Konya Shamsrumi: What is the process of writing a poem like for you? Is it a lot of hard work or easy?
Isah Aliyu Chiroma: Writing comes to me at any time. It comes randomly, in just about any condition I find myself in. Sometimes, I might be walking, even eating, and see something that I need to pass on to others. I write anytime I want. I do write poems in my head and when I get paper, flush them out to have some ease. I can’t live a day, two days or maybe probably three days at the most, without crafting something. Most of my poems arise from personal experience, what I see around.
Konya Shamsrumi: Please describe your sense of identity in this or any possible world in imagery or metaphor?
Isah Aliyu Chiroma: A garden. I flow with my words, creating a garden where my hungry mind will have peace—like nature, to write on the clouds visible to the world. I am the smoke that moves randomly through the mind of readers, telling them what I saw. I am like the bird’s eye that sees what cannot be seen from the sky. Enfolding my life and flipping through verse, I find inner peace.
Konya Shamsrumi: If any of your poems could literarily save a person’s life, which poem would it be and can you describe the person whose life you think it would have saved?
Isah Aliyu Chiroma: One of my poems that could save a person’s life is titled “off like a prom dress”. It gives advice to budding writers like me, when we then lived together at the threshold. It shows how sad it was to find yourself in that moment. And at last, I gave them advice before waving goodbye. It can save the lives of some budding writer who has passion.
"Off like a prom dress" (c) Isah Aliyu Chiroma We loom In mud Of dreams When tears Gush out Cascading It flashes memories From the centuries Like the rainbow The bone Was chewed Under the sand In a cave Covered by strings Like the spiderweb Catch the train For it will rain In the garden of words
Konya Shamsrumi: What does Africa mean to you, as potential or reality?
Isah Aliyu Chiroma: Africa is a whole world filled with all you need; a place so beautiful to live in, with different traditions and cultures. A place filled with nature and peace of mind, place with a philosophy that tells you I AM because YOU ARE, a place of serenity and happiness. It is the home of the giant poet, Wole Soyinka, who touched the world with his words; home of the Black Rock, with a legacy that can rule the world. We are bestowed with a lot of gifts, and I hope we use them more effectively in the future.
Konya Shamsrumi: Could you share with us one poem you’ve been most impressed or fascinated by? Tell us why and share favorite lines from it.
Isah Aliyu Chiroma: The poem I have been most fascinated by was a poem by Rumi titled In your light I learn how to love. These beautiful lines, written by Rumi, reminds me of some moments in my early days of writing when I found myself in the ocean of love to quench a thirst. But it was a different story in the end. My favorite lines from the poem are:
In your beauty, how to make poems You dance inside my chest Where no one sees you But sometimes I do And that sight becomes this art
Isah Aliyu Chiroma aka The Hungry Mind, is a poet, short story writer and essayist from Bauchi State. He is a student of Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, who derives pleasure from reading and flipping through pages. His work has appeared in some anthologies and he self-published two anthologies titled Ocean of Love and Bliss In the Greens (themed on nature).
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