Born in Lockdown

<p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Poets have always had the capability to travel inward - to create something out of the chaos of their inner world.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>It is why poetry is said to be cathartic for through it the poet eases himself of his burdens.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>But beyond that poetry is also a tool for reflection. Oh poetry cannot be stuffed into a single purpose for it is the expression of human emotions in line and verse in styles and forms rhymes and metres. And so it acts has a way for the poet to transmit what he sees thinks and feels in his inner world those abstractions into something tangible.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Stuck at home in the loud silence inflicted by a lockdown where does the poet turn to? What does he turn to? His inner world?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Tolu' Akinyemi's </span><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Born in Lockdown</em><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)> is a collection of poetry birthed in such a traverse. The poems explore the pandemic and lockdown and the myriad feelings effects and reactions it birthed.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>The collection begins with a declaration of the poet's utter despair:</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>There is a pandemic in my head</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>raging like boiling water.</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>There is a war in my mind</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>tugging at the deepest part of my soul.</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>There is a thunderstorm in my heart</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>wreaking havoc like it is doomsday.</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>At each flip of the page you come across poems that are either personal or reflective or poems that are querying in tone. On how the pandemic disrupts intimacy Tolu' wrote:</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Your love in my heart was innocent</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>and untainted</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>until COVID crept in</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>and the veil of deceit was lifted.</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>What's appealing about this collection is the simplicity of Tolu's style and the softness of his metaphors. His similes and imagery are like the vivid strokes of an artist on canvas; they're not ambiguous. You read lines like:</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>The silence in this house is eating me up like termites ravaging wood.</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>This is poetry - minimalist yet pronounced in what the poet was able to use simple words to achieve.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>In this collection Tolu' has proven himself a master of language using words to weave moods and emotions. You oscillate between the heaviness of loneliness to the grief of a wrecked relationship to the hope of vaccines that will save the world. This collection promises you a titillating experience.</span></p>