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You are the scene in the mirror
You choose not to notice
Like I am your own reflection
Whose journey and destiny you ponder
I am a part of your heritage
The million races that wonder

I think some other poets like myself probably had the need to express their culture, but the wording “juju” keynoted a sign of inferior religion, evil and dirty, it is true.
But in my studies I could visit the juju ceremonies, memories the acts and then find the words for the poetry,
Reading the edited works is like reading poetry for the first time, the collection rekindle the image of innocence as the victim of circumstances branded on us by the foreign culture
Perceived in the eyes of a young Nigerian poet here we see the great re-birth from a son whose circle has been ancestral
Try to explore the theme in the topics, try to read through the lines and see the words that has intrigued poets and writers all over the centuries,
Read the totems of worship, the fact in the story with the words used to describe them and ask yourself how they fit into the lineage
I am “omosun”
Yes I am, that is what I discover, poem after poem, story after story, the author in his own drama…
I was moved with the insightfullness of my own message, discovering myself in every step, it is happening now as I write about me…the “omosun” I knew, the son of juju pot.
I am “omosun’
When I think about it I just get really immersed in it, ironically it was the meaning of the name that gave me the serious interest I had with the African literature
The son of juju…
Sometimes I could just get lost in thought, and a whole picture will come to me, a whole poetry, it frighten me sometimes, looking at my finished works, asking myself if they were mine, yet the answer is there, my hands wrote them, I am not the voice, it was the spirit, it is, yes it was the spirit within
Omosun
Imagining the scenes surrounding the name, is like a painters act, like poetry… once you get the ingredient down you work on them, you can change the word but never the spirit
The study though imbued with religion themes expresses my own personal faith and opinions about my lineage, the fascination of the unknown that has been a part of my life ever since I learned the meaning on my name, ”omosun”

2
“One writes out of one thing only…one own experience, the only really concern of the artist is to recreate out of the disorder of life, that order which is …art” James Baldwin


Wish I with it could only waltz
The study with more skulls than men
Then the later generation will have a name
A dynasty formed by a poetic myth

The words could consolidate the traveled realm
Its factors, faction and fact that whispers by
As our bodies merge with our heart as one
Through birth, death and ancestral arts

My name gave me a hold to what the world has lost, a possession that could make me a god, the “omosun” that is true to the juju deity,
I claimed it because I alone have it to share, with the spirit possessions still intact, as I try to recapture its power through my poetry.
Believe me, the incarnations could work on me as I write, till I am no longer who I thought I was, and the spiritual values in its institution will no longer be confined to the shrine…it will creep over the globe through the work of my hands
My name could give me the power to persuade, because the voice is in me, the thunder of the son
I am “omosun” I give what I have to give, a creation of gods as it has been at its prime, prints from a mind that knew such facts writes about the drama of possession when the son was once as one with the gods
The view of the modern mind is that the name has to die as they trample upon its value and power derived from the racial and cosmic past,
I laugh to think of it, because they were wrong, the spirit has never been killed, it will lie low for a while, and them it will come again, it will grow in us and nurture us, feed upon our mind and body when all hope is lost; such we witnessed at the “Okija” shrine

3
I search for me among a people who are not accustomed to lack of freedom or to a settled life, the true Africans who were fiercely independent to give up the nomadic lifestyle of the old culture we heard about,
I search for me among a people, who find it hard to quickly leave behind a way of our ancestor, its legacy and its folklore,
I needed to be among there natives, the brothers that are not instructed and civilized, these who are free from sponsored dances, these with a freedom of expression, these are the people I sought for the study of the juju culture.
I want to be beside a true shrine, made of stalk thatched over with grass, with the touch of ancestry on it view, because it is what it is all about, the study with the spirit alive.
Long before the white man comes and settled in our nation, my ancestors already living belong to a variety of cultures and ethnic groups, they spoke different languages, eat and worship according to their whims,
I want to go back to the home, home to that time, to a place were it is still evident today, the practice of recording scenes by painting pictures in wall, carvers carving gods on woods,
Such scene will bring back the spirit as I write, encouraging the lust of dependence on our roots, help the writer to fight against or at times writing in confirmation on the barbarities and savagery attributed to my name
I needed a place were I can recognize my ancestors in the art, the ever busy center of ceremonies that could give me the expressive writing style I needed for such study…
I search for me among a people, the “omosun” I am…the name given to me, to mean I am the son, the seeker…
for remain of past human songs
a sign of something of me a tool for ritual
corpses coming fresh like word and rhymes
whose victim’s names I alone knew

I am the son, the seeker…
for festivities covering a vast sweep of time
the story of the effort of many a freedman
things that formed a racial existence
against liars whose value was forfeited

I am the son, the seeker…
Who wished to recreate all events through poems,
The many ways a group of people expresses itself
The festivities and parade of images and arts
The different view of events that shaped my culture

I am the son, the seeker…
for something of me,
of what the foreigner thought as inferior
the myth and legends that taught me a lesson
telling me am its slave and its defender
protectors of the lane our ancestors trod

I am the son, the seeker…
who wished to explain why we live the way we do
The past, certain events, of such period and why
In addition to the ever changing lifestyle
The culture unchanged to suit our whim

I am the son, the seeker…
Of the pride of tradition from many ethnic groups
The racial, natural, religion and ethic background
Deferred by the way in which people reflect the
Heritage of their past and this author’s dreams

I search the earth for me because I needed
To create it as new as the age of which they originate
Cropping the dialect of each tribe
The scenery influenced by tradition
Blending into a single nomadic inheritance

You can see the pride on my poetry and arts
Through the ceremonies that mark important occasions
The very strong sense of family and community
Strengthened the commitment to call the arts ours

Such a faith brings back the memories
Of a struggle for the freedman dream
An effort to preserve the heritage
By the tradition of our racial enslavement

I search the earth for me because
I wish to tempt you to watch the dances
Buy the craft and tap the language
Its is your personal duty as mine is to create
A way to preserve the heritage and its art

A culture of captive years call the tendency
Regarding oneself first as an ancestral
By the custom of many lands and of many people
To whose such pride is solely African

3

Writing about the drama, the rich body of folklore is considered an honor to the gods, like the belief in immortality, the stories I write calls me close to a tribute to a black man’s bravery adepts like the ancient people and rich in artifice of ancient wealth.
When the “omosun” dies he was lead into the world of the juju by the sacrifice made within the pot, The juju pot represent a different world, the idea place of the gods,
With mud and slims in a creators hand
To write on a slate with painted chalks,among people who likes to adorn themselves by tattooing and painting their bodies
Just like our fathers who honor the tradition
By keeping history of the ceremonies pictures that recorded the events fighting to maintain our way of life

2007-02-23 06:10:36 · 2 answers · asked by urdeen s 2 in Arts & Humanities History

2 answers

No one can turn that into an award winner but you. I suggest you buckle down and learn to write. Some books to get you started:

The Elements of Style by Struck and White
Books from the Writers Digest Fiction Writing Series which includes:
Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Dialogue
Plot
Action, Conflict & Suspense
Revision
and others.

2007-02-23 06:20:33 · answer #1 · answered by loryntoo 7 · 0 1

Gesundheit.

Edited to add: Regarding the below answer: It's STRUNK and White.

2007-02-23 14:15:39 · answer #2 · answered by Viktor Bout 3 · 0 0

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