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Text of the page (random words):
living in nigeria i remain unshaken to the cause of working for the growth of my country it is still a home inhabited by people who succumb to the heart wrenching sound of bomb blasts this question reminds me of olu oguibe s i am bound to this land by blood he writes i am bound to this land by blood that s why my vision is blurred i am rooted in its soil and its streams flood my veins i smell the sweat of its men and the million feet that plod the dust of its streets leave their prints on my soul in this poem olu oguibe s admits to the fact that he is bound to this land nigeria by blood this is synonymous to saying that in spite of the enormous problems surfacing every day his land remains paramount and dear to him growing up in nigeria has exposed me to many things also being among the proletariats is another angle to address it every day we hear on the radio how politicians embezzle money and fly abroad to build gigantic houses for their unborn children every day we find it unworthy to develop a passion for a country that reeks of corruption and favoritism on the part of the government while the masses toil and clamour for peace so like olu oguibe i am bound to this land by blood this land houses my umbilical cord it bears my footprints and my sweat and the sweat of my grandfather i know that living in nigeria is like walking a dark path treading a thorny path watching your children leave home to return as bodies folded like a prayer mat i realize that it is the same everywhere but there is this reality of death that haunts me geosi gyasi my best pick of your three poems shown on the brunel international african poetry prize website is being a mother in the north how did you come about this poem rasaq malik the poem was among the poems i wrote when exploring the aftermath of the incessant bomb blasts that occurred in the northern part of nigeria on the lives of people living in places like kano maiduguri kaduna borno etc in nigeria there is a thin difference between someone who has experienced say the killing of his father or the kidnapping of his sister and someone who hears the news about people bombed when observing subhi prayer in maiduguri to me the writing of poems to depict war is an inevitable task in a country like nigeria to me the victims of these needless bombings could be anybody the victims could be my brother my sister my uncles my parents i think this is what harmonizes us in this country this is what unites us as a country populated by poverty ridden people and witnesses of varying degrees of unrest j p clark s the casualties resurfaces at this stage i think the poem portrays it better in spite of geographical gaps and tribal differences we are all sufferers and casualties in this present war we are all trying to find comfort by switching on our radios our ears hoping to hear good news amidst the deluge of bad news engulfing our hearts geosi gyasi to date which of your poems would you consider as your best or most important rasaq malik i write every day i do not really know the poem that grips my heart to the extent of crowning it my best poem i would like to say it is quite difficult to select the best every poem has its own soul and spirit geosi gyasi of all the shortlisted poets whom do you think deserves to win this year s brunel international african poetry prize rasaq malik i believe every poem is important every poem has something to say something striking and piercing something shocking and excruciating something engaging and electrifying something awe inspiring and something taken by the reader as what speaks to him her or what paints his her thoughts or desires brunel through poetry has been able to define arts and plays an indelible role in propagating it i have read the shortlisted poems and i am wowed by the dexterity deployed in the handling of language by the poets the poems are beautiful and appealing so i would leave the judges to select the winner s and award the best entries geosi gyasi you seem to have been published in some major magazines across the world my question is when will your debut book come out rasaq malik i believe in the art of honing my writing and revamping my poems i once read about thomas hardy publishing his first poetry collection titled wessex poems when he was fifty eight robin coste lewis the author of voyage of the sable venus 2015 and the winner of the national book award for poetry did something similar jumoke verissimo s i am memory spent years before she published it i mean these poets did not hurry to publish they worked on their manuscripts and did well in editing and erasing and agreeing and disagreeing before getting these manuscripts published i am looking forward to publishing my manuscript when the time is ripe geosi gyasi is it difficult to end a poem than to begin rasaq malik i find it difficult to begin a poem than to end it i spend time trying to begin with lines that will captivate the attention of the reader i think writing is like childbirth it takes time energy and endurance another thing is that it takes a skillful hand to disentangle the web of diction and write a canonical poem it is not easy in nigeria there is a thin difference between someone who has experienced say the killing of his father or the kidnapping of his sister and someone who hears the news about people bombed when observing subhi prayer in maiduguri to me the writing of poems to depict war is an inevitable task in a country like nigeria geosi gyasi what has been your greatest challenge as a poet living in nigeria rasaq malik the inability to explore the fertile literary landscapes of other countries has been a major bane to me it is quite difficult to get those books here in the country in the past i used to message writers whose books i found interesting and engaging after reading say snippets and reviews of the books i remember messaging hayan charara hala alyan danusha lameris tohib adejumo etc these poets and literary enthusiasts have written poems that reflect humanity and aid the better understanding of the world we inhabit and the world that troubles our dreams and aspirations they continue to inspire me and stir me to do better i remember the accommodating and supportive laura kaminski and her world of kindness and hope over the years laura has been able to send books to some of the emerging nigerian poets she has been able to show us a world characterized by love and friendship she has been able to spread love across borders not minding the blurriness that exists between the physical world and the virtual world geosi gyasi do you have any dream to travel outside nigeria to pursue further studies in writing and or to pursue your dream as a poet rasaq malik i have a potent dream to study writing outside nigeria i think opting for mfa is the best available medium to learn other things about writing outside this country so i keep praying that everything works out well i would love to learn more about writing i would love to be a better poet geosi gyasi what would you use the prize money for when you win this year s brunel international african poetry prize rasaq malik i have many dreams you know however i have always been praying for the gift of life i once messaged a friend to remember me if i died before ramadan in 2015 well i survived being on the brunel shortlist has become a major reminder that my society is indisputably paramount and necessary in my voyage in life i have to continue the art of creating pictures of the happenings and events around us if i win this year s brunel international african poetry prize i intend to invest in the propagation of literacy and liberation of the minds by buying books and gifting people some of these books in addition i have never had the opportunity to help orphans the way i would have loved to do there are friends doing this already vincent adeoba joytohumanity is an exemplary leader and humanist whose passion for empowering others has inspired me olufunmi adebajo is another selfless individual whose humanitarian work has liberated some of the poverty ridden people and orphans in the society jack vince possesses the courage to update us on the on going events in maiduguri and other parts of the troubled north he also contributes his own quota to the rehabilitation of the victims of bokoharams attacks in the north rashidat bakare ikeoluwa is another lady i just discovered online she is the founder of empower borno a platform she created to help the victims of boko haram insurgency in borno she continues to wax stronger and i love her spirit of love and kindness if i win i intend to contribute to some of these selfless organizations and spare my country of the problems emanating from war and unrest end share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x print opens in new window print like loading leave a comment uncategorized permalink posted by geosi interview with 2017 brunel international african poetry prize shortlisted poet romeo oriogun april 23 2017 brief biography romeo oriogun lives and writes in udi a little town in eastern nigeria his poems which mostly deal with what it means to live as a queer man in nigeria have been featured in brittle paper african writer expound praxis and others he is the author of burnt men an electronic chapbook published by praxis magazine online geosi gyasi when did you first hear about the brunel international african poetry prize romeo oriogun i heard about the brunel international african poetry prize three years ago a friend of mine shared the winning poems by warsan shire on facebook and i was hooked here is a poet who went deep into herself to bring out words that are filled with emotions memories and history i had just started writing then in my country students are mostly exposed to poetry books from the 60 s 70 s and 80 s they are what is used to teach poetry to students books written by contemporary poets are rare and most times expensive so meeting a poet who is like fresh breath changed my thinking about the way poetry should be written this year was my first time of entering for the prize in africa there are very few spaces for queer writing i thought it was a means of sharing my poems i never knew i will make the shortlist so for me getting here is both a blessing and a surprise geosi gyasi was it by choice that you became a poet romeo oriogun i first met poetry as a junior student in secondary school my teacher introduced me to it as a means of naming the war inside me when she was transferred i left it and found other means of fighting it was a though time i thought i was strange and crazy and there was no room for me in a society where boys are taught how to be rocks from a tender age i was water and i suffered till i decided to end it it was at that moment that poetry met me again i was searching for rope when i saw an old poetry book my teacher gave me as a gift the first poem inside was jp clark s streamside exchange it touched somewhere deep inside me somewhere filled with fire and it gave that place a new way to look at life at that point i knew there was no turning back poetry became a means of finding the way forward of naming the chaos and fear inside me of celebrating every joy i meet on this way to light so in a way i met and fell in love with poetry and it fell in love with me too so i can t really say it was by choice i believe life is full of gifts things given to us by the universe to navigate this space geosi gyasi your poem how to survive the fire basically deals with survival in a city like lagos where the only freedom for a man who loves another man is to leave do you ever experience some of these hardships you talk about in your poems romeo oriogun there are memories that are ours and there are some that are shared with us and even that becomes ours i wrote how to survive the fire for a friend who ran through the desert to italy last year he came out to some friends during a drunk night and he had to run before they lynched him nigeria is full of history of queer men lynched when found or burnt there are a lot of obstacles for queer men in nigeria and sometimes we learn to be quiet about it to try to blend in and go on pretending in other to live which is a sad thing because every day when you live a life that s not truly yours you die a little because i write about these things i ve been subject to online threat and abuse after my chapbook was published someone promised to look for me and burn my ass i still don t know what would make one hate his fellow human up to that extent i m dealing with some threats at the moment someone asked me to pay some money to him so he won t tell the paramilitary force i work for that i write queer poems his name on facebook is fictitious there s no way i can trace him i told some of my friends about it last week and they told me to be careful they are scared and i understand to be queer or support queer people is to walk with the fear of lynching or burning and there s also the police sometimes this is the price i pay for writing but it is better than keeping quiet i know queer people may not be free to love openly in my lifetime but it is a journey and we are laying the stones for the future and these memories must be documented for future generations to learn how people where lynched and killed because they dared to love nigeria is full of history of queer men lynched when found or burnt there are a lot of obstacles for queer men in nigeria and sometimes we learn to be quiet about it to try to blend in and go on pretending in other to live which is a sad thing because every day when you live a life that s not truly yours you die a little geosi gyasi what at all is queer poetry if i may ask romeo oriogun allen ginsberg once told a class to the world i m nothing but a cocksucker once you talk about queer poetry people think it is lgbtq people writing about gay sex but it is about members of a community that has been marginalize searching for a way to understand their body and the world through their eyes and if it comes out with themes of homosexuality then it is because it is the reality and queer poets don t write about homosexual themes all the time it is funny because some people think queer poetry is all about homosexual sex we also write about heterosexual sex we are humans and there are queer people is heterosexual relationships so we write about anything that pulls our humanity it maybe joy rainfall a walk under the evening sky police brutality hunger or anything else there is langston hughes ocean vuong jericho brown ricky laurentiis and a lot of other voices and their works tackles other themes so it will be unfair and wrong to cage queer poetry within a sexual circle geosi gyasi would you therefore continue to write queer poems amidst the threats you receive romeo oriogun i will it s what i know how to do it s what keeps me sane if i stop writing my ...
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