Why are you writing: To impress or wear a dress?

By Su’eddie Vershima Agema

These days it is very easy to find anyone and perhaps, everyone, say they are writers. It gets really yuckish… You go like ‘I am a writer’ and discover, you could easily have said ‘I am a human’. But that isn’t our talk for today. Question is simple:

Why are you writing?
The question has been on my mind for some time as I work on new endeavours in poetry and yes, my prose. You know, the famous poet, Christopher Okigbo once said ‘He writers poetry for poets’ and so had his verse in tangles that till date are a bit more difficult than untying the Gordian knot with one’s hands. For some of us too, we simply just write without giving a thought to what our words are saying…

For a few there is the pressure to write in a certain way especially because some awards have been placed on one’s shelf… Others need that award and just write in certain ways… Recently, I was working on a few pieces and discovered some writer buddies speaking oddly.

So, you see someone say: ‘I have had my chattels purloined by bandits who have left my existentialist preoccupations exacerbated.’ And you wonder… Eh? Say what?!
But it gets worse with poetry. And that is where the major issue comes… Poetry can be a tough bone to chew. It doesn’t help matters when some people decide to simply just jumble lines and throw them at you…

So, I bring this question to you today: simply, why do you write?
If I were to give my own answer as I have come to realise it more and more, I would say we should try to be as more open as possible. There’s much to say and a lot of people will love to hear our thoughts…

Who knows, your words might be the soothing to get someone out of a particular pain: and it doesn’t matter if you are simply ‘rambling’ about your day like my sister, Yemie or flowing with the spirit like David Ishaya Osu…or even Ene Odaba, Jennifer Emelife or Sibbyl Whyte… who knows… Whoever you are, don’t underestimate those words or what they could mean… So, why waste them?
These days it comes to me more often, the value of our essence. The beautiful essence of our presence in words, art or just living… Each moment counts, every word relevant… would you make yours worth it?

Su’eddie  Vershima Agema won the Association of Nigerian Authors Joint Prize for Poetry 2014. He blogs at http://sueddie.wordpress.com and can be reached at [email protected] @sueddieagema on Twitter.

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