Welcome to Brittle Paper Spotlight, a monthly series featuring emerging writers whose work have been published here on Brittle Paper. Our August Spotlight star is Nigerian poet Omodero David Oghenekaro. Omodero’s poem, “Where the Poem Begins”, which was written in response to Saddiq Dzukogi’s, “What the Poem Said”, is definitely a highlight of our July published work. The poem captures the difficulty of handling the weight of grief and how language and poetry eases open a space for expression. Beyond his beautiful poem, Omodero can also be found in the comment section of other artists’ works, praising and admiring the craft of his fellow creatives. We are delighted to feature Omodero as our first Spotlight star and invite you to share in the conversation with him.

Omodero was born in 2003 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree of Biomedical Technology at the University of Port Harcourt. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming on Brittle Paper, Lolwe, IceFloe Press, Afreecan Read, Rigorous Magazine, Eremite Poetry, and elsewhere. Besides writing it himself, he loves reading poetry so much that he hopes to know enough to teach it someday.

Brittle Paper

When did you first start writing and was there something or someone that inspired you to take up your craft?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

Firstly, thank you so much for this opportunity. This is my first interview, so this is really special to me and to everyone who looks up to me. I began writing in late July last year. It was in a period where I was basically idle at home. I had just finished secondary school and was seeking admission into university. I was thinking of a girl I had crushed on my entire life in secondary school, and how my introversion had been a major hindrance to me engaging with her in conversation. At that time, I was filled with a thick sense of hate for the kind of boy I had been. I longed to be bold like the boys I had seen talking to her. Writing happened almost spontaneously. I soon realized I could summon all the boldness I wanted to pull off onto a page. The mere thought of this made me feel powerful. I could re-paint what never existed: her, crushing back on me, me, opening up on my feelings, our minds becoming one in the flutter of moments.

Brittle Paper

Is there a particular author who you look up to?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

It would have to be Chigozie Obioma; mainly because he’s one person I’ve thoroughly read and enjoyed both of his novels. The Fishermen is one hell of a novel. I keep returning to numerous scenes where he literally twisted language like a French curve. His two Booker Prize shortlistings fill me with so much hope. There’s also Ocean Vuong, who I admire so much for his unconventional inventiveness with forms, and his dazzling ability to sift through violence with such tenderness, drawing truths from intimate spaces. Then there are Gbenga Adesina and Saddiq Dzukogi who I recognize as two of the finest poets in the country.

Brittle Paper

Let’s do a quickfire round: name your top three books?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

  • The Famished Road by Ben Okri
  • A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  • The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Brittle Paper

Our readers know you best from the powerful poem published last month. What inspired “Where the Poem Begins”?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

My writing process often starts with a flurry of thoughts that follow themselves in a rhythmic procession. I was thinking of a shipwrecked man, standing before the sea that claimed parts of him, as a symbol for a body in lament. I thought of him, also, as a sole witness to the cruelty of the world (the sea). Before then, I’d read Saddiq Dzukogi’s “What the Poem Said” published on Glass: A Journal of Poetry. I was at once fascinated by the repetition of “the poem said…” throughout the piece. For me, this showed the amazing capacity of a poem to serve as witness to the poet’s ache. In a way, it was as though the poem, “the mouthpiece of a body unable to speak”, affixed itself to the poet’s mind, and began to speak for him who could not speak for himself.

I wanted to write a poem that, while alternating between two POVs, captured the internal collapse of a man with attention to language. I think now of the concluding lines of Saddiq’s poem, “the poem, same as a song, same as a lamplight shining back at its creator”. When I began writing the poem, I had no idea where it was headed; the lines kept rushing into my mind like the fragments of a song whipped up by memory. Halfway through the process, I started having a faint hint of where this poem was going to pull up. It struck me, then, that the real poem, by which I mean the real question behind the theme of loss I was exploring, was in the silence that followed the explosion of the treasure chest in which the man’s ache was said to be contained. Questions, as Ben Okri writes in his novel, The Freedom Artist, are said to be answered by subtleties of silence. I felt fortunate to have this revelation wrap up the poem.

Brittle Paper

How do you feel about the current trend on Brittle Paper, which you seem to have instigated, that sees our poets in conversation with each other?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

I feel like there’s a spontaneous outburst of young talent on the Nigerian literary scene. When I learned that the poem Ariyo Ahmad wrote after mine was accepted by Brittle Paper, I was filled with so much joy. It’s a good thing to excel in your craft, but it feels more fulfilling to see people fashion distinct beauties from your work or style. And I think this is the order in which things should follow in our individual pursuits of language.

Brittle Paper

To end off, what is one thing about yourself that you want to share with our readers, apart from your writing?

Omodero David Oghenekaro

(Exhales) Okay, I do sing, so well. I often joke to myself that if poetry hadn’t come along the line, perhaps I would be doing covers every now and then. But then I’m not even fully equipped for that. Once in a while, I shake my body to music, too [laughs].  I also have a very great voice for spoken word poetry, though I’m yet to consider that.

Brittle Paper

Thank you for taking to the Spotlight and chatting with us and our readers.

 

As part of the spotlight, we will end the week with a new poem by Oghenekaro. Brittle Paper readers can look forward to reading “Grieving in the Aftermath,” which will be published right here on Friday.