Yawns and Belches

                                 By Nehru Odeh

Professor Joe Ushie is under no illusions about why he writes poetry, where his interest lies, on which side of the socio-political divide he stands and what he does with poetry. That’s the reason his verses brim with the plight of the oppressed, the oppressive tendencies of the rich and powers that be and the common fate that awaits them all.

Still, the Cross River State-born poet who teaches English at the University of Uyo would rather stand with the oppressed who yawn because they have nothing to eat than dine with the oppressors who belch because they have eaten to their fill.

And he has proved his bent unapologetically and showed where his sympathies lie with his collection of poems entitled Yawns and Belches, which are indeed poems about the human condition, poverty, suffering, lack, squalor and disease as well as the affluence of the few in society,   how the poor toil and the rich reap without toiling.

The collection of poems is made up of 56 poems through which run themes such as the widening gulf between the rich and the poor as well as the same universal fate that not only binds them but awaits them in the end.

Ushie recently attested to this on 7 August at the NNLG/ CORA Book Party. Asked why he writes poetry, he said without mincing words:  “I must say that my attitude to writing has been very consistent. … It is a question of the lot of the human condition. When we say we are human, what it means is that collectively there is that thing, the firmament that ties all of us together.

“But in reality, we are divided into two, not two in terms of North and South, East and West but in terms of those who are belching because they have eaten to their fill and those who are yawning because they have nothing to eat. That is my division of society.

Joe Ushie

“So if you look at the collection, there is this dichotomy between those who are eating and continue to eat, whether they are of one religion or the other. What ties them together is that they are eating. And those who are not eating, those who are yawning. That’s what runs through the poem…So much of our society, especially the Nigerian society is divided between those who are eating and those who are not eating. That’s why the other is Yawns and Belches.”

Just as the multiple award-winning poet and scholar Professor Niyi Osundare is described as the Poet of the Marketplace, it would not be out of place also to describe Ushie as The Poet of the Streets, what with his preoccupation with the vain toil of the masses, the oppressed in the society, which Frantz Fanon described as the Wretched of the Earth.

And he set the tone of his political poetry right from the beginning of the collection with the poem entitled Letters on the Streets. In that poem, Ushie affirms the triumph of the streets, that the streets have taken over, not taken over power per se but that it has invaded the abode of the Muse. The poet sings:

I haven’t stopped writing poetry, I now tell the tale / The streets envying the long monopoly of the Muse, raided it…

I haven’t stopped writing, I now tell the tale / Tired of being measured out in the Muse’s miserly doses / Poetry escaped onto the streets, crowning the streets as its new Muse.

The poet’s thematic concerns, as it relates to the grim realities of the streets, the widening gulf between the rich and the poor, insecurity, and climate change run through the collection. Poems such as Letters on the streets, Yawns and Belches (the title poem), One with the Beasts, Lame God’s, Africa today, Paternoster of African rulers, Weird harvest, Message to my congressman, The farm hut, The big man etc deal with such thematic concerns. The creative way the poet rewrote Our Lord’s Prayer in the poem Paternoster of African rulers is also worthy of note. He sings:  Our father / Which are in D. C. London and Paris / Hallowed be thine names / Thy rei(g)ns must be …

In Yawns and Belches, for instance, the poet sings: Divine wisdom created the fingers unequal but / supplies both the shorter and longer ones equally / Man carved democracy for the equality of all but / Supplies health to a few and death to the majority.

Still, one salient feature of Ushie’s poetry is its Africaness, not just in terms of theme but also in terms of style – his fascination with traditional poetry. The poem entitled The farm hut typifies this. It says:: In those days when the sun reigned / We spent blissful nights in farm huts / Where we stacked our stomachs with / Stacks of all species of the yam: ogakwu / Omulang, Uwhulkem, ashia abwai, ugedie / Unwanikai, ukemakpe, shipang, shifting / And scorned yam’s subordinate, the water yam / with its henchmen of udei idiobuo / Ugbekono, azihe whule.

Ushie’s major strength in this collection is his facility with language, his use of strong metaphors, and his command of words no matter how long to pass his message across and prove his points. Such confidence is rare in poetry, a genre of literature that is wary of language and stingy with words. Ushie’s poetry, especially its long lines and freedom   reminds one  of poets such as Walt Whitman of the Leaves of Grass fame and Allen Ginsberg, the beat poet of Howl fame

One can also see the influences of poets such as the Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore,  Niyi Osundare, Derek Walcott, and Tanure Ojaide, poets who he mentions in his poem, Letters on the streets.

And poetry, like a long-locked prisoner, leapt out / Of the closet, fled into the open arms of the streets / Singing on its own the refrains of Walt Whitman’s song /

Of Neruda’s song, of Niyi Osundare’s song, of Soyinka’s song / Of Ojaide’s song, of Gabriel Okara’s song, of Kalu Uka’s song. 

As the poet leads the reader from one poem to the other in a world that teems with the biting poverty of the poor and the superficial affluence of the rich as well as a world-beating funeral drums to the grave, what with climate change and corruption, he cannot but follow him (the poet) on that pleasurable journey into sound, lyricism, metaphors and palpable imageries. I recommend the collection to everyone, both those who yawn and those who belch, no matter the side of the divide in which they belong.