Suddenly,
Like dawn spreading across the mountains.
A mighty army appears!
The likes of them have not been seen before
And never will be seen again.
They march like warriors
Scale city walls like trained soldiers
Straight forward they march;
Never breaking rank
They never jostle each other
Each moves in exactly the right place
They lunge through gaps
And no weapon can stop them
The Lord leads them with a shout
This is his mighty army,
And they follow His orders.

Joel 2: 2, 7 & 8 (New International Version)

In the beginning…

Wole Soyinka and William Shakespeare were my most significant literary influences.

I met Soyinka on the pages of The Lion and the Jewel and fell head over heels in love with his fierce vocabulary and satirical writing style. His characters and settings were a far cry from the modern life I had always known. Imagine my joyful adventure at the vividness with which his words jumped to reality in my mind.

Macbeth, the tragedy by Shakespeare, rich in literary devices opened my senses to the subjects of twinning plots and intricate characterisation. In poetry, Shakespeare did sonnets like no one else and helped make verses easier to decipher.

Coming nearer to home in contemporary times, Peju Alatishe’s Orita Meta and Eghosa Imasuen’s To Saint Patrick, in theme and style, have come quite close to reenacting that rush I get from Shakespeare.

Importantly though is the tutoring by first class English Literature and Language teachers while I was in secondary school and creative writing school. They had the presence of mind to see the writer in me and build on it.

Imagery of SoldierGirl

I see myself as a part of God’s army and one of the weapons of my warfare are the words He has given me. These are also words through which He gives my life definition and  purpose.

My quest is to learn more than I know and do more than I am doing. Naturally, I’m a junkie for heartwarming moments and tears-of-pleasure inducing experiences. In the drive for all these, I open my spirit, soul and intellect to the wonders of life.

Of Writers and Writing paper

I use words to love and preserve, heal and bind. I use words to bring images, visions and dreams into the physical. I use words to construct, paving stone after paving stone, roads I want to travel. I use words, shimmering dust after shimmering dust, to orbit far and near fantasies.

Sunrise to sundown to sunrise
I use words,
thereof I am.