My style? Simplicity
tempered with obscurity
By SEGUN AJAYI
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
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•Tsenongu
Benue ANA chairman
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Perhaps, Moses Terhemba Tsenongu, poet and literary scholar,
did not know that he shares something in common with Nigeria’s
celebrated poet, Professor Niyi Osundare. Although the former
is a literary disciple of the latter, both of them caught
the poetry bug shortly after they started off to do something
different. Osundare, it can be recalled began as a playwright
while Tsenongu wanted to be a novelist.
With that creative link, little wonder why the ANA Benue Chairman’s
thematic pre-occupation is diverse and his lines nostalgic.
These peculiarities are the hallmark of his poetry collections,
which include Soliloquies, The Drums of Mbakough and Before
I kill God and other poems. The writer who presently lectures
in the Department of English, Benue State University, Makurdi
also proved his mettle in prose when he translated Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to Tiv language. The scholar
who is a doctoral student at the University of Jos unveils
his literary world as he takes us back to his literary beginnings,
works, style and why he sticks to poetry in spite of its low
pecuniary gains:
Background
I was born and raised in a village called Mbakough, but it
is popularly known as Tsambe. I had my primary and secondary
education in the village, so I was lucky to know the ways
of my people, which are typical of Africans. That has helped
me so much in my writings. I attended the School of Basic
Studies, Makurdi, before I was admitted to the University
of Jos. After that, I did my youth service in Akwa Ibom State.
Shortly after that, I lectured at the College of Education
Kotangora between 1995 and 1997. A year later, I joined Benue
State University. Recently, I had a three-month residency
at the Hamburg University, Germany. I have also been part
of some international conferences on literature; especially,
oral literature.
The choice of poetry
In 1985, I read R. Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
I also read Cyprian Ekwensi’s African Night’s
Entertainment and Kola Onadipe’s The Boy Slave. These
books had great impressions on me. So, I decided that I was
going to be a novelist. In fact, after reading Treasure Island,
I was so thrilled that I went back home to write a short story,
which I entitled The Adventures of Michael Smith. That is
to tell you that I began my writings with prose. However,
along the line, I came to discover that poetry began to excite
me. I actually celebrated that experience in my poetry collection
entitled, Soliloquies. Although I am still nursing the ambition
to go back to prose, but for now I stick to poetry.
Sustaining my muse
The fact of the matter is that poetry is life. I wrote about
that believe in the preface to my coming book entitled, Currents
of Blood. In the preface, I was referring to Maik Nwosu’s
submission on the preface to his own book entitled Songs of
Courtship.
Nwosu mentioned that Professor Donatus Nwoga gave him a new
insight into poetry beyond what is written down. So, to me,
poetry is a beautiful work of elergy, a wonderful architecture
of nature.
If you also read the preface to Niyi Osundare’s Early
Birds you would, discovered that he stressed that poetry is
everywhere, and in everything in the world. The consciousness
of the fact that the whole world is poetry is what keeps me
going.
As I go through life and I look at nature, I see poetry; I
hear poetry; I experience it. So, to relate that on paper
is not as difficult as many would think poetry would be ordinarily.
Target audience
Ever since I started writing poetry, I have looked for something.
That is one of the things that I really had difficulties grappling
with; having the world. I discovered that, in this country,
there are many poetic voices. A certain degree of writers
of our generation have so far been dominated by a certain
degree of poetic tradition. They include the early Christopher
Okigbo’s tradition characterised by poems that are minimally
accessible. As a result, one would notice some degree of obscurantism;
this is a situation whereby artists glorify works that are
inaccessible. I really didn’t like that, I prefer people
who write poetry that is simple; poetry that is accessible.
In other words, I prefer the type of poetry that can sell
a dummy to the audience. I mean, poetry that is multi-styled
and multi-layered; poetry that can speak to a secondary school
child as well as the most matured mind. My type of poetry
is the poetry that is inviting, poetry that is all-inclusive.
Themes
Actually, I have not limited myself too much. I focus on issues
that I think affect humanity negatively and positively. I
believe in art as a tool, not just art-for-art-sake. I use
my poems to make the world a better place.
However, I write passionately about the theme of love. If
you look at Before I Kill God and Other Poems, the book is
divided alongside themes.
You would notice that I entitled the first part, Mosaic; which
deals with issues that cannot be classified ordinarily. After
that, you would notice that I have another section entitled
Lamentation over Zaki-Biam. These poems were written at a
time Nigeria was going through a season of anomie.
Then you would observe that, like Niyi Osundare mentioned
in his comments Soliloquies, he (Osundare) used the word,
nostalgia. He said that the poems are nostalgic in parts and
often, I find the past very thrilling. I am an antiquarian
who believes in the superiority of the past over the present.
I cannot help appreciating the past, I cannot help admiring
it.
My poems also mentioned a place called Mbakough. That is where
I grew up. Anytime I think about that place, the richness
of my past, when I recollect on them pick the lessons, that
I imagine are important for the present. Also in the collection,
I have poems, which I call Coital Concerns. I can say that
the division of the content, are manifestations of the diversity
of my themes and subjects.
Audience’s feedback
I think that there is very little poetic education in this
country. Many people who enjoy reading poems cannot really
say why they read poetry. As a result, people end up appreciating
poetry for the wrong reason.
For example, if you read the preface to my collection Soliloquies,
I talked about an experience in which I met someone who I
told to help publish a poetry work. He flipped through my
poems and started briefing me that I wrote poems that are
simple. Certainly, the person did not understand what the
poems are saying.
And one of the major problems we have in this country, concerning
poetry education, is the language of poetry. People who are
not intelligent think that by supporting a particular type
of language, they are proving their intelligence. Such people
think that a poem must be completely inaccessible for the
poet to be considered a good poet.
People are confusing the pleasure of puzzle to the pleasure
of poetry. Sometimes, poetry may puzzle but that is not the
only quality of poetry. Poetry employs a lot of strategies
to make its statement. There is nothing invariably poetic
in a difficult language just as there is nothing invariably
prosaic in simple language.
Language of poetry
Two things account for the language of the poet; the first
one is that of choice. For example, if you read the poem of
E. E. Cummings, the man took poetry as a genre and he delighted
in hiding his meanings. If anyone write like that, I have
no problem with him. Apart from that, what also determines
the language of poetry is the subject. For example, T. S.
Elliot while writing on the general frustrations that followed
the First World War wrote in a difficult and hardly language
because he was handling a tedious subject.
The issue is not supposed to be whether the language of a
writer is difficult or simple, rather the concern should be,
is the person writing poetry? The question should be has he
engineered his figures, his literary devices enough? Has he
engineered his language in such a manner that you read and
it thrills you? Does he ignite a fire in your soul?
Writing style
My style is simplicity that has been tempered with obscurity.
Essentially, I am referring to obscurity that does not drive
the reader away from the work. Rather, it is the kind of obscurity
that really gives the reader a job to do. Although I temper
my work with that which is simple, I add something that keeps
him there. For example a poet like William Gass says that
he doesn’t like poems "that willingly offer their
lips to be kissed," meaning that they are very easy.
Osundare also said that a good poem should neither be a whore
nor a prostitute. By implication, a poem should neither be
too simple or too difficult. I am in the middle of the two
opposites of the simple and difficult poems.
Fulfillment as a poet
The money is not there. We don’t write poetry because
it pays back. We write poetry because we believe that it deals
with issues that life is hanging on. Aristotle in his poetics
wrote, "a poet is greater than the philosopher. Likewise,
a poet is greater than the historian." The historian
deals with facts, while the philosopher is concerned with
ideas.
Poetry deals with issues that are eternal but human ideas
cannot last for a thousand years. So, when I write poetry
it invigorates me, it purifies, it revives me and gives room
to my emotions. Anybody that has feelings will like poetry
and it would nourish his soul.
Message
I teach lessons that revive humanity. I preach messages that
I know would be of paramount importance to the reader. I emphasise
the fact that going back to my past can be of benefit to another
person. I write on any topic that attracts my muse. Recently,
I wrote a poem on HIV/AIDS.
Favourite poets/role model
I love the poems of Robert Fraust. His poems are inquisitive
yet not simplistic, sometimes difficult without being obscure.
His poems are accessible. They take you to a certain point,
and leave you with a few questions to answer. Poetry is not
supposed to tell you everything. That is good poetry. I also
love Niyi Osundare’s poems. He adds local colours to
his poems. Osundare is to me in poetry, what Achebe is to
me in prose. Great poets like Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara,
J. P. Clark and others have also done that.
My best poem
Recently, Dr Jerry Agada, a writer said that his best poem
is the one he has not written. I have collections that contain
favourite poems. I cannot really say that a particular work
is my favourite. Every book has poems I like, and some, suddenly,
I just dislike.
Well, if you insist. I will choose Soliloques. Then a poem
that keeps making good impressions on me as the one I titled.
In Before I kill God and other poems. I like the poem, The
Old Day and the New; The Light that Radiates. In The Drums
of Mbakough, the last poem interests me. The first poem I
ever wrote was written in 1987. It was titled I’ve seen
earth dragging the grasshopper. I love The drums of Mbakough
much, not only because it is a manifestation of my artistic
feelings but because it belongs to a certain period of my
artistic growth.
Most difficult poem
There is one poem that took me many years to complete. Unfortunately,
the volume that has the poem is yet to be published. The collection
is titled Currents of Blood and the poem is The Realisation.
Publicity
We are very lucky in Benue State to have Aboki Publishers.
They are doing wonderful job. Can you imagine that Aboki published
Before I Kill God and other poems without taking a dime. I
remembered that I sent the same collection to one of the top
publishing houses in the country. They wrote back to me that
they like the poems but that they couldn’t publish because
people don’t buy poetry.
In the light of that, one needs to come in to assist the publisher.
I also try Hybim Publishers in Lagos.
Reading culture
It is not limited to poetry. It is just that generally, Nigerians
don’t read. It is a miracle that the country is thriving.
It is quite surprising that a country that has such a poor
reading culture is performing the way we are doing. That is
an area Nigeria is recording a gross failure because people’s
mental power is not developed.
However, I will not shy away from the fact that in the readers’
priority list, poetry is the least.
Writers Block
When I experience it, I read poems that I really admire. I
cure it by reading the masterpiece. I read Robert Fraust,
I read Niyi Osundare and as I keep on reading these people
the muse will come back to me again. You don’t kill
writer’s block by waiting for some inspiration to come,
you kill writer’s block by working. In the course of
your work, the muse returns.
Use of humour
Just like in my latest work entitled How Could I have Known,
there is a lot of humour in it. The poem is humorous to me
and I can imagine that it will be humorous to my readers too.
I imagine a character in the poem, who likes himself be left
alone so that will have a breathing space to himself. But
nobody was really paying attention to him, the more he tried,
the more people came to him. I cannot say that it is the desire
of a poet to excel with humour, but once in a while, humour
is introduced.
Running Benue ANA: Challenges
Let me admit that it is not easy to run any association, especially,
the one that is not profit-oriented. Funding is our major
problem. For example, some people come to ANA with the expectation
that we will help them publish their works.
So, by the time, they realise that the association is not
buoyant enough to assist, they will be disappointed. Aside
from that, writers from this part of the country hardly get
media attention. As a result, we are left behind. I think
Daily Sun is setting a precedence which, I enjoin others to
follow. |
