IN MY COUNTRY AND OTHER POEMS

by Daniel Awhaisoba

This collection of soft-lines with hardcore are the recording of sensations by the five senses with the sixth coordinating. It is spiced with general interest poetry. It ranges from the social to the political, from the fundamental to the sentimental, from the mundane to the puritanical. The poem entitled "A poet like me" gives a foretaste of what to expect in this anthology. The opening lines are catchy as in... lyrics mine could weave patterns none could beat until I saw yours that weaves the wool... Those around the author says he is 'crazy' whenever he picks up his pen to write with sudden assundity. They are not far from being correct. Tis kind of 'craziness' is unique,one the heavens will be proud of. Poetry is his first love. People say they are inspired to write. He knows he is possessed to write. The spirit seize him, he is no longer himself. Then he remembers-he who loves the labor of any trade his God have called him.True, how true. This kind of feeling kept prodding him on, to write, to write. As is demonstrated in "In My Country" in my country... we are a man refused confused because we have minds abused infused with offending thoughts... Also look at the paradigm in "Echoes Of The Republic" for whom the party has done so much for whom for the party he has done so much and the graphological foregrounding that ensues we have to sanitize our relationship of unlike s then we have to sensitize our marriage of convenience It was Jilly Cooper who said we seem to be suffering from galloping mendacity. This is no less true in the environment of the author, and culminated into "Ch Arlatan" everywhere I sit, voices everywhere I see, motion voicing voices bleat by my side moving movies leapt over side every-time they come microwaves ...certain the dough is enough One can't help seeing the entrance of Category Rule Violation and the exit of Selectional Restriction Rule. As typified by "Next Door Cries" ...where frayed nerves and harried souls says its like Tweedledum beat Tweedledee and the emotional outbursts in "Uriah's Song From Yonder" so you are gunning for she, my she and I am taking the heat, upon me off evil, off off, you slyful backstabber This poem is a biblical allusion drawn from personal experience. Whatever lie therein is to magnify the truth, after-all what is a lie, it is but the truth in masquerade. There was no attempt to satisfy the literary taste of generative transformational grammarians. It is not uncommon to note that the poems do not come in transparent blisters. As you read through a poem, there is this involuntary obscurantism flavoring your nostrils, you have to sniff harder to tell its make. Certainly not obscurantist. For some education is necessary to unravel a poem. So if there is a proper storm guard the wind wont pull out the roof. As the writer attempts to bridge the thin gap between the myriad of sensations so received and the very little he is able to put down. He fights, with every attempt the limit of human apprehension on towards celestial vibrations as demonstrated on terrestrial plane. The approach for choosing poems for this collection is two pronged. One has to do with identifying pool of ideas. While the other has to do with looking for where the pull is strongest in expressing such ideas on paper. However, while reading this volume from cover to cover, you felt touched your face went crimson, then suddenly, you giggle, lazed with laughter and you felt like going on and on, again and again. At the tail end, you heaved, pent up sigh, stored up as a result of successive suspense, then the initial goal would have been met. One however regret and profoundly too, that whatever short comings therein, are entirely that of the author.

Daniel Awhaisoba Lagos Nigeria

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Awhaisoba was born and bred in Lagos Nigeria, on 3rd December, 1962. His biological parents, Peter and Lucy Awhaisoba hails from Warri in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He has a brief stint with the School of Writing London, and was privileged to be tutored by Dianne Doubt fire and John O'Toole. He is also a product of the Nigerian Institute Of Journalism and the University Of Lagos, both in Lagos. He has several by-lines in short stories, feature articles and poems,and was Amateur Poet of the year in 2003 and 2005 respectively by the International Society Of Poets, lying situate at Poetry Plaza,Owings Mills USA.

(2011, paperback, 124 pages)