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Vicissitudes Of Life In Afejuku’s A Spring Of Sweets

By Emmanuel Okoh
16 May 2015   |   11:16 pm
Afejuku illuminates the crevices of life’s situations in A Spring of Sweets. He does this with sublime language that leans on divinity, and an almost eternal voice pattern; something cast in the notebook of angels.

SpringAfejuku illuminates the crevices of life’s situations in A Spring of Sweets. He does this with sublime language that leans on divinity, and an almost eternal voice pattern; something cast in the notebook of angels.

Reading through these lines of relevant density and imagery you could feel the interesting components of life; our living, our loving, our hating and our daily foolishness.

Afejuku doesn’t fail to capture the ingenuity of man to love in totality, that which is imperfect still. The desire to capture perfection can be touched in A Spring of Sweets (Sunbird Books, Lagos; 2014), as Afejuku digs into, and substantially fills the quest space for subjects of resolute love; the pure yearn for affection and the corresponding appreciation of it.

Reading from Afejuku’s collection, I proceeded on a journey across the most cherished elements of the ordinary life; a simple and pretty life that is.

The beauty of family love and its continuity is born anew in Afejuku’s poem, “Grand Boy and Grand Girls”.

The sacrifice for beauty is highlighted in the opening lines of the poem. As it is a good thing to note that all forms of pure beauty is born out of an initial struggle, Afejuku writes: “How do I challenge and wrestle with my inner chaos/ In order to create beauty/And what beauty can be greater than/my grand-boy and grand-girls…

The joy of continuity and the feeling of immortality and assurance it exudes are pictured in these lines: “Or is it not our people’s crack saying/That begetters of grand lives know no fear/Though evil wars and their creators/Arise against them… Going further on the journey of A Spring of Sweets, I encounter “Dicta Nun”, which reads, “Dicta Nun changes like the tide/Dicta Nun my Priestess: Changes like the tide/ Now our days of bliss ebbs away/ I grieve hard…I must remember the orange past/When her bosom was not false…”

Here, a nostalgic painting is on display, taunted by the memory of the “orange” days. Those days of pleasure never wished to be lost.

This cherished feeling makes the reader ponder; what beauty is left from Dicta Nun? What awesome adventure it would be to be one with the older times? Can the spirit envelope the body in a beautiful form that would lessen the nostalgia? What is the remedy? Any possible opium for this love-hate picture?

In “To the One of Fictive Romance “, I read “I reject your charge/ And call it a lie with no roots” Ajejuku’s poems are dotted with the hunger to know, embellished with desires. Often we see the need to save nature from the seeming inseparability from abusive activities.

We see the constant chaos in our daily existence against the background of a peaceful world of love and healthy natural elements. This call for normalcy is heard in “The Song Of The Seabird”, as the activities of the oil workers at sea disrupt the song of nature.

Afejuku’s dexterity in the beautification of words, adds substance to its imaginative powers. This obviously builds to its attractiveness.

Often you would be submerged in the jolly ride of words in A Spring of Sweets. Meaning, this work of poem is a worthy rung on the ladder of beautiful writing.

“Mermaid of fair sensations” reads “Must we say goodbye now when we have loves loves/ Toast with love’s Soy sauce and sesame/ In the names of love’s prince and maiden?” A remarkable feat of Afejuku’s is the pattern of driving words to their moist potent form.

He strives (and achieves) to give words and feelings the most strength available and beyond. You feel this when you read expressions like “Heavenly heaven”, “love’s love”, “your eyes frown the frown of frowns” and “your eyes smiled the smile of smiles”.

The smooth flow of A Spring of Sweets is a guarantee to keep readers that might not be appealed by the themes of Afejuku’s poems. This makes it an option based collection; you can take the desired substance from the work. But I doubt there’s a mind that will not fall in love with Afekuku’s lines.

This well-paced work doesn’t only give you a concrete imagination of the subjects, you also become the picture. I invite readers to take this journey with A Spring of Sweets, laced with the pure language of poetry.

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