This little work, written from a rather personal angle is a testimony that literature itself is a society in motion; the very mirrore of the diverse possiblity of life and human potentials; a curative art and an effective theraphy for societal problems.
Dolapo Adebowale's YES I DO modestly has taken its own turn in the poetic projection of love. and her it is love at the juvenile level: Love whis is superlatively idealized and uncompromisingly romanticized. Love is presented by the poet for readers' consumption as a sweet and sour menu. and so in the book, love-menu becomes both delicious and painful; enjoyable and frustrating; traumatic and luscious; agonizing and blissful; thirsting and appetizing....the woman of course is the target, the boject focus. the man constantly gets on her nerves, an angel holding a spark of light to guide the woman, a miracle which gets the woman amazed.
Love to this young poet is the fresh falling rain, the wind that sings, the big full moon at night and the sunbeam dancing at noon in the room.
Excerpt
The problem addressed in the collection is the problem of lover....there is no doubt that the most enduring lines ever written by man (from Solomon to Paul, to Shakespeare and down down to the Nobel laureates) deal with the theme of love. this is becuase love, as a phenomenon, is great: 'Now abideth faith, hope and love, these three but the greatest is love'. 'though i speak the tongue of men and of angels and hath not love, i am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbals'. 'the course of true love never did run smooth'. 'love suffereth long and is kind. love envieth not'.
and what exactly is this thing called 'love'? 'A misunderstanding of between wto fools!. 'whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish....but it is love which never faileth'.
FLAME FOR YOU
i have a flame for you
no matter what you say
no matter what you do
this flame will forever
burn red and hot for you
i want to wrap you in my arms
and make you feel so passionate
this heart is on fire
and you are my greatest desire
i want you and only you
UGLY DUCKLING
I stood in front of our bedroom standing mirror
and marveled at my state
i was as dark as charcoal;
as bloated as a ballon
i checked my wardrobe
in prepatation for a party
i discovered i had moved from size 12 to 18
i must settle for a maternity gown
i sat in our dining chair
and watched my husband devour his lunch
the 'iyan' and fresh vegetable i prepared
But appetite eluded me
i watched as 'it moved'
i counted the onths and weeks
i waited eagerly for its arrival
buying 'this and 'that' in shops
i think of myself as an 'ugly duckling;
but he sees me as a beauty queen
carrying his unborn child
to be delivered in twenty days time.
Using Calgary as a backdrop the author satirizes the self-serving nature of the public as it continues to fatten itself, not only physically, but egotistically as well.
