<body><div class="booster-block booster-read-block">
 <div class="twp-read-time">
 	<i class="booster-icon twp-clock"></i> <span>Read Time:</span>2 Minute, 42 Second </div>

 </div>
<h4 class="wp-block-heading"> <strong>TITLE:</strong> AS I STROKE MY CHIN HAIRS<br> <strong>AUTHOR: JOSEPH WODO</strong><br> <strong>GENRE: </strong> POETRY <br> <strong>NO. OF PAGES:</strong> 32<br> <strong>PUBLISHER:</strong> WORDS RHYMES AND RHYTHMS LTD<br> <strong>YEAR OF PUBLICATION:</strong> 2019<br> ISBN: <br> <strong>REVIEWER:</strong> EUGENE YAKUBU </h4>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Wodo’s poetry isn’t the kind that makes you rack your brain to decipher meanings, they are all there, the ideas, bare and unalloyed, even though the point they fathom sometimes seems surreal and even unreconciled. </h5>



<p>The poems leave you with the feeling that they have a deeper connotation and end just when you’ve been immersed in limitless suspense allowing you to inject meanings into the poems or even struggle to weave ideas the poet leaves hanging in order to appease your heightened emotions. </p>



<p style="text-align:right" class="has-medium-font-size"><em>As I Stroke my Chin Hairs</em> might seem just like a poet’s testament to his personal experiences. It has done more than that. It uses the poet as a backdrop to discuss bigger social and political issues, delving into topics of identity, life, nationalism, love, and adolescence. </p>



<p>The chapbook has poems that are rooted in Nigerian politics, poems that lament the anxiety of growing up, poems that glorify love and still yet scorn it, subjective poems that recount the poet’s identity and his bidding to come to terms with his different shades of personality. </p>



<p>The poet might not have delivered on his subject
matter, only discussing archetypal issues in a detached, typical and mechanical
manner, but his style would speak effortlessly to a wide range of audience. And
the interesting thing about the poems is that they possess a strong use of the plural
pronoun “we” which implicates the readers in the subject and leaves lasting
footprints of the poet’s words echoing in their minds.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" src="https://www.wrr.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/As-I-Stroke-My-Chin-Hairs-cover-663x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-37367" loading="lazy"></figure></div>



<p>The poem <em>To My First Chin Hairs </em>is a laudable feat for its amusing and thrilling imagery and careful choice of diction. The poet humorously refers to beards as “little soldiers of maturity” and personifies it as a character with the ability to feel, grow and even hear. Then the sarcastic poem <em>Here’s to Nigeria, Isn’t she Great?</em> begins as an ode to Nigeria but turns out a satire and rebuke of the evil system of corruption, tribalism, and exploitation of the poor bedeviling the nation. </p>



<p style="text-align:right" class="has-medium-font-size">Wodo lends his voice to the group of poets that write politically charged poems and use their society as a backdrop for their creativity. </p>



<p><em>The Desk </em>is another witty poem which criticizes the needless bureaucracy in the civil service and the red-tapism that has bottlenecked the Nigerian civil service. </p>



<p>There are a lot of interesting poems that will interest readers and even though the poet hints at these ideas and refuses to reconcile them, the reader can still feel the magnitude of the poorly developed themes struggling to surge through every line in the poem.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" style="text-align:center">Download the book in the link below.</h4>


<div class='w3eden'><!-- WPDM Link Template: Default Template -->

<div class="link-template-default card mb-2">
 <div class="card-body">
 <div class="media">
 <div class="mr-3 img-48"><img class="wpdm_icon" alt="Icon" src="https://www.wrr.ng/wp-content/plugins/download-manager/assets/file-type-icons/pdf.svg" /></div>
 <div class="media-body">
 <h3 class="package-title"><a href='https://www.wrr.ng/download/chin-hairs/'>AS I STROKE MY CHIN HAIRS BY JOSEPH WODO</a></h3>
 <div class="text-muted text-small"><i class="fas fa-copy"></i> 1 file(s) <i class="fas fa-hdd ml-3"></i> 1.03 MB</div>
 </div>
 <div class="ml-3">
 <a class='wpdm-download-link download-on-click btn btn-primary ' rel='nofollow' href='#' data-downloadurl="https://www.wrr.ng/download/chin-hairs/?wpdmdl=37366&refresh=693248b16c5131764903089">Download</a>
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
</div>

</div>



<p>Wodo is a promising poet that has a lot of homework for his craft which, I believe, needs polishing. His themes are topical issues and have the capacity to open our discourses in society and even in politics. With a little attention to his style and techniques of poetry, he would make a popular name in the field of poetry.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" src="https://www.wrr.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/As-I-Stroke-My-Chin-Hairs-JH-1024x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-37382" loading="lazy"></figure>
 
 <div class="booster-block booster-author-block">
 <div class="be-author-details layout-square align-left">
 <div class="be-author-wrapper">
 <div class="booster-row">
 <div class="booster-column booster-column-two booster-column-mobile">
 <div class="be-author-image">
 <img alt="" src="https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b14a71cef6bb9fae6826785715e23466f23c43267f9c0dc6b52b6944367bb3df?s=400&;d=mm&;r=g" class="avatar avatar-400 photo avatar-img" height="400" width="400" loading="lazy"> </div>
 </div>
 <div class="booster-column booster-column-eight booster-column-mobile">
 <div class="author-details">
 <header class="twp-plugin-title twp-author-title">
 <h2>About Post Author</h2>
 </header>
 <h4 class="be-author-meta be-author-name">
 <a href="https://www.wrr.ng/author/yeugene/" class="booster-url-link">
 Eugene Yakubu </a>
 </h4>
 <div class="be-author-meta be-author-description">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.</div>
 <div class="be-author-meta be-author-email">
 <a href="mailto:%20yeugene78@gmail.com" class="booster-url-link">
 <span class="booster-svg-icon booster-svg-envelope"><svg class="booster-svg" aria-hidden="true" role="img" focusable="false" viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24"><path fill="currentColor" d="M0 3v18h24v-18h-24zm6.623 7.929l-4.623 5.712v-9.458l4.623 3.746zm-4.141-5.929h19.035l-9.517 7.713-9.518-7.713zm5.694 7.188l3.824 3.099 3.83-3.104 5.612 6.817h-18.779l5.513-6.812zm9.208-1.264l4.616-3.741v9.348l-4.616-5.607z"></path></svg></span>yeugene78@gmail.com </a>
 </div>
 </div>
 <div class="be-author-profiles">
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
 </body>
REVIEW OF JOSEPH WODO’S ‘STIMULATING’ POETRY COLLECTION ‘AS I STROKE MY CHIN HAIRS’
