SCAR IN THE HEART OF PAIN
By Uche Uwadinachi : A Review
By
Onuchi Mark Onoruoiza
SCAR IN THE HEART OF PAIN by Uche Uwadinachi is a voluble engagement of pain as a brazen metaphor that transcends colour, creed, class, culture and clime.
The poet embarks on a clinical odyssey into the realm of pain; the height of his inventive poesy is enmeshed in an ambience of contrastive echoes, meandering through waning voices, slouching through undergrowths of perplexity in a universe of vociferous venoms.
The collection is a three pronged poetic excursion into the sublime limitations of a vilified voyager who against the odds of tidal floods of pain in a miry wilderness must stand the herculean currents of Medusa’s plagues.
The intricately woven tripod slices through each phase with a carefully laced lexis on a seamless glide across multivalent and technical but understandable nuances. The 70 paged collection parades 51 poems screened into three sub-themes as earlier indicated viz:
Curse (18 poems), Cure (19 poems) and Course (14 poems)
The relevance of this corpus is premised on the happenings in the society as a raw material for intellectual experimentation, the poetics of a canonized universe.
A voyage across his skillfully crafted musings will attest to his polemical amplification in his Heart of Pain:
Each turn multiplies pain// in the closest vein// another aching day//paralyzing the waking dawn.
The grim picture he paints evokes vivid impulse with volcanic power and capacity to trigger a revolution. The height of his frustration is ignited by a world that quakes in the constant drama of pain and this forces him to bellow In Stigma, I scream for the world beyond// to wrap me in its eternal darkness//but all in vain.
He uses Scar as a focal odium to drum home his gross disgust for pain. He graphically captures the lumpen proletariats who struggle to survive in a world of harsh realities, where hustling is the dogma to stay afloat. In Survival he quips, Feeding to avert hunger// clothing to avoid nudity//laboring to redeem debts//leaving to lay dead.
His diversity of pain is well captured in Lies, here he frankly posits that the world we live in is dysfunctional, where pretence is the rule of the game.
Lies
What music are you//Playing to an excited cripple?//Why spice chicken//For your toothless grandfather?//You console an impotent king //With beautiful nude virgins?//Such gift of a radio//For a lonely deaf friend?
In the second phase of his excursion, Cure, his curative antennae comes alive with the passion of a matador who anchors on the inevitability of change as an endearing antidote to Curse. He postulates the way forward in Cure, Not a plastic surgery//Not a royal shroud//Not a quick suicide//Only a confrontation//Of//You by Us can We//Overcome the aged scar.
In the last stanza of Curse to Cure, he fires, Today as it sails// I shall face the scar// And declare my demand to dew. This posturing affirms his poetic thrust as a never-say-die fighter with a quest for a lasting cure. His parabolical inclination and metaphoric depth is engaging. This debut reflects the polyphonic voices of the performer-poet.
In his rhetorically laced engagement as versified in Dream, he shoots,
‘What is dream?
It is the world
Of the hardened fighter-
He never gives up
Until he hears his last breathe puff-
His skin may be spilled
But the mind is his heavy weight.’
This evidently speaks volumes and the sharp diction of the poet attests to his thematic concern as a voyager on a lyrical flight, from the vale of horror to the height of redemption.
He transits to the third phase, COURSE with a high level of momentum effortlessly romanticizing flora and fauna elements. Here he goes on a sundry cruise - motley of vibrant echoes.
He takes us through the path of nature as the idyllic option of perfect bliss. In Its Tides: Our Times, he spills, Morning…//Blowing breeze//Whistling canary birds// in sound clash-orchestral//Choruses to wake sailed soul//For fresh corn to sow. He eulogizes nature in its pristine form in virtually all the poems in this segment. His creative candour in etching words with colourful charm is what makes this new offering a delightful read.
The poet has been able to elegantly present the collective plight of a generation in pain, in a universe of hate as reflected this debut collection by a versatile performance poet, Uche Uwadinachi.
