Homeland & Other PoemsIfowodo was a frontline student leader in the early eighties and is a lawyer and civil rights activist. In 1996 he was a writer-in-residence at the Heinrich Boell Foundation. He was imprisoned between 1997 and 1998 and was subsequently adopted by PEN. This is his first collection of poetry which won the 1993 Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize. Many of the poems are responses to politics; or spring from the tensions between writing political poetry, or art for art's sake, and other competing subjects of poetry, such as romantic love. The poet, quoting Neruda, first asks the reader expecting a poetic celebration of his natural world to 'come see the blood in the streets'. In the section section he writes tributes to Tracey Chapman, Winnie and Nelson Mandela and Margeret Thatcher ('the butcher'). The subject of the third section is the rediscovery of romantic love, amidst and beyond turmoil and oppression. |
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Page 2
... Rising Voices Sesan Ajayi :. A Burst of Fireflies Akomaye Oko : Clouds Olu Oguibe : A Gathering Fear , winner , 1992 All Africa Okigbo prize for Literature & Honourable mention , 1993 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa Nnimmo Bassey ...
... Rising Voices Sesan Ajayi :. A Burst of Fireflies Akomaye Oko : Clouds Olu Oguibe : A Gathering Fear , winner , 1992 All Africa Okigbo prize for Literature & Honourable mention , 1993 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa Nnimmo Bassey ...
Page 60
... rising heart defy mathematical formulas its equations find balance in the salted breath of your fresh fruit mouth . I run my forefinger round your dewdrop face , drawing the world in invisible paint , plain only to you and I : you are ...
... rising heart defy mathematical formulas its equations find balance in the salted breath of your fresh fruit mouth . I run my forefinger round your dewdrop face , drawing the world in invisible paint , plain only to you and I : you are ...
Page 66
... take it ? And I being so loud that night you turned me out and cried , or the other in which exulting in the warmth of water wells I stirred false colours in your rising mind . The space you left behind has grown a forest of 66.
... take it ? And I being so loud that night you turned me out and cried , or the other in which exulting in the warmth of water wells I stirred false colours in your rising mind . The space you left behind has grown a forest of 66.
Contents
For arts sake | 11 |
Poem to the child of my time | 32 |
Mandelas mantle | 41 |
Copyright | |
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