S is for Sensational...Seismic...Shift...and Soyinka

Soyinka, Wole (1934 - )

What can I say about Wole Soyinka? Poet, playwright, activist, he is often called the most compelling literary voice of Africa, the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature, the conscience of Nigeria.  

He was my first African poet, read when I was barely in my teens, and whatever shift happened, was indeed seismic.  His poetry is life changing, truly.  Today I am responding to his Lost Poems.

Inventory

I’ve lost some poems.  And some things much greater:

the silent shapes of leaves; returns to roofs; rains

on them; only a vague hollow remains

that’s hard to recall; traces vanish later.

Green darknesses, the creaking of old swings;

pressed flowers, in memory of events

themselves dim now; evanescence

in many forms; in various dimmings.

Hearts have beaten somewhere below my own

and dimmed; perhaps easier not to dwell

on those that cannot be defined too well;

stick to concrete losses, summed up and shown

on paper scraps, tickets and snaps; because proof
is paramount. Here they are: poem, swing, and roof.

Anyone did for you what Soyinka did for me? :) Gave you goosebumps, and Stood your ideas of poetry/writing on their heads?







Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2015