I’d like to thank Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (author of The Whispering Trees and Season of Crimson Blossoms) for this interview with the Daily Trust. (And also a nod to their illustrator, who has managed to take 20 years off my age in the accompanying picture, as well as reverse the blindness in my left eye.) Cheers!
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Great interview! I feel such a connection to your poems, and the interview helps me understand why. I too have come to poetry later in life; I am just beginning my own poetry self-study.
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Thank you so much for reading! I hope you are keeping well. And congratulations on beginning the adventure! I wish you perseverance, courage, a sense of humor, a sense of awe, and all the joy in the world…
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Enjoyed this interview very much! I also treasure the community of poets and writers made possible by the internet–which, at least in my experience, is characterized by generosity, genuine interest in the work of others, and the kind of lively exchanges and responses you describe. And I also see this as qualitatively different from the sort of practices found in the tradition of the academic mainstream. For us, relevance is not incidental, but central.
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Mary, thank you for reading. I like to think that regardless of how we arrive at poetry, whether via academic mainstream or some other, smaller, less-known tributary…I like to think that all the poems eventually wind up saying something important to someone, all somehow part of a global conversation.
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Love the thoughts about how poetry “puts you further in.” Much to mull on here. Also, fun to learn about how *your* two names work! (As someone else who goes by two names: Alice is the writer and the written voice; Emily is the in-person person. 🙂 )
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Thank you so much for stopping by and reading! (In truth, I hadn’t really thought some of these things through until I was asked the questions — *I’m* still mulling the implications of a couple of those answers! 🙂
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