Jan 07 2009
The Poet’s Identity
Contributors to the magazine One Ghana One Voice are talking about writing and identity for African poets. This discussion was prompted in a comment made by the Ghanaian performing poet, Mutombo, who challenged the poets to focus on producing skillful works that embrace techniques of poetry. Other poets have responded that poets should not be expected to follow specific standards, but to be creatively independent. The discussion is now centering on what it means to be an African poet. Should African poets continue to be influenced by Western poets, or should they be masters of their art, seeking to influence other writing cultures.
This is where my interest comes in. In my poetry I let the creative urge take me wherever it wants, at least at the draft level, but once I revise the poems for the public, I have the responsibility to produce high-quality works that satisfy me and my readers. But who are my readers?
Anyone who is going to find my works interesting, anyone who is going to be moved by them. The debate at OGOV is important in that the poets seem to care about what they do; some want to define their art and get into it with a clear sense of direction; others are interested in advancing their creativity, and if the work is done well, according to creative freedom of the poet, then it should appeal to a niche of readers. Poet Reggie Kyere wants to get a clear sense of what African poetry really is, Mutombo wants poets to respect the techniques of the genre, while poets like Prince Mensar are interested in creative freedom and a great sence of identity as Africans. I try not to worry about fitting myself in a category, and I believe that the fact that I am an African writer will already also mean that my poems are African, yet applicable to other human experiences.
Perhaps then the issue is about the need for a poets to be original, to give their worldview, while working hard to make sure that the product is well-executed.
As a member of the OGOV, I have also contributed comments to the discussion. Here are the comments:
After writing and teaching poetry, I am once again committing myself to revising and learning the basic conventions of poetry, the ones we break, as Anonymous pointed out. The problem with some writers who advocate the breaking of convention is that sometimes they do so before they learn what it is they are trying to break. Think of music and what musicians have to learn: there has got to be that basic note upon which you can develop an individual style, otherwise there will be problems of acceptance.
Rob, Edith (whose poetry is rich with imagery, tropes, etc), Mariska and others (Reggie!), I would love to see this dialogue grow; I think as poets we owe to ourselves and our readers, as Mutombo suggests, to learn our skills well.
Mary Kinze, experienced teacher of poetry and practising poet, as described poetry as always provisional and temporal, that you are never done writing that poem, even the ones that have been published here on OGOV. Even Yeats would consider rewriting most of his poems. She goes on to say that poetry, even “after it has hardened into print”, continues to “to represent a risk, a chance, a surmise, or hypothesis about itself.”
The tool that we work with as poets, language, is too risky; it often fails to capture the meaning we seek, if we know it, hence our escape to imagery, and other gimmickry (and as Edith said, “It’s all good”. To some extent). So as we revise our works, let’s put the medium (language, words) to use, work it until it delivers…
For those seeking to use the Writer’s Service, this would be the best time to work with a very critical me, because I have committed my brief winter break to understand what poetry wants….
While it is true that as Africans we have our own kind of poetry, I’m certain that some African poets writing today have no idea what that “kind of poetry is”.
Is it poetry informed by traditional praise poetry? Is it informed by grio chants? Is it from the beauty and rhythm of traditional African conversational games, e.g. as in traditional riverside courtship encounters? Or is it poetry only concerned with content over form?
Is this truly African poetry written in African languages? Is it something that can be taught or is it something inherent in all Africa poets? What skills do you have to learn from the African masters to produce that poetry? Or is each poet the original master of this poetry? What sets if apart from, say, Indian poetry? The experiences? The way we render the experiences in words?
Or is it really important for a beginning African poet to attempt to answer even half of the above questions?
