From time immemorial, the written word has been a great tool to document experiences and tell stories, and “This City Knows My Name” by Abayomi Abiru is no exception. Multiple Award-Winning Author and Newcastle based poet, Tolu’ A. Akinyemi reviews Abayomi’s debut offering.
Poetry has always been a genre that draws its strength from the brevity of language, imagery and metaphors that convey a thousand words. The collection begins with the poem, The Language of Rising:
here looks nothing
like home:
on mornings,
the train hoots
in a language of rising—
a deafening arrival.
The first two stanzas are the reality of many migrants, whether for economic reasons, displacement because of war or other natural disasters or whatever personal reasons. These immigrants soon face the reality that no matter how pleasant or welcoming their new abode is, there can be no place like home.
The last stanza of this poem, /but here, unlike home,/only silence makes noise.
Migration is never easy and for many, it’s always difficult adapting to their new environments. And this would resonate with many who take advantage of the inter-connectivity and free movement in the World today to seek a better life.
The next poem to analyse in this collection is “Seedling in a New City” and the first stanza is striking:
no one takes to a boat,
except home grows wild and
hungry enough
to devour stars
and the dreams of tomorrow.
This poem resonates because many young people in the poet’s home country, Nigeria, are always on the lookout to emigrate from their country because of poor leadership and the lack of opportunities. When home grows wild and starts to literally kill dreams, then people, irrespective of their age, seek pastures new.
The last three stanzas in this poem epitomise that beauty can also have ruins:
everything in this city
looks like maltase dogs:
just friendship and loyalty.
maybe there are ruins
but i am blind to them.
i sow my hope in the loam.
soon, i shall have
a garden radiant with dreams.
Juxtaposing this poem into a real-life situation is that people may migrate for a better life, something better than what they presently have and not because the new destination is the definition of perfection. As long as they can have:
a garden radiant with dreams.
The last poem to analyse in this collection is, “Let Me Go Back Home”,
i have been talking to these walls
since I got in here but
they only reply with echoes
every evening, after work,
emptiness walks me down
to the bedroom. the portraits
hanging on the wall
stare at me like a stranger
this place is really unfamiliar
i am tired of this crazy
company of silence and boredom
The first three stanzas symbolise the culture shock that many encounter when they arrive in new cities and their companion is silence. The poet’s allusion to emptiness walks me down/ to the bedroom. the portraits/ hanging on the wall/ stare at me like a stranger/
Signifies how destructive migration can be to the human spirit and how loneliness breeds longing.
And in the last two stanzas, the poet re-echoes that the deep love of a family could be a catalyst to go back home. And by comparing freedom to a longing to go back home, the poet subjects freedom to various interpretations and leaves it to the reader to make a conclusion.
maybe this is what
freedom means—a longing
to return home. to return to
the chores of my mama
the yelling of my papa
my brother jumping over me
the deep love of a family
Abayomi Abiru’s debut shines through and through, and he is a poet to look out for.