How to Write Poetry by Artist-in-Residence, Lolu Oyedele
Hello folks!
Now, I can only assume you’ve come to this blog for some educational guidance in the efforts of your poetry writing, and I can assure you that you will receive what you wish! However, I do feel the need to start off with a bit of background information, a sort of self-introduction, to reassure you that the advice held within these digital pages are of merit, and not spewed from the mind of some manipulative charlatan.
My name is Babaloluwa Oyedele but most people, especially those of the syllable-challenged variety, call me Lolu. I’m a Nigerian Born, South African raised interdisciplinary artist living on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, otherwise known as Vancouver, B.C. Which is to say I was born into a country reeling from the damages of colonization, moved to a country reeling from the horrors of colonial segregation and Apartheid, and moved once more to a country reeling from the atrocities of colonial genocide and displacement. Some might see this as some unfortunate circumstance, but I like to be optimistic! Through all my lives in every land I’ve lived, I’ve had to sit with the very real human experience of suffering, and in every environment of suffering I’ve existed in, I’ve noticed that people still smile. They joke, they lie, they gossip and they love.
This is to say, no matter what a place’s history is, humans find a way to survive in spite of the challenges, and in doing so, find a way to enjoy the people they find themselves surrounded by. This fact will always be central to my work. Even when I’m speaking on the very real challenges Black and other People of Colour have to face in this society, I am always left with the certain truth that with enough loving hearts and loving hands, humans have the uncanny ability to rise out of almost any circumstance. I implore you to take my words with that in mind, that although I may behold horrors from time to time, and share those visions with you, there always remains a spirit of hope within me. I hope you feel a sense of that thorough my words.
Second aside, none of the things I’m about to say are uniquely my ideas, or even particularly unique at all. I would not exist in the way that I do without my contemporaries and my teachers, whether they know that I have studied under them or not. At the end of this blog will be a list of references and inspirations that you may peruse through to understand where some of my thoughts and ideas on poetry come from. Minds that are much more brilliant than I currently am at my young age, and writers who I continue to aspire to be remotely similar to.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk writing!
I’ve been writing poetry for a number of years now, and through tutelage, research and my own personal practice, a couple of core understandings have developed, and these are what I wish to share with you today.
Firstly, if you take anything away from this blog today, take this. Always, and I really do mean always, try and write out of a truth! What I mean by this is, when you pen something, and you read it over again, you should feel somewhere within you that you believe your own words. Whether your poem is about the observations you’ve made watching seagulls squabble over scraps on a secluded beach, or about the light you see in your children’s eyes, write with wonder and write with conviction. Even if that conviction is simply a strong belief in how much you don’t know. Truth doesn’t always belie knowledge. You can know something, and disbelieve it. Similarly, you can have no firm understanding of why something is the way it is, and still in the deepest part of you know it is true. Allow that to be the wellspring of your poems. Allow that place within you to inform the ways in which your words form on and off the page.
Secondly, I would encourage you to write in love. As a person who possesses a digital graveyard of unedited Frankenstein projects, I know the pain of conceptualizing something that simply refuses to live. But even in my attempts to resurrect a wayward concept, I try and lead my practice with wonder. What about this world perplexes you? What about the people and things around you can you simply not let go of? What fills you with unending excitement, or a grief that cannot be easily explained? Follow that. When you take a walk in your neighborhood, what are the things of this earth that completely arrest your attention? Allow yourself to be taken by the awes of this life. The things that are awesome, and the things you find deeply awful (awe-full). If you do so, diligently and respectfully, they will reciprocate with a plethora of wonders that spur your hand into penmanship. Let it take time, and make relationships with them. The world will not fail you in this.
Lastly, and this might be the most difficult of the three things I present here, but try not to judge what you make. In this upgrade-obsessed world, it’s easy to compare your creations with the presentations we see around us, but we must resist the urge. Similarly to a child, birthed into an ocean of bodily fluid and parental terror, poems often appear at first as alien creatures with rolls of extra skin, wholly unable to realize their full agency. It is through our patient nurturing, and perhaps occasionally with some wise outside assistance, we discover the true essence and life of a poem. A judgmental environment only stifles the natural joyous energy of a newborn poem, and as parents do, our jobs are simply to guide the fledglings in their pursuit of their own heart’s desires. If a poem is written well, and with enough time spent with the words that it wields, it will begin to speak on what it wishes to accomplish. We have to listen to it, and simply encourage its direction.
I hope some of that was helpful on your journey to unlocking the pandora’s box within your heart and unleashing all those beautiful and terrifying words most dare not utter. I am truly in love with this art, and I hope through the reading of this blog I was able to share some of that love with you. That’s enough from me. Go ahead and write those honest hidden thoughts, let them be what they may be, in whatever form they wish, and love them through their expression. Happy writing.
List of Inspirations and Influences
Michael V Smith, a previous professor of mine, and a kind heart that shaped and nurtured my love for words: https://www.michaelvsmith.com/
Anne Fleming, another previous professor of mine. She helped prune my incessantly flailing poetic mind into something with a semblance of sense: https://annefleming.ca/
Hanif Abdurraqib, an American poet whose words cracked my heart open at a time I wished it cemented shut forever: https://www.abdurraqib.com/
Danez Smith, an American poet and the previous host of the VS Poetry Podcast with Franny Choi. Their poetry was instrumental in my acceptance of my own words, and in showing me forms of truth I could have never found anywhere else: https://www.danezsmithpoet.com/
Dr. Martin Shaw, in all his strange and wondrous glory. Here is a taste of the man who continues to change my world with his words: https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/mud-and-antler-bone/ , https://drmartinshaw.com/
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, The Sandman and Trigger Warning. Danger lies within these pages, but what adventures exist without a little thrill?
Supergiant Games and every single creative decision they’ve ever made. If you’re into interactive media (video games) and deep character driven stories, check them out: https://www.supergiantgames.com/