promoted on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

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How is the journal published?

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Triannual Online Publication - Downloadable PDF January, April, August

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