(In memory of Kofi Awoonor. A poet has fallen)
Poetry as a genre of
literature attains among other functions raising socio-political awareness. How to Euthanise a Cactus by Stephen
Derwent Partington (SDP) actually does that without wasting time. The anthology
plunges the reader into ‘Nightmares’ as the first poem. And the whole
experience is bleak and nightmarish.
He begins: “There are truths we cannot write/for fear of
jinx” and continues; with absolute melancholy: “There is an old, unspoken
contract/that obliges us to leave such dreams/unspoken./We compact them like a
grave.” The poet sets the stage for horrible things happening to fellow
humanity of which we have little intervention hence he quips: “the death we
couldn’t act to alter.”
Later, the book veers off into the heartlessness and
deceit that characterized the Post Election Violence (PEV) after ‘stolen’ presidential
elections in 2007. Recounting the incidents of January and February 2008; the
poet employs irony to mock at peace. He says in ‘Lethe’: “When peace erupted,
none of us was ready.” However, the next poem praises those who refused to
participate in the orgy of violence that claimed about 1,333 Kenyans with
several displaced. SDP lauds those who changed their minds at the last minute
out of empathy and human sensibility; something that separates us from beasts.
In ‘Wonder of the
World: A Study of Exodus’ the poet scorns at the obsession with the wildebeest
migration that was declared the seventh wonder of world when evicted children
wandered helplessly without a place to go.
Other poems tackle various themes ranging from
geopolitical issues such as the ‘The Arab-Israeli Question’ to political
hypocrisy in ‘Politicised Funerals.’ Notably, ‘Shopping in Zimbabwe’ grabs the
limelight with its satirical shots aimed at a country presently accustomed to
sanctions. SDP observes: “In a lush land, nothing grows/along the furrows of
the shelves.” But things are depressing if the citizens lack means of survival.
“Behind, the mortuary supermarket, /cool and white, is offering its shelves.”
Empty promises aimed at the youth are covered in ‘Dream
Deferred’ while the consequences of graft explored in ‘Soda.’ In ‘Social
Physics of Mikokoteni’ the poet offers the daily struggles of the common man
and the simplicity of life in pushing the handcart when he notes: “Mikokoteni
know the love of equilibrium/and simply get along.”
There are also poems of nostalgia such as the remembrance
of a student who committed suicide and cases of love lost found in ‘Etchings.’
Parenthood is found in ‘Present at Keelhauling’ and ‘Parenting Baby and Beyond’
where the persona demonstrates gladness at having a baby. Discontent with the
weather is depicted in ‘Kenyan Morning, After A Single Downpour During Drought’
where the persona uses personification to express the feelings of inanimate
things such as the soil and the morning. The poet also pokes fun at religion
toward the end of the collection in ‘Fun Forgivingness: an Addendum.’ He
remarks: ‘And in this version, which all school kids/through the centuries have
mimicked…”
Stephen Derwent Partington’s poetry stings the
conscience; rattles conventions but most important; it makes the reader uneasy
yet maintains its aesthetic value of raising the bar of poetry to higher levels.
The anthology is a must read for all who want to enjoy poetry.
