Poets Talk: 5 Questions with Kayeon Onyeka

My sense of identity is that of an observer making sense of every scene that presents itself. More like a camera capturing what is presented as it interprets the images into photos. But I must admit that even as lenses get blurry.

My sense of identity is that of an observer making sense of every scene that presents itself. More like a camera capturing what is presented as it interprets the images into photos. But I must admit that even as lenses get blurry.

What is the process of writing a poem like for you? Is it a lot of hard work or easy?

Kayeon Onyeka: Writing a poem is pretty easy for me mostly because writing usually serves as an outlet. It is often as though I am trying to exhale. So, I simply do it. However, I may not get the perfect exhale (that is within this context) at the first attempt but will definitely let out air. Another reason writing is easy for me is that I employ things around me and experiences as writing prompts. That way I could easily write about sitting on a chair for instance. The only challenge may now be channeling the writing and editing it to a language and structure that grips and engages my audience. Generally, writing comes to me easily but memorizing the poem doesn’t. It’s always a Herculean task trying to get my poem into my memory for reciting or performing.

Kayeon Onyeka

Please describe your sense of identity in this or any possible world in imagery or metaphor?

Kayeon Onyeka: My sense of identity is that of an observer making sense of every scene that presents itself. More like a camera capturing what is presented as it interprets the images into photos. But I must admit that even as lenses get blurry, my view of the world will always be coloured by personal preferences, ideologies, experiences and emotions. I am constantly evolving in my interpretation of the world while staying rooted in my belief that I am created in God’s image worthy and capable of greatness

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?

Kayeon Onyeka: Recently someone messaged me to say they would sometimes listen to my poem, You, and weep as a reminder and encouragement in their life’s journey.

I think in a world of billions of persons navigating life, You makes a person feel seen, really really seen.

Another poem of mine that could save a life would be Courage. Even for me that poem is healing, therapeutic and strengthening all together. Someone else messaged me saying they had the lyrics of the poem plastered on their wall as a reminder that in their own way they are courageous. Most times people measure courage by the dramatics of buzzing feats, but in our everyday life courage could just mean dragging yourself out of bed on a morning when your life is falling apart.

Courage 
by 
Kayeon Onyeka

Courage is not always a Superman
Courage may never have been to the gym but builds muscles from carrying others on their shoulders.
Courage is a raised hand in a class full of doubts saying I'll try
Courage is choosing a handshake over a fist fight.
Most times courage apologizes first

Courage is my mother one kind heart with a thousand hands, sits at her local shop and turns two fishes and five loaves into five thousand enough to feed five children, enough to put five children through school and have 12 baskets left of ndah, inoma, meaning how is it with you, are you there are you alive if not you can breathe my air.

Courage is the man that denies him after the cockcrows three times

Fourth time courage in you comes out of hiding saying, I know him, I'm still learning to stand by God on the nights fear takes him away with a kiss.
My faith may be in the emergency care unit but it's still breathing. I know him

Courage is not always the first to jump out of a burning house sometimes courage is on the ground floor, caught in the fire trying to save a baby
Courage is when your head is a market and the only good selling is unbelief and you still find a way to purchase I CAN
Courage is not always the one who pulls the trigger but the one who stands before the bullets to say you may kill my body but I'll never let pain take my soul.

Courage is staring at 5 suicide pills and choosing to swallow I'm not dying today.
Courage is choosing to be a seed for everything that plants you in the ground.
Courage is waking up even on days when your life seems like an accident, and being your own hospital, gathering every broken and teaching yourself how to walk again.


Courage, baby courage is YOU

You can listen to the poem and others from my album LIGHT (Or via Youtube below).

What does Africa mean to you, as potential or reality?

Kayeon Onyeka: Africa means a body of glory and a bag of questions hand in hand. I often wonder how a people could be so great yet be so limited in their relevance, domination and reach. The reluctance of Africa’s leaders to fight for her or self-preserve the continent is beyond me. But then, how she thrives despite challenges! And how pain is a testament of her greatness. A bag of questions because I sometimes wonder if the continent’s peoples ability to “survive” is not the bane of her problems, the excuse to keep tolerating, the endless struggle. For maybe if she snaps, Africa can rebuild and live instead of just surviving. For life is for living not merely surviving

     

Could you share with us one poem you’ve been most impressed or fascinated by? Tell us why and share favorite lines from it.

For spoken word poetry, Rudy Francisco’s poems interest me. I particularly like this line from his poem, The heart and the fist.

“The difference between a garden and a graveyard is only what you choose to put in the ground.”

Kayeon Onyeka is an exceptional, award winning spoken word artist whose works transcend issues of governance, human rights, faith, and love, with the utmost goal of influencing change at personal, sub-national, national and global levels.

Kayeon notably performed at the Nigerian 2023 Presidential inauguration: Investiture of National Honours and Official Handover of Transition Documents Ceremony, which held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She has performed at high-level events organized by international organizations like USAID, UKAID, FCDO, BBC MEDIA ACTION NAIJA, amongst others. She has equally spoken at events of high national importance where her message had focused on patriotism and good governance.

Kayeon is equally a development practitioner with over a decade of experience in advocacy for social justice for marginalised groups in Nigeria, and continues to employ storytelling and spoken words as a tool to drive public and stakeholder action on national and global issues. She is trained in Advocacy, Peace Building and Countering Trafficking in Persons.

Kayeon believes in a Nigeria where the leaders and citizens work collectively and passionately for its development, and communicated this in her poem “No Sidon Look” featured on BBC MEDIA ACTION NAIJA.

Kayeon has released an exhilarating collection of her works in her debut album, LIGHT, 2024.

Richard Ali
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Richard Ali is a Nigerian writer whose poems were first published in 2008. He has served in the National EXCO of the Association of Nigerian Authors and sits on the board of Uganda’s Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation. A member of the Jalada Writers Cooperative based in Nairobi, his work has been published in African Writing, Jalada, Saraba Magazine and elsewhere. The Anguish and Vigilance of Things is his debut collection, was published in 2020. He practices Law in Abuja, Nigeria.