POETRY | 2022 | 127 PAGES
Mellexy: Colours of You (2022) is a collection of poetry by Lanre Sonde, available on Amazon. It is largely a romantic poetry book that looks at love in various forms. “Silhouette” sets the tone with a language that is both sharp and musical. The imagery is figurative with shadows, dreams, gallery of misery, rainbows, silence, and light. The poem is consciously consistent in diction and visual metaphors, curating imagination in truth’s darkroom. It presents a fine blend of longing and resignation; You’re a shadow in my dream/ A blur in my wake. Even in dreamworld, this love is unreachable. And thus, we begin a journey into the surreal and romantic, a mural of lyrical emotions.
This collection tries to give us a taste of colours. Lanre Sonde tries to paint over the world’s default grey with vibrant verses, a recurring motif of light and hue, and an offering of dream-like experiences through sensuous images. The voice is tender and melodic, adopting the lavish romantic features of nature like sunsets, weather, and landscapes.
But love is a slippery theme. At times, the poet gropes for metaphor in a mist of abstractions. Otherwise, it’s a visual echo with flashing lights, sweet nothings, and a trip into fairytale abyss. And the poet admits in Blue Dream, This beautiful fantasy is a perfect gateway from my reality. And this is what we do when we can’t find love (or get it in return), we try to escape—and longing is the perfect vehicle.
I read through this collection trying to figure out the connection between colour and desire. You have to dig into the innards of Mr. Sonde’s lines to discover pigments—the gold in sunrise, the roses and sunflowers, the blue of frustration, the paleness of nights, the palette of flavours, the miracle of apparitions and reflections, rainbows cast in soft waters. In Sweet Pills, taste and colour are juxtaposed. Colours become symbolic. Peach is wine, gold is worth, and love is a happy pill. Also, in Serenade, the visuals and the gustatory culminate in smooth skin like lemonade.
The poet persona’s lover becomes one with nature in, Hold the Dawn for Me. Brilliant title! Beyond the title, the poem also offers a freshness, away from the trope of stars, sun rays and dews on petals. Dawn is the most beautiful time of the day. Sunrise is the moment where light and darkness reach a truce.
Spread your sapphire glow… Hold the dawn for me
Although the image, sapphire, is inconsistent with the shade of dawn, it manages to symbolise it, and logically, the lover character, as a pearl—something to cherish, something to worship. You bring the day to your feet/and set the night to sleep.
Exaggeration is to romantic poems as rain is to Spring. It intensifies emotions and lends weight to sentiments. The poet persona in Oyindamoola Shoola’s poem, ‘You asked if I will choose you,’ implied they would choose death if they can’t have love. If the choice was between my heartbeat and you, /What’s the point of my life? Lanre Sonde says something similar in ‘Dancing in my Soul’:
You are my music,
don't stop,
I'm on your loop
Music, like love, colours our world. Imagine a ballroom of soul, wild lights burning from swinging chandeliers. He emphasises, in Serenade, with you my life is a melody.
The characters in the poems stayed distant, comfortable in the poet’s imagination, unobtrusive on the page. The verses are largely idealised, relying on sentimental images; after all, romanticism values emotions over reason. This may suggest an inclination towards the reader-response theory, where the writer aims to allow each reader their interpretation and experience. Well, love itself is never fully grasped, only felt! Desire remains a blur through the 41 poems, morphing through the pages. Love is depicted as a force, a source of colour to life, and a journey of shared aspirations. It is also described as a catalyst for growth, happiness, and fulfilment, an exploration of self and partner, an avenue to be vulnerable and authentic.
At some point, the reader craves something a bit more tangible. Because what is love without unguarded moments? Love is not eloquent. Affection cannot hide behind metaphors. When you encounter lines like, I woke up with a smile /it’s all because of you, you shift to the edge of your seat, expectant, waiting for a narrative, some event that would make the smile leap off the page onto your lips. At some point in the book, I yearned to see a name, hear a song, find a street or an explicit river.
The collection would have benefited from an exploration of broader themes through the torch of passion. Mellexy: Colours of You could have been a little more adventurous by incorporating social, existential and spiritual themes within personal relationships. But yet, it aligns with romantic ideals with the use of nature imagery, appreciation of beauty and the elevation of emotion over rationality. It’s a book of utopian love verses and nimble lyrics, something to get lost in while tucked in bed for the night.
Jide Badmus is a creative writer who has been a noteworthy poet, editor and leader in the poetry space of Nigeria and Africa. He uses writing as an art of deep reflection, taking even the most unperturbed of minds with him on a quest to find answers. He is the author of well-acclaimed poetry collections, including There is a Storm in my Head and Scripture. He is also an editor with CỌ́N-SCÌÒ MAGAZINE. His website is http://jidebadmus.com.
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