Adewara Joses is the winner of Wakaso Monthly Poetry Prize organised by the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation for January, 2020. The prize which carries N20, 000 cash is sponsored by Aisha Wakaso. Adewara Josesis a happy poet who writes from Ilorin, Kwara State. His poems and other literary works have made it to some literary tables including NSPP, Tush Magazine, Loudthotz poetry prize, Okigbo Poetry Prize among others. In this interview, Olumide Ojo Emmanuel of TNR seeks to know his idea about poetry.
TNR: Poetry, what is it to you never felt and defined by any writer?
ADEWARA: Poetry is a soul healer, a key and a light.
TNR: What is poetry doing between you, its maker, and the environment in which you live and make it?
ADEWARA: Currently, poetry is whispering in a soprano voice to people around me. I’ll never stop working until its voice gets louder and louder than a gong.
TNR: Poets often talk about the spiritual essence of poetry, what is that?
ADEWARA: Poetry drives the soul, it’s like it owns a key to the seat of emotion. This kind of feeling is not explainable. It’s a mystery in itself. That’s why it is poetry.
TNR: What is that personal feeling, observation or even conclusion that keeps coming to you as a writer of poetry, on the element that will set you apart from the poetry written by others, in the years to come?
ADEWARA: Hmmmm… My voice. Sometimes whispers like a dove; sometimes, like a caring mother; sometimes, like a shepherd; and sometimes, it takes the form of a satirist – another humorous boy in a serious voice, or the other way round.
TNR: Sorry, why are you writing poetry?
ADEWARA: I write poetry because I find life in it. Poetry thrills my soul. On the face of God, I obtain happiness each day, but poetry seems like the best platform to exhibit my happiness to the world.
TNR: Tell us five profoundest lines of yours, ever. The ones you thought were the living words, to have come out of you in poetry, prose, essay or any form of your art?
ADEWARA: A. I am that boy learning how to hold a torch in this dark world
B. Allow me to break into bubbles of joyful songs
C. Fill the bubbles to the brim
D. I see joy on the face of God
E. A body just emerged from the mouth of a star
TNR: Which poet or literary piece has had the most influential mark on your writing?
ADEWARA: So many of them, a few of them include, Adedayo Agarau, Jide Badmus, Pamilerin Jacobs, Warsan Shirer, Chinua Ezenwa Oheato, Adeniran Joseph, just to mention a few. There are so many of them, I can’t even recollect all names.
TNR: Do you consider poetry as the greatest of the literary art?
ADEWARA: I would not say yes. Because every other genre of literature is really great. Poetry thrills me and make me thirst for more, I know other genre of literature also have their own magical powers.
TNR: What do you consider as the most astounding ingredient in any poem?
ADEWARA: Imagery!!! Mahn. Without this, the sense of sight can’t function.
If asked to mention two, then I’ll mention Metaphor too. That, in itself, is a gong that strikes through every line of a poem.
TNR: What other form of poetry have you tried writing?
ADEWARA: Haiku, Acrostic, Limerick.
