Tag: Poetry

 I’d never forget the day he died, Marzuq looked me in the eye and I saw how much pain he was in. He was just nine months old. He was laid on the bed, as usual on his back for his siesta.

You realized later that life was giving you a poetry lesson. Teaching you that just because the first line came out right didn't mean the rest of the poem would. Sometimes the metaphors would refuse to come through. The imagery, no matter how hard you tried to paint it, would just not appear right. You would look everywhere for the perfect punchline to end the poem, but you would not find one. Life was telling you that just because you thought you were good with words did not mean that they would always come to you whenever you needed them. And sometimes, you just couldn’t write a poem, just like you could not write your life into poetry.

I would tear pages from my books and write what I felt. Unfortunately, my mum found the papers. I was beaten black and blue. I stopped talking and writing. I now write like my life depends on it, because it does.

...meaning, a peaceful day in June is a cold day in July; bullets are like raindrops on the mother of green...

I cannot write a poem that does not originate from some deep part of me, and usually, these poems feature people, things, or situations I feel connected to. My mother’s poem being my first significant poem just reminds me that I have not lost that part of me even as I get older. I am grateful for that. 

However, I write every day when I can, so that I can genuinely rest on the days when I am experiencing a creative block. This means I do a lot of scheduling and pre-writing, because how else will we be able to stay consistent in a world where you are not always 100%?

Heiress is set to release Carl Terver’s Glory to the Sky on August 25, 2024.Carl Terver is known as one of Nigeria’s best contemporary writers, mostly of the essay form, and a well-rounded critic.