Thirst: Of Desires And Emotion

Book Title: Thirst Author:       Fodio Ahmed Publisher:  Kraft books Ltd, Ibadan Pages:        63 Year:            2015 Reviewer:   Paul T.  Liam Fodio Ahmed’s “Thirst” encapsulates the exigency of youth and the quest for meaning in life. The poet takes his reader through a private journey in search of love, peace and comfort in a society bedevilled by […]

Book Title: Thirst
Author:       Fodio Ahmed
Publisher:  Kraft books Ltd, Ibadan
Pages:        63
Year:            2015
Reviewer:   Paul T.  Liam

Fodio Ahmed’s “Thirst” encapsulates the exigency of youth and the quest for meaning in life. The poet takes his reader through a private journey in search of love, peace and comfort in a society bedevilled by ills. The poet attempts to reflect on the canvass of pages, his thoughts, emotions and the pains of striving to attain relevance in an odious society. The collection contains fifty poems and in the opening piece the poet metaphysically introduces himself to the reader with the poem titled “I” where he says of himself; “I am that I am/
Crawling in this valley of poets/I am; I am/ a wave of rumination” (stanzas one and two, P.11). the poet’s eccentric introduction of himself as an abstract creation could be his very own way of explaining the complexity that poetry and poets are and might have been drawn from the common knowledge by some school of thought that poets are the eyes of God. Hence his use of the allegorical biblical definition of God, “I am that I am”
The poem “Thirst” reflects the assertive desire to succeed in spite of the limited time available to man on earth. The poet who already sees himself as a god is not oblivious of the course of man and nature. In the poem he speaks like a god with certainty and authority. He asserts with much confidence in himself as if he were some Messiah;
From the hums of dusk
My breath sieves verses of existence
Before sleep snatches
My essence from the
Vegetation of dreams
From the temple of words
I shall plant hope on lump vineyards
That peace may find rest
(p.15)
The poet through the persona ridicules the dictum which says that youths are the leaders of tomorrow in a society that seems to be against the future of the youth in the poem “And.” This piece captures the reality of the dysfunctional system which hinders the growth and development of the young by leaders who are bent on calling the shorts albeit paying little or no attention to the pillars of the future. The poem also depicts the anger and frustration that occupies the young poet’s mind which forces the persona to inquire rhetorically;
How are we to console?
Our bruised hearts
Amidst poisoned values
And dying inspirations?

Beliefs are divorcing reality
Like falling leaves they hymn “You are the leaders of tomorrow”
When my “Today” is dying (?)
(p.14)
In the poem “To my fathers” the persona expresses disappointment in the deeds of his fathers and rejects any possible attempt at conviction, he speaks as one who has come of age and is aware of the failures of his fathers. He sums up everything in six lines as if there is nothing to talk about them. His anger is well registered and one can but only hope they listen to him;
I need not an orator
I need not a seer
For this deed;
Your tree bears no fruit
The refuge I seek
Is a scab etched on my fathers’ shoulders.
(p. 20)
But Just as Ahmed’s society is complex so also are his desires and aspirations, his emotion swings from anguish, grieve and lamentation to passion, love and the caprices of a lad, undecided about the direction of his romantic emotions. At one point he is afraid of the uncertainty of the future and in another moment he is overwhelmed by the passion of youthful lust such as these lines attests:
I long for an end to wet dreams
I am seeking the virtue of fresh secrecy
A secrecy that needs
No stammering negotiation
When I wake up
I shall ignite the search for a damsel
(Dry Dream, p.44)
Although the persona in the poem “Dry Dream” fantasies over the opportunity of a ‘fresh secrecy’ and hopes to ignite the search for a damsel. It would however seem that he eventually finds that ‘fresh secrecy’ at last in “Desert Future” a poem he dedicates perhaps to the lucky damsel, Marhunat Abdullahi where he submits victoriously:
A future peeping by Friday
A Friday sends me lingering smile
A shy smile of decency
Now, my heart is ablaze
From the scribbles of Marhunat’s tone
(p.58)
As if to assert the accomplishment of his wish in “Dry Dream,” the persona reaffirms his victory in the second stanza of “Desert Future; “Marhunat, a unique verse upon pages of my being/with which/I seek shelter for a future.” The paradox in the persona’s quest for love comes in multiple folds as it could be deduced from his presentations. He ends up not finding just one damsel but many as can be adduced from his affairs with “Rashida” where he states emphatically; “Our future is a flame/Ignited by the match-stick/of a certain wish.” In stanza two, lines four to seven, the persona confesses of Rashida’s bewitching powers; “The bliss of her stream/Soaks my body/With warmth/It sooths my craving”. (p.59)
Finally, “Thirst” is a fresh collection of poems just as Ahmed is a 26 years old young man, and in it we are confronted with the manifestations of a young man’s realities in an adult world with little considerations for the young. I therefore enjoin the society to join me in wishing the poet victory in his struggle for survival and meaning just as he wishes for himself in the last poem of the collection, Wish; “I wish victory for THIRST”,  Amen.
Paul T. Liam is a Poet and Short Story