Skip to content
Words Rhymes & Rhythm

Words Rhymes & Rhythm

Words Rhymes & Rhythm Publishers

Header Advertise
Menu
  • HOME
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR CSR
    • CONTACT US
  • cọ́nscìò
  • FEATURES
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • ESSAYS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • WRITING TIPS
  • POETRY
  • FICTION
  • SUBMIT
  • NEWS
    • CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
  • PUBLISHING
    • PUBLISHING PACKAGES
    • 7 REASONS WHY
  • DOWNLOAD
  • Home
  • FEATURES
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • REVIEW: OYINDAMOLA SUCCESSFULLY DROPS MEANINGS IN ‘BUT HERE YOU ARE’
BOOK REVIEWS

REVIEW: OYINDAMOLA SUCCESSFULLY DROPS MEANINGS IN ‘BUT HERE YOU ARE’

Eugene YakubuApril 19, 2019August 3, 2020

Share

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Read Time:2 Minute, 34 Second

TITLE: BUT HERE YOU ARE
AUTHOR: OYINDAMOLA SHOOLA
GENRE:  POETRY
NO. OF PAGES: 33
PUBLISHER: WORDS RHYMES AND RHYTHMS LTD
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2019
ISBN: NIL
REVIEWER:  EUGENE YAKUBU

Oyindamola’s But Here You Are needs careful analysis to garner the points they tender: subtle themes and ideas weaved in elevated imagery and concise language seeming pregnant with metaphors and feministic ideologies, gender dialectics, subversion of patriarchy, identity and loss.

The tone of the poems and the spontaneity and indifference the poet writes each line and verses in leaves the collection in no doubt as a literary piece written more for the writer’s healing than the reader’s. The poet sees words as an avenue where she can unwind and make sense of her place in the world.

The poem Biography is both witty and stunning and gives the impression of someone running away from himself and trying to bury herself in “pronouns” and in the pages of a book that will, in the end, be left unopened. The poet craves therapy and coming out of herself through words seems to be enough healing for her “demons” which she is abandoning in the book.

The poems read like a fast-paced spoken-word, with striking puns, distended metaphors and apt conceit. In short lines and concise verses, the poet successfully drops her meanings in sometimes just a single word, or even a line, the other lines or verses only trying to foreground the theme in the poem.

Icon

‘BUT HERE YOU ARE’ BY OYINDAMOLA

1 file(s) 668.44 KB
Download

Sometimes she avoids clarity like a dream taking the reader into the deepest recesses of his thoughts trying to infer meaning. Other times she concludes the poem vaguely, with open-ended rhetorical questions and leaves her words resounding in the reader’s mind.

This effect, which she masterly uses is enthralling and after going through the poem, the reader can only release his breath, halt for a minute and wonder “How do you teach a child to lie and blame him for having it tucked in the/ closet of his ears?” (16), “Is this sin of being human not a two way street of creation?”

I particularly savour the grandeur of the poem Humility. It reiterates the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln which says “Great things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” While the poet personae in the poem wait for the door to be opened to him, death comes in with a “spare key of unfulfilled dreams, old age, and a failed self.”

The poet discusses viable topical issues of gender separatism, gender subversion, feminism, toxic masculinity, and identity and she does so with an inverted, but poetic diction that beclouds the meaning, only releasing it to readers who are willing to go down with the poet to her inspiration and follow each line carefully in order to unearth the poet’s ideas.

This is a good effort and I believe every reader will come out of this collection with new stories and ideas at every new reading.


Icon

‘BUT HERE YOU ARE’ BY OYINDAMOLA

1 file(s) 668.44 KB
Download

About Post Author

Eugene Yakubu

Eugene Yakubu is a book critic, reviewer and storyteller. He loves art and nature; and spends his time reading beautiful novels and writing stories. He reviews Nigerian books for Authorpedia.
yeugene78@gmail.com

Related

Tagged But Here You Are, SHOOLA OYINDAMOLA

Post navigation

Previous

Previous post:

REVIEW: TUKUR’S ‘A BOY’S TEARS ON EARTH’S TONGUE’ COMMUNICATES IN CLEAR AND PRECISE DICTION

Next

Next post:

REVIEW: EMMANUEL FAITH LAYS BARE THE MYSTERIES OF THE CORPORATE WORLD IN CHRONICLES OF AN INTERN, ‘A BIBLE FOR INTERNS’

Say something about this post Cancel reply

Categories

GET PUBLISHED!
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Comments
  • May 27, 2014

    CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: FR. ALBERT JUNGERS POETRY PRIZE (#AJPP2014)

  • November 25, 2012

    CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2012

  • November 5, 2012

    WOOING REBECCA [for Rebecca Effiong Okon who hates Poetry]

  • May 9, 2013

    I NEED AN AFRICAN WIFE

  • February 7, 2021

    CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST [FEB/MAR 2021] — ‘WHAT WOULD YOUR ANCESTORS SAY?’

  • February 6, 2021

    CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ‘REGENERATION’ — CỌ́N-SCÌÒ MAGAZINE ISSUE 1, VOL 2, APR 2021

  • February 2, 2021

    EOPP 2020: AGEMA, AWODIYA, BADMUS & KOLADE TO JUDGE ₦100,00 POETRY PRIZE

  • January 27, 2021

    REVIEW: CHUKWUDI NWOKPOKU HAS A MASTERY OF LANGUAGE WHICH SURFACES IN MOST OF THE POEMS IN ‘HEARTBEATS’

  • Ariyo faith adeshewa

    GOD’S WAY OF STAYING BEAUTIFUL BY ADENIRAN JOSEPH

  • Karlo Sevilla

    LIFE IN BPO (the evils of business process outsourcing)

  • Becky

    REVIEW: “SHOMEFUN TAKES THE GIRL CHILD THROUGH ALL THE CONFLICTS SHE MIGHT FACE AS A WOMAN” IN ‘A LETTER TO MY CHILD’

Close
Menu
  • HOME
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR CSR
    • CONTACT US
  • cọ́nscìò
  • FEATURES
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • ESSAYS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • WRITING TIPS
  • POETRY
  • FICTION
  • SUBMIT
  • NEWS
    • CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
  • PUBLISHING
    • PUBLISHING PACKAGES
    • 7 REASONS WHY
  • DOWNLOAD
Social profiles
  • HOME
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR CSR
    • CONTACT US
  • cọ́nscìò
  • FEATURES
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • ESSAYS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • WRITING TIPS
  • POETRY
  • FICTION
  • SUBMIT
  • NEWS
    • CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
  • PUBLISHING
    • PUBLISHING PACKAGES
    • 7 REASONS WHY
  • DOWNLOAD

Related Post

REVIEW: CHUKWUDI NWOKPOKU HAS A MASTERY OF LANGUAGE WHICH SURFACES IN MOST OF THE POEMS IN ‘HEARTBEATS’

27 Jan 2021

REVIEW: IN ‘THE PLEDGE’, FELIX DURU SHOWS THAT WHAT TIES US TOGETHER AS A NATION IS MORE THAN WHAT SEPARATES US

26 Jan 2021

REVIEW: THE POEMS IN ‘HOW TO VIEW THE WORLD FROM A GLASS PRISM’ SEDUCE READERS TO STEP OUT OF THEIR HEADS AND GO SEARCHING FOR MEANING

26 Jan 2021

REVIEW: TAI OMOAKIN’S ‘BROKEN STRINGS’ IS NOT CLOUDED WITH IRRELEVANT ALLUSIONS AND OVER-FLOWERY DICTION

26 Jan 2021

REVIEW: “SHOMEFUN TAKES THE GIRL CHILD THROUGH ALL THE CONFLICTS SHE MIGHT FACE AS A WOMAN” IN ‘A LETTER TO MY CHILD’

26 Jan 2021

SUBLIME LIVES: A BOOK REVIEW OF PROFESSOR EMEKA ANIAGOLU’S A TALE OF TWO GIANTS: CHINUA ACHEBE & WOLE SOYINKA by Kirsten C. Okenwa

17 Jan 2021

ABOUT US

Words Rhymes & Rhythm Ltd. (RC 1234112), publishing and educational institution that supports and promotes Nigerian writers and writings talents through several initiatives like contests, prizes, and an annual literary festival. Our publishing susbsidiary is AUTHORPEDIA.

CONTRIBUTE

QUICK LINKS

  • CỌ́NSCÌÒ
  • CONTACT US
  • DOWNLOAD E-BOOKS
  • PUBLISHING
  • SUBMIT TO WRR
  • SERVICES
  • HOME
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR CSR
    • CONTACT US
  • cọ́nscìò
  • FEATURES
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • ESSAYS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • WRITING TIPS
  • POETRY
  • FICTION
  • SUBMIT
  • NEWS
    • CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
  • PUBLISHING
    • PUBLISHING PACKAGES
    • 7 REASONS WHY
  • DOWNLOAD
Copyright 2012-2021, Words Rhymes Rhythm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.