Poetry: A Tapestry of Words, A Mosaic of Meaning

If a known poison cures a man of a terrible disease, medicine men run out of business and those who kill through poisoning will be considered sages.

Every poet worth their salt knows that feeling within when one starts or completes a piece. We listen or read, with amusement, how others interpret our works. Sometimes, it is on point. Other times, it surprises us and reveals something we never knew about ourselves. Such is the power of words. The world of words is a place where meanings vary, where perceptions change, where writer and reader are challenged (and changed) by conundrums of existence. In this beautiful tapestry of words, we seek to create a world like nobody else has seen. Poet Kofi Awoonor stated that society is the teacher, the mentor: listen, watch, observe the life around you; it is that which will provide you the impetus.


A poem is a statement of truth (or a statement on a facet of truth).Stephen King reasoned that you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. The truth comes in variations: your truth and mine. This is where poets can exploit prisms of meaning and arrive at ideas that challenge accepted norms. The truth is a gold mine and a smart poet (and writer) can extract nuggets for a lifetime. The tools needed in this particular endeavor is observation, contemplation and open-mindedness. A poet must be prepared anything in defense of the truth, even if it sounds like a lie to his/her readers. The world, being a stage for paradox, never runs out of scenarios. A poet must go with the flow of reality in order to state his/her dreams properly.


A poem is supposed to lead the reader to a realization. Poetry has a hook that pulls the reader in and guides him/her to a conclusion. Some poets choose to let the readers find their own conclusions. Others are unequivocal about what they intend to convey. A poem is supposed to a journey of thought, a snippet on life that drives home a theme or idea in either a good or bad light. Great poems give you a feeling of either feeling content or wanting more.


A poem can use powers of prose and drama (adjectives, characters et cetera). Good poems use every literary device available. Do not burden yourself with unnecessary limitations. However, if you consciously intend to limit your scope of writing by conforming to a set method, by all means, help yourself. I highly recommend using poetic license in your drive through the terrains of writing. Give yourself a break. Enjoy this writing life by opening yourself and works to the possibilities out there. Use prose when it best serves your poem, where rhyming holds you back. Use drama when mere descriptions will not suffice. You are your poem's creator. It is your sacrosanct duty to give it life.


A poem can be long but it has to be precise. There is this school of thought that poems should be short. You can obey that law or break it, depending on the scope of your poem. Some of the greatest works of poetry, like the Inferno, Iliad and Odyssey, run for hundreds of pages but they never exhaust themselves out of the realm of their thematic confines. Even though such poems possess qualities of prose and drama, they stay true to the poetic sense. So, yes, you can write a long poem about a historical figure or event. But do so by tempering your creative strokes with the precision that poetry requires.


A poem is a reaction to the world. Whether it is a dream, actual event or prophecy, a poem is a human reaction to either ugliness or beauty in the world. Hence, it becomes subject to criticism, not only because of its form, but its subject matter. This places the poet, front and center, as a vehicle of social consciousness, which has its existential consequences. In the endless war between the forces of the world as it is and those of the world as it should be, the poet must take sides. This becomes the poet's internal dilemma, which creates tension in his/her works. Tension, by the way, is very good for poetry. It tells the reader (or listener) that the poet is thinking.


A poem finds many different ways to state the obvious. Through euphemisms, synecdoche, similes and metaphors (just to mention a few), the poet is able to mask, obscure or reveal meaning. A poem must be able to say many things at once, either through clarity or contradiction. This enables the poet to stay out of the way of the life of the poem because it becomes the work of the reader (or listener) to apply it to his/her own experiences. This is why poetry is the bedfellow of wisdom and its progeny (proverbs and idioms). LS Mensah opines that a poem can mean different things at different times, depending on how one looks at it. So can words and images within a poem.

Justice makes us write. It stirs us out of our comfort zones to face the evils that the world, in order to keep its creature comforts, has conveniently tolerated. Writing is about what the world should be to each and every one of its inhabitants. Equal opportunities in suffering and success, equal opportunities in tears and triumphs. That is why any other writing, that glorifies and validates injustice, does not make sense.

Great poetry teaches and titillates the mind.

The Landscapes of Poetry: From Apapransa to Zongolachichi

The world is big but very little when compared to the worlds our minds can create

Nothing should be sacred to writing. Nothing. That is why when I run into people who say they have nothing to write about, I shake my head. Are you serious? Have you looked outside lately? Have you listened to the news lately? Have you felt an emotion lately? The lack of innovation prompts a sentiment similar to that of Professor Kofi Anyidoho in the poem, My Song

Think
My People
Think
Think well before you laugh at those who walk in the rain.

It is imperative to be cognizant of what you want to do with your writing. Many are the motivations but they should be clear to each poet. In these times, poetry is not held to rigid structures and methods. It has become anything, even in prosaic form, that stokes the senses. Poetry is meant to make us ponder on the many themes and variations of life. It is intended to drive us to an eternal curiosity after both familiar and unfamiliar things. I dare say that poetry is the language of the soul, for every human pauses to grasp the powers of intentional phrases whenever they are spoken. It is in poetry that we steal glimpses at the elusive meanings of our existence. Hence, poetry is meant to touch anything, everything and everyone. Its landscape is as expansive as the universe and its applicability is beyond the capacities of the one who writes or recites it.


As African poets, the goal is to paint our worlds, one poem at a time, into a gallery of humanity. This is how we get to own the meta data of our collective psyche. We cannot continue to write literature that appeases Western sentiment. Much as we appreciate literature from those parts of the world, we must forge our creative paths, based on the nuances of our varied societies. The authenticity of the African poet is directly linked to his/her ability to speak without taint or bias for foreign acceptance. It is in the pursuit of authenticity that we find excellence. Never write in fear of critics or to win the acclaim of others. Write because you must write and let the urgency take to you a place only you are allowed to go. I have several pointers as to where my brethren of the ink can take their calling.

Find a subject or incident inspires (or inspired you). Ghanaian poet Novisi Dzitre wrote that I don’t think there are enough words, breath or punctuation to hold the places in the expression of ideas by any one individual, and that is where poetry comes in handy for me. Everyone of us, being unique beings, possesses interests that are different from the next person. This is the platform from which each one of us must create. In my personal walk as a poet and writer, I have found it extremely difficult to write from ignorance. It is like a virgin who writes about the joys of intercourse or a toddler who scribbles about the pains of old age. Yes, one is free to write as an observer and there are many works out there where the poet takes the role of an observer. What I am writing about is about the poet being in sync with his poem to the point that he/she can take liberties with that work by playing insider or observer. We all have life -changing incidents. Some for good, others for worse. Such incidents are all tools in the workshop of a poet and writer. Our creativity is captured in our experiences and does flourish when we take chances with ourselves.

Find a subject or incident that scares (or scared you). Orison Swett Marden admonished, grant your imagination full sway. Fear is a wonderful emotion when used as a tool of creativity. When we know how, where and why we are afraid, we can write about it convincingly. Choosing a subject or incident that frightens you is an excellent tool of vulnerability in the hands of a poet. Vulnerability is what makes us all human. Even Kweku Ananse had his secret fears.


Practice writing with a self-imposed strict regimen of words. Write, using words you thoroughly understand. I have read some works by writers who have used words that muddled their context. Such a practice results in a meandering into meaninglessness. The dictionary is a friend; not a dictator. Use words that free your work into a place of clarity, not the ones that block the flow. Write everyday even if there is nothing to write about. Write letters. Journal your thoughts. Scribble those half-formed ideas. Get into the habit of writing because that is the best place to be whenever inspiration hits.


Write about popular topics from an overlooked point of view. I learned, a while ago in art class at Adisadel College, that there was more than one angle to anything. It is our job as poets to see the overlooked angles, which might not be popular, but essential to the conversation of life. When my Arts teacher made us sit in a circle around a black jug on blue paper, he did not expect the same picture from everyone in class. He expected different pictures of the same black jug on blue paper. The same applies to poetry, and writing in general. We cannot be caught up in the general narratives of poets and writers we love and adore. We must take what those narratives were about and tweak them with alternating scenarios. By doing this simple exercise, we find a world hidden in plain sight.


Write about unpopular topics from an obscure point of view. As you already might know, there are some topics in our society that are considered taboo. Well, taboos are meant to be broken. You can break a taboo by exposing either its irrelevance or true meaning. As a poet, it is your assignment to make people question everything around them. Curiosity is not a bad thing when it leads to change. In being social catalysts, poets elevate problems within society to a level of constant discussion which leads to eventual solutions.


Research various styles of poetry and experiment with them. Poet Dela Bobobee said many poems mean a lot of different things to me in various perspectives at varying points in time. It all depends on the significance of the poem in question to the specific situation on ground and what is at stake. I am a proponent of rule-breaking in writing. However, here's the caveat: how can you break something you do not know? Poets must read the poems of others. By doing that, we prune our own shortcomings and learn new ways of expressing ourselves. The proverb, iron sharpens iron, is in play here. Great poets (and writers) are not afraid of learning from others. We cannot create from a point of ignorant reclusivity.


Develop a style or tone (or form) that becomes your imprimatur. Poet LS Mensah reiterates that

there are many things one could do with a poem. Sometimes like water, a poem can exist in different states: a liquid, a solid, a vapour in the air. Sometimes it is like light, both wave and particle. The running joke about Ghanaian poems is that they are all about politics. Well, we can can keep the politics running. However, we can merge it into poems about love, hope and pain. There is something in something. There is politics in everything. Use that awareness to create your literary voice. You can decide to stay there and be known for a specific stance or viewpoint or you can experiment with all the wonderful variations of perspective.

Create moral scenarios wherein your readers will have to think their way through. Prominent Ghanaian literary critic, Nana Fredua Agyeman (in his critique of Ibsen's Enemy of the People) states that in a progressive society therefore, hypotheses, laws, institutions, authorities should be constantly challenged. One need not accept or believe an idea, a response, a supposition, just because everyone believes it. Universally believed ideas, must be analysed and questioned. This is as important today as the year 1882. Playwrights and novelists think like poets, in that they try to encapsulate tortuous ideas into few words. Poets should endeavor to learn from them as well. It is not unusual to develop plot structures, characters, acts and scenes in one's poetry. It can be done in a short poem or a long one. What I am pointing at is the existence of an endless world of possibilities when one is determined to take one's poetry to places of excellence. We must push ourselves out of our comfort zones.

Wole Soyinka once stated books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. There is a perpetual onus on writers of all genres to expose the circus of deception that pitches itself in the very center of our society from time to time. Reality has a tendency to gloss over what is right to what is rational, or over what is essential to what is circumstantial. And the best illustration of what reality can do is in the realm of politics where everything is conducted through facades and fear mongering. This explains why from time immemorial politicians and writers have not meshed well. Writers are in a constant pursuit of what is possible; politicians are in constant pursuit of what is plausible. In Africa, the power class (politicians and soldiers) have long persecuted writers because, through writing, a society is stirred unto a consciousness of its realities, for better or for worse. Politicians do not want to see their people galvanized, if it is not to their benefit. Hence, they loath writers because writing's middle name is 'galvanization'. That is why Wole Soyinka had to suffer years of persecution from Nigeria's array of military usurpers. That is why Ken Saro Wiwa was executed by Abacha's kangaroo court.

Writing is a very dangerous profession. That which must be pursued with passion and purpose. That which must be done with urgency and clarity. That which must be done with the mindset that nothing will rise up to the excuse of not writing. Writing is also a delightful profession. You get to be the scribe of beauty and ugliness, a recorder of pleasure and pain, the bookkeeper of human existence. I would not trade that for anything else in the world.

Nothing is off-limits to poetry; it is life and its creation sheds light on other facets of life.