Heart Songs

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo

Description

Winner of the Winner, ANA/Cadbury Prize, 2009, Heart Songs, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo�s first collection of poems, reveals the hidden poetic mind of a writer who had previously worked extensively and excelled as a novelist. At one level. the poems read like the products of a souls just out of a certain prison. They break the barriers of the unity of thought that governs the writing of a novel, as Adimora-Ezeigbo is at home with subjects as varies as power, love, culture, gender, philosophy and crime in this collection.

Sujets

• African
• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Kraft Books
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789789182152
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

P O E M S

Kraftgriots Also in the series(POETRY)

David Cooket al:Rising Voices Olu Oguibe:A Gathering Fear;winner, 1992 All Africa Okigbo prize for Literature & Honourable mention, 1993 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa Nnimmo Bassey:Patriots and Cockroaches Okinba Launko:Dream-Seeker on Divining Chain Onookome Okome:Pendants,winner, 1993 ANA/Cadbury poetry prize Nnimmo Bassey:Poems on the Run Ebereonwu:Suddenly God was Naked Tunde Olusunle:Fingermarks Joe Ushie:Lambs at the Shrine Chinyere Okafor:From Earth’s Bedchamber Ezenwa-Ohaeto:The Voice of the Night Masquerade,joint-winner, 1997 ANA Cadbury poetry prize George Ehusani:Fragments of Truth Remi Raji:A Harvest of Laughters,joint-winner 1997 ANA/Cadbury poetry prize Patrick Ebewo:Self-Portrait & Other Poems George Ehusani:Petals of Truth Nnimmo Bassey:Intercepted Joe Ushie:Eclipse in Rwanda Femi Oyebode:Selected Poems Ogaga Ifowodo:Homeland & Other Poems,winner, 1993 ANA poetry prize Godwin Uyi Ojo:Forlorn Dreams Tanure Ojaide:Delta Blues and Home Songs Niyi Osundare:The Word is an Egg(2000) Tayo Olafioye:A Carnival of Looters(2000) Ibiwari Ikiriko:Oily Tears of the Delta(2000) Arnold Udoka:I am the Woman(2000) Akinloye Ojo:In Flight(2000) Joe Ushie:Hill Songs(2000) Ebereonwu:The Insomniac Dragon(2000) Deola Fadipe:I Make Pondripples(2000) Remi Raji:Webs of Remembrance(2001) ’Tope Omoniyi:Farting Presidents and Other Poems(2001) Tunde Olusunle:Rhythm of the Mortar(2001) Abdullahi Ismaila:Ellipsis(2001) Tayo Olafioye:The Parliament of Idiots: Tryst of theSinators(2002) Femi Abodunrin:It Would Take Time: Conversation with Living Ancestors(2002) Nnimmo Bassey:We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood(2002) Ebi Yeibo:A Song For Tomorrow and Other Poems(2003) Adebayo Lamikanra:Heart Sounds(2003) Ezenwa-Ohaeto:The Chants of a Minstrel(2003),winner, 2004 ANA/NDDC poetry prize and joint-winner, 2005 LNG The Nigeria Prize for Literature Seyi Adigun:Kalakini: Songs of Many Colours(2004)

P O E M S

Akachi AdimoraEzeigbo

Published by Kraft Books Limited 6A Polytechnic Road, Sango, Ibadan Box 22084, University of Ibadan Post Office Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria [phone], 0803 348 2474, 0805 129 1191 E-mail: [e-mail]

© Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2009

First published 2009

ISBN 000–000–0000–0–0

= KRAFTGRIOTS = (A literary imprint of Kraft Books Limited)

All Rights Reserved

First printing, February 2009

Dedication

To Dr T.C. Nwosu For believing that I’d get there And for being there for me

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements are due to Aboki Publishers, Makurdi, who first published “Farewell Great Compatriot” under the title “Farewell” and “Ode to the Successful Woman Writer” in the volume,Five Hundred Nigerian Poets(2005), edited by Jerry Agada. I am grateful to Royal Holloway, University of London, for inviting me as A Visiting Research Fellow in 2006/2007 academic year, thus providing the opp ortunity and enablement that gave birth to this collection. Many thanks to the following people for their support in the United Kingdom: Professors Elleke Boehmer, Robert Hampson, Stephanie Newell and Ms Patricia Bryden.

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Preface

I was tempted to write an introduction to these poems, but then as a disciple of Reader Response Theory, I decided to ignore the temptation, not only because the poems are easily accessible to a poetry connoisseur but also because I believe that a poetry collection ought not to be inflicted with an author’s or a critic’s interpretation but left as it really is, virginal, pure and provocative, to be plumbed and savoured by the reader who comes to it as a lover, expecting to be charmed, entertained, educated and completely satisfied. I was invited to Royal Holloway University of London as a Research Fellow for the purpose of researching and writing fiction, but I found myself consorting with poetry. Poetry chose me; I did not choose poetry. However, I capitulated. Once I was ensconced inhiswarm embrace, I fell deeply in love. In this collection are recorded the conversations, the dialogue we had and the precious moments we shared. Make of this what you will; it is completely up to you, the reader. It is a marvel that I have at last come up with a poetry collection, I who was said to be trapped in the cavernous cave of fiction. But, the truth is I have flirted with poetry since I was eighteen, but never took the affair seriously until 2006 when I began to write profusely, consistently and meditatively at Royal Holloway University of London. Having made this first attempt at publishing my poems in a collection, I display them to the gaze of my ‘fans’, ‘critics’ and friends, hoping that I would not be considered immodest when I declare thatahia oma na-ere onwe ya– a good product sells itself. This potpourri of poems inspired by disparate themes and other sundry events and experiences in three continents– Africa, Europe and North America–is a signifier of our globalized reality today. Before you, then, is a well-garnished

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poetic dish meant to warm and enliven the cold dark days spurned by our chilling climes that compel you oftentimes to question the worth of existence in this vale of tears, our world. The songs of a heart unmanacled freed at last from roaming the subterranean passages in a dungeon of silence given a voice in a season of retrieval and clear-sightedness.

Akachi AdimoraEzeigbo, Lagos, 2009

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Contents

Dedication .......................................................................... Acknowledgements ............................................................ Preface.............................................................................

Satirical Tunes .................................................. Ram syndrome ............................................................... Homeless ........................................................................ The ‘ism’ of race .............................................................. Fallen tyrant ................................................................... Lootocracy ...................................................................... Victims of our wars ........................................................

5 6 7

13 14 17 20 22 24 26

Praise Songs: Celebrating Lives ........................ 27 Uhamiri’s haven .............................................................. 28 Gem for all seasons ......................................................... 30 Social worker .................................................................. 33 Music evergreen ............................................................. 35

Njakiri: Songs in Pidgin .................................... Cultism ........................................................................... Nudity ............................................................................. Madonna and baby david ............................................... Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop .............................. Tornado jam london ....................................................... Cancer ............................................................................ Suffer-head immigrant ................................................... As man live na so man die ............................................. Na so life be .................................................................... Sex machine ...................................................................

37 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56

Gendered Musings .......................................... 57 Chicken gizzard .............................................................. 58

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