Tejumade Oke
Every child craves an identity even before birth, begging for the natural rights of its own personality. After birth the depravity, neglect, segregation, prejudices and abandonment turns her into the negative adult stereotype that endangered the future of our world. Every child needs not be a recycled, battered image of a ruined adult. ‘A child on trial’ is a theme of this literary work.
The appreciation of the beauty and quality of this work of Poetry is unraveled in it unfolding surreal -realistic life experiences; the exposure of an innocent new life to a strange world that threatens great potential. The clash of cultures, racial prejudice, double standard in societal values and the flowing expression reveals to us the heart of the Narrator who is a child.
Divided into two parts, Part one, though segmented, should be seen as one- in-detachable poetry from beginning to the ending. Segmentation gives the reader a participatory imaginative mind and a reflective pause. Verse rendition is in the first person singular, revealing, as the Unborn goes from one state of being to the other!
Part two has Eleven Chapters, a mixture of love, places, people, memorials, morality, cross-cultural, social, environmental, human dignity issues spun into verses with such titles as -Missing People, 9/11Memorial, The Sun Will Not Set, Saworoide, Cellular, Abuja, Love Sunset and more..It is true that the greatest purpose of poetry is to effect positive changes in society. It is also true that poetry could be a form of great entertainments. This book of poetry is one of such graceful mixture.
The author is a critic and a prolific literary scholar. An environmentalist and a human rights advocate especially for the rights of the child and women. She is also an Attorney.
HOMELAND
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Flower of the south
aged but not dying
Music like the splattering of rain
rhythms eternally in vogue recurrently best;
Footsteps like the landmarks of rain drops
untraced like footsteps on the sea;
Ancient flower
blossoming at sunrise till sundown
the radiance of the south!
Amandla!
the stampede of a billion men, black, white and yellow, brown
sifting earthly plateaus and plates
arms and limbs surfing tsunami’s cosmic treasure in choreography
What concrete corporate adulation, sweet thunderous roar!
Shouts like an enduring Mexican wave,
unending as the lovely sheets of the sky;
Amandla!
Countless gritty sands of many seas
Unnumbered stars of a bright summer night sky
the west and south in active constellation
Godly elegant shades of human lavishly stunning
like coral, reeds and shells of the richest deep
Amandla!
Sweet strange throng of flowering plants
wild oasis of fruit trees, colourful sea weeds,
thorns, barks, and vibrant greens, all sorts
blooming so dazzling, communing in perfect union!
Images fairer than all that was made.
cross pollination of humans gives birth to this freedom!
