Review Title: Line of Sight
Author: Ismail Bala
Number of Pages: 114
Publisher: Praxis Books
ISBN: 978-978-975-375-8
Reviewer: Ojo Olumide Emmanuel
Introduction
The beauty of a poem does not lie alone in the craft of its poesy; it also bothers on the word consciousness of the poet. In this debut collection by Ismail Bala, the poet invites the reader to a conscious journey of words, a kind of poetilogue where the poet is the conductor, the lines and stanzas are the wings bearing the reader to the land of poetic mysteries.
The collection is an anthology of eighty-one (81) poems basking in different flavours. The poems expresses love in different shapes, mugs of friendship, colours of grief, realities of pain, solitude of family, pretence of politics, relics of colonialism and they are also a memoirist recollection of people, places and things.
The poem “Winter Show” expresses how mundane things like playing in the rain could carry greater poetic value /lurking about like kids playing sentries…two palace guards fire water guns at each other/ [1].
In the poem “Leaving Alexandria”, a place is personified as a woman /…in the morning, your head on my laps…I looked down at your elegant eyes…you held my fingers in your hands/. To a poet, places are souvenir of concrete abstractions in his consciousness; those places are alive in his mind even when his body is in absentia [2].
The poem “Tasting Champagne for the First Time” shares the sentiment of a poet who likens to poetry to a costly wine /Each night once my spouse goes to sleep, I begin to smuggle poetry under our beddings…/. The poet considers this routine sometimes like extracting a tooth then again his desire for poetry increases [5].
In the poem “On the Death of a Nearby Neighbour”, we see the fondness shared by two people irrespective of their geographical/ideological identities. Where visitation and occasional tea shared are the glues bonding their hearts together /it was me he was hunting for…my presumptuous love of tea and the dull colours outside the window/. The last stanza of the poem emphasizes the need for people to edge above racial prejudice /if only the grim reaper had checked his flawed map then stop to clear the fog off his windscreen with the sleek of his cloak/. This is an allusion to colonialism [6].
In the Poem “Going up to Lagos”, Lagos is etched as a woman with /a small behind, it looked like a box…big chested too, the back of her tattered corset looked like a gapping mouth/. Beyond these lines is an intense desire to dwell there/…how I longed to laze like a portula beside her as she slept/ [9].
The poem “Like a Parasol in the Rain” exemplifies how pain is the first chapter of the book “Life”/I’ve seen time damned like a Parasol in the rain/. A parasol is a sunshade or small light umbrella. It is ironic to place it in the rain. Life does that [10].
In “The Picture”, the poem is a love poem, almost erotic. It brings one to the depth of a lover’s heart/…or your spouse to saunter sleepily in her worn pink bathrobe, and grab the curl over her eye/ [11]
The poem “Eccentricities” talks about how magical a festival is and the questions it pops in the mind of kids. The child’s mind is fascinated by even the meaningless [14].
The poem title “Case for Poetry” opinionated the susceptibility in the interpretation of poetry and how its depth has been ravaged by less poets/…swans gather on a big patch- and mock the fading darkness/ [15].
The poem “Early Harmattan” talks about heartbreak/when all the world is quiet, and then man rinses his face/[24] while the poem “Little Night Fun” espouses the pain that comes with missing someone dear /I couldn’t think of anything to say. The sun ended, night turned chilly/ [pg28].
The poem “I wish I could Draw You” is also a good dosage of love poem /…your looks as soft as the soul and your braids pitch back, I wish I could draw you/ [33]. The poet was magnanimous with the leaflets of this collection to the subject of love.
“Poetry Inc.” is a kind of meta-poem where a poem talks about poetry /I trim on the stacks of abhorrent poems on the production line…manufacturing you poems from discarded words…/ [pg45]
“The Blots are Everywhere” decriescolonialism and every form of human subjugation/…and bringing villages and towns to destruction…arresting poets…and still yet dark blots spread over the palace grounds which no amount of bleach will wash away/. Palace in that line represents places of authority [pg45].
The poem “Darn of Words” is a kind of obsession for poems/…in the morning…my bedding was poem darned/ [pg58].
In the poem “Some who makes a Hill Feel Empty” is a poetic swipe at critics /don’t make the poems feel empty by scheming through them…/ the scheming here is logical elided not to portray a kind of skimming through a work by critics without really searching its depth or meaningfulness. The bone of contention in this poem is that knowing fully well that the poet is also a critic, what is he jetting at?[pg61]
The poem “A Small Reed Makes me Ponder” emphasizes the bigness in little things and why we must pay attention to them including the tit-bits of what we say/words already said! Errors committed! /[99].
In the last poem “Sunday Morning” paints an image of a man thriving in lust/…the new maid…I never anticipated her to be so dashing/ [pg105].
In conclusion, one notable flavour in the collection is its European disposition. The Un-Nigerianness of his poesy is quite noticeable.Although this review is not exhaustive in discussing every poem, it important to accentuate that this poetic collection “Line of Sight” by Ismail Bala is a new wine willing to intoxicate every reader. It should be relished, enjoyed, cheered and even toasted in clinking of glasses among friends.
Ps: the collection is avid with gorgeousness. While beer drinkers are advised to drink responsibly, everyone is advised to drink (read) this collection irresponsibly (to intoxication and staggering).
