“If a poem hasn’t ripped apart your soul; you haven’t experienced poetry.” -Edgar Allan Poe.

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Photo from Titi's twitter page

Hey everyone! Kedu? Bawoni? How far? My middle name might as well be PROCASTINATOR!!! Everytime I pick up my phone or laptop to write this particular post, I end up doing a million other things.

Let me just go straight to the point. I mean, I’ve wasted enough time already.

You see guys, I’m at this point in my life where poetry is just IT. As in, if I don’t read a word of poetry in a day I might as well loose my mind. What surprises me is the way I spark after reading it. Seriously, a sister ain’t lying. I read a line and I’m just shouting. Screaming. Saying things like;

“Tooooo Maaaaadddd”

“Deeeeeppppp”

“Lllooorrrrdddddd or Laaawwwwdddd”

One would think I’m in the spirit.

Take it from me; POETRY IS SPIRITUAL!

I’ve always been a lover of literature. But the secondary school literature didn’t really resonate anything within me. If anything, I learned them dutifully just so I could make an A in WAEC but I ended up with a B. LOL!

They had complicated grammatical structures and it was a daunting task looking for imageries, metaphors, smileys and all manner of figures of speech. I loved it but I still didn’t appreciate it and so I couldn’t write poetry. I told my self, I could not write poetry.

Early this year my perspective on what an actual poem should be changed. And I saw things differently when I stumbled upon RUPI KAUR, IJEOMA UMEBINYUO, TITILOPE SONUGA, LANG LEAV, NAYYIRAH WAHEED, YRSA DALEY-WARD, WANAWANA UDOBONG, UPILE CHISALA, SARAH KAY etttttccc. And then I found SPOKEN WORD POETRY. AND THAT WAS THE HEIGHT!!! (Joshua Bennett’s Spoken word is life, blood and water)!! Argue with yourself!

These women have ripped my soul apart with their words. I bleed just reading their poems and then I write. That’s the scary thing. I WRITE POETRY.
Their poetry is different from what I’ve always thought poems to be.

Titilope Sonuga recently embarked on a poetry workshop on Instagram. She got people to write poems, giving them prompts. It was an 8-day workshop and poems were posted with the hashtag #deartitilope – Please check them out if you’re on Instagram and while at that, follow me : chimdinma_onwukwe (I was coerced to join IG because of POETRY)
I challenged myself and I must confess, I can’t remember the last time I was that dedicated. I saw my self putting down words and writing things I never would have written. It was one of the best eight days of my life.
From tomorrow, I’ll be posting my poems and I’ll give you guys the prompts. You might challenge yourselves to some of them. And I’ll put up the pictures of some of my favorite poems from dear titi’s workshop.

I love what Rena Minegishi said;
Read more women. You will find a resonance so deep and so real once you read women poets, because they know
exactly what you’ve been through, they’ve been talked down by male poets, they’ve been erased from
textbooks.

Maybe that’s why I started writing poetry. These women opened and cleared a path for me. I can relate. I’m in tune. I don’t remember a single female poet from the compulsory exam focus text we needed for literature in senior secondary school. Sad

I’m so proud of these young women that are coming up. I’m so proud of this generation. They have changed my life. When the workshop began, I had no idea a lot of people would be interested. Oh boy! I was wrong. People can write. The talent we have in Nigeria…toooooooo beautiful! I’m so proud of myself and the woman that I am becoming.

So my people! I’ll be posting the poems from tomorrow and the prompts. Ans It’s so funny because the workshop was a kind of shrinking workshop. It got emotional. Seriously!!!

I encourage you to work with the prompts and write poetry.

See you tomorrow. Morning-ish!

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Love and plenty sunshine!!!

xoxo

Adriel©2016.

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