I’m proud to share that my poem, The Heart’s Archive, has been published in the ATLA Journal.
The Heart’s Archive explores the experience of an African individual who grapples with challenges and aspirations tied to life in the diaspora. It combines personal reflections on cultural displacement, resilience, and an unyielding faith in a hopeful future, using the comforting and hopeful words of Psalm 23. Through repeated expressions of anticipation and visions of peace, security, and legitimacy in the African homeland, the poem highlights a profound yearning for stability and recognition amidst the adversities faced abroad. It conveys a strong sense of spiritual reliance, enduring hope, and the resolve to see a future where the African dream of dignity and legitimacy is fulfilled.
The Heart’s Archive is available alongside 6 other contributions in the ATLA journal for purchase (£2.99 for a digital version and £9.99 for a printed version).
Alternative Thought, Learning and Action (ATLA) is a “creative community made up of teachers, artists, researchers and community organisers with a passion for the necessity of collaboration.” The ATLA Journal “is a collaborative publication compiled from a host of goodwill and genuine friendships with contributors who are all part of our community.” (ATLA 2024).
Hey everyone, it’s been how long since my last post? Almost a year? Wow, that’s shocking! I think it’s also very telling about how life has been for me since April 2023 (when I last posted on this site). There are many events that have happened since last April, the purpose of this post though is to highlight on just one of those events, the release of my debut poetry book: I Can’t Go Back to Sleep.
A photo of me reading some of my poems at my book launch on 2 February 2024 in Coventry.
While thinking of how to write this, I considered it best to provide some history about how I found myself here. How did I become a poet? Backtrack to June 2018, I was in Nigeria, I had completed my master’s at Coventry and returned home. I had some personal events that transpired a few months earlier that left me with feelings of confusion. I couldn’t get thoughts about this event out of my mind, I found myself thinking deeply about it and making no progress in my thinking. Upon realisation of my mental standstill, I turned to poetry, to help unpack these thoughts, make sense of them and ultimately express them creatively. This eventually led to my writing of the Infusion of Light short poetry collection.
Before my return to Nigeria, I spent significant time with three friends who ultimately influenced me in a way I would only later discover while in Nigeria. These friends were Mabel (or Maybelle), Ade (or Adetiloye) and David Ajiri, they were all poets. Before my Nigeria-return, I did not see the writing of poetry as something that was for me. While with these friends, I heard about poetry, read some of their poems and marvelled at the ability of words to create ‘inexpressible’ beauty. I admired their poems and valued the art form of poetry. More importantly, through these friends, poetry became real and personal to me. I got to see poetry as something accessible, as a form of expression not for ‘Shakespeare’ only, but for people like us too – people who came from where we came from, people who spoke with a familiar accent, people who looked like us, and people who could relate with our life experiences. In hindsight, I realise that these friends unintentionally paved the way for me, so through this post I wish to give them the honour that they deserve.
A photo of me, Mabel and Ade, 2019.
Though I had not initially seen poetry as something I would later try, trying it while in Nigeria was not much of an audacious thought. I could try poetry because I knew actual poets whom I confirmed were actual human beings as I was friends with them. For your influence on me I say thank you – Mabel, Ade and David!
A photo of me and David, 2017.
So, we’re nearing the end of this post and to conclude I think I should address the subject of poetry-writing itself, why write poetry? I think people of all backgrounds should write poetry because, in no cliché terms, poetry is a window to the soul! Poetry helps to uncover hidden aspects of personality, identity, life experience and more. It helps to give words to feelings and experiences that can’t be touched but felt and lived.
With my new poetry book, I Can’t Go Back to Sleep, I do just this! I write poems that express feelings I have had which I’ve not always been able to express; I write poems that clothe life experiences which, not only bear great significance to me, but mirror experiences of others too (yes, this includes you, my very kind reader). Lastly, in this book, I attempt to lend words to others, to help express the never-ending range of feelings, experiences and moments that we encounter in life. I Can’t Go Back to Sleep is for everyone with words they never could express. If you’re reading and feeling a sense of resonance in these words, I invite you to get yourself a copy of my book!
Emmanuel Johnson 