Poetry News
Originally Published: September 10, 2019Silver Pinion Interviews Uche Nduka
For the online magazine Silver Pinion, editor D.C. Wojciech interviews poet Uche Nduka, whose twelfth collection of poetry, Living in Public (Kristiania collective), came out in July. "One thing I admire about your work is the need to return, re-visit the work; in order to pick up something that may not have been apparent during the previous encounter," says Wojciech. "What is it about surrealism specifically which allows for a sort of ambiguity, possibility to sprout?" Nduka's response, and more:
UN: Perhaps surrealism is a continual voyage. It’s an ongoing revelation of inner and outer selves/states. A surreal poem is partly an autonomous channel. Its efficacy derives from the freedom of the spirit and the freedom of the body. The poem is immune to literary, moral, social, nationalistic, and cultural overdetermination.DCW: Human beings, and humanity as a whole, are very complex organisms. Your work definitely reflects those complexities. As well, you recently wrote that you were rallying against conservatism in contemporary Nigerian poetry. Do you wish to elaborate more about what you are aiming at? How is this campaign fairing?UN: Calling it a campaign was just speaking tongue in cheek. But nevertheless, I am very bored with poems that are overweaponized. Poems don’t always ask questions and they don’t always give answers. Poetry is not a mirror. Poems invite us to see and feel the world through new ways. I am against conservative poetry everywhere, not only in Nigeria. I oppose a singular approach to poetry. I don’t support generalizations. There is no barrier or boundary in poetry that I don’t want to cross. I don’t care for poetry that venerates classist social and political conventions. I love scandalous poems! And I need to state that so far there is not enough debauchery /eroticism in contemporary Nigerian poetry. The literary canon ought to be elastic.
Read on at Silver Pinion.