From Romeo to Moraa, love’s a morass
TITLE: Beautiful Mess
AUTHOR: Scholastica Moraa
PUBLISHER: Self (audiobook format by eKitabu)
REVIEWER: Mbugua Ngunjiri
AVAILABILITY: shop.eKitabu.com and ‘On eKitabu’ app
PRICE: Ksh350 (Audiobook); Ksh600 (eBook); Ksh800 (Print).
After the late Chinua Achebe read Half of a Yellow Sun, written by his compatriot, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, he remarked that Chimamanda was “a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.”
Similar sentiments might be expressed after reading Scholastica Moraa’s Beautiful Mess, a poetry anthology. How can one so young possess so much wisdom, which she effortlessly dispenses in her poems? Moraa turned 27 in June.
The scope of her themes and the depths to which she explores them is a joy to read. Her poems might look deceptively simple; when you examine them critically, however,you are astounded by the profoundness of her thought process.
If you think that I am going over the top in praising Moraa’s writing, then you need to hear what Valeria Paolini, her Italian agent, said about this same book. “Her poetry is exquisitely personal: her first collection, Beautiful Mess, reminded me of pop music a little bit, as it could have easily had me singing along as I read.”
Recurring theme
Having dispensed with that, let us now look at the recurring theme in her poetry: love. Now, the topic of love has been explored by writers from, well, the beginning of time and it doesn’t grow old. From the Songs of Solomon, in the Bible, to Shakespeare’s sonnets, love is a theme that keeps on giving.
Moraa takes this well-trodden path and still manages to give a fresh coat with every stanza she writes: from the clouded vision of a smitten lover and the groans of a jilted lover to the sighs of unrequited love, the poet brings out the emotions so well. Unless you live under a rock or you possess a heart of stone—which is technically impossible—anyone who has experienced some form of love will readily identify with what Moraa writes.
Love is said to be beautiful but it is also the source of such strong pain and heartache that it leads people to engaging in unimaginably inhuman acts. You only need to be a consumer of news to see what people do in the name of love. A memorable case is that of a young man who bought an axe and drove all the way from Nairobi to Eldoret to kill a woman he “loved”.
Sample this:
And at one of my dark paths,
I kissed the lips of Satan.
Scarred, I lived to tell the tale…
Had the Eldoret girl survived the axe attack and was asked to write about the affair, the above words would have sufficed. The excerpt comes from the poem The Lips of Satan.
Kissing the devil
For the duration of their affair, the poor girl, time without number, kissed the lips of that man—and yes, that man was the devil himself; only a devil can do what he did to her.
Still, we must pause to examine the potency of words used in this poem and the imagery they express. Poetry, wrote American poet Rita Dove, is “language at its most distilled and most powerful”. When she writes about dark paths, she refers to that period in the life of the writer, when she walked the badlands and wandered into the snare of the devil. The Bible says that Satan is a cunning individual, who will use all manner of trickery to pull you in and once you are in, it is downhill all the way…
The line “I kissed the lips of Satan” can be interpreted both literally and figuratively. Of course, when love is still hot, kissing is one of the activities that lovers engage in. It can also be interpreted to mean the things the two lovers did together or the things she did for and by the lover, who later turned out to be “Satan”.
Another endearing aspect of Moraa’s poetry is the word play, which makes the book such a joy to read. The poem Falling for the Soldier has the following lines, which in my view capture the poet’s mastery of the language:
I fell in love with a warrior,
Subsequently turning me into a worrier.
Look at how she uses the two rhyming words warrior/worrier to capture the romance with a military person, who gave her what Moraa’s generation would call “character development”,; turning her into a nervous wreck.
Still on the conniving lover, the poem Manwhore (touché!) examines how womanisers make naïve girls think they are the most loved persons in the world, only to realise that they were all along being led down the garden path.
Each of us more stupid than the last
Each of us prettier than the last
Each of us falling harder than the last
Each of us thinking they were the best
Look at the repeated use of the phrases “each of us” and “than the last”. Repetition, as a tool in poetry, is used to lay emphasis; reinforcing the point that the ‘victims’ were many and that their naivety had turned them into helpless navel-gazers.
Beautiful Mess, speaks from a deeply wounded heart—from love, perhaps?—and how such individuals sometimes choose to wallow in that pain.
I’ve given second chances
But I better numb my senses
So, I crawl back into my shell
My own beautiful hell
They get close I growl
They try to touch I howl
I prick and they bleed
What if I’m all I need?
Now, you can see why this particular piece was chosen to be the title poem. See how easily the rhymes flow… The author must have taken her time to work on this poem; or it could be that it comes from that place deep in the heart that is so pure in thought and that which is capable of singing.
Yea, this poem sings…
Tribute to Okot p’Bitek
This review would not be complete without looking at the poems Son of Lawino I and Son of Lawino II. These two poems are an ode to Okot p’Bitek, the Ugandan poet who bequeathed East Africa, the classics Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. It is always a beautiful thing when a creative pays homage to another creative, especially one of a much older generation like Bitek.
Take particular note of how Moraa truncates Song of Lawino to Son of Lawino to express her feelings to, well, son of Lawino.
How thoughtful is that?
I must confess that those two are my favourite poems in this whole collection.
After reading this poetry anthology, one must wonder whether the poems are an expression of the author’s own experiences?
Mbugua Ngunjiri, a Kenyan art and literary journalist, is the curator of the digital arts and culture platform Maisha Yetu. Email: mbugua5ngunjiri@gmail.com
From Romeo to Moraa, love’s a morass
TITLE: Beautiful Mess
AUTHOR: Scholastica Moraa
PUBLISHER: Self (audiobook format by eKitabu)
REVIEWER: Mbugua Ngunjiri
AVAILABILITY: shop.eKitabu.com and ‘On eKitabu’ app
PRICE: Ksh350 (Audiobook); Ksh600 (eBook); Ksh800 (Print).
After the late Chinua Achebe read Half of a Yellow Sun, written by his compatriot, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, he remarked that Chimamanda was “a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.”
Similar sentiments might be expressed after reading Scholastica Moraa’s Beautiful Mess, a poetry anthology. How can one so young possess so much wisdom, which she effortlessly dispenses in her poems? Moraa turned 27 in June.
The scope of her themes and the depths to which she explores them is a joy to read. Her poems might look deceptively simple; when you examine them critically, however,you are astounded by the profoundness of her thought process.
If you think that I am going over the top in praising Moraa’s writing, then you need to hear what Valeria Paolini, her Italian agent, said about this same book. “Her poetry is exquisitely personal: her first collection, Beautiful Mess, reminded me of pop music a little bit, as it could have easily had me singing along as I read.”
Recurring theme
Having dispensed with that, let us now look at the recurring theme in her poetry: love. Now, the topic of love has been explored by writers from, well, the beginning of time and it doesn’t grow old. From the Songs of Solomon, in the Bible, to Shakespeare’s sonnets, love is a theme that keeps on giving.
Moraa takes this well-trodden path and still manages to give a fresh coat with every stanza she writes: from the clouded vision of a smitten lover and the groans of a jilted lover to the sighs of unrequited love, the poet brings out the emotions so well. Unless you live under a rock or you possess a heart of stone—which is technically impossible—anyone who has experienced some form of love will readily identify with what Moraa writes.
Love is said to be beautiful but it is also the source of such strong pain and heartache that it leads people to engaging in unimaginably inhuman acts. You only need to be a consumer of news to see what people do in the name of love. A memorable case is that of a young man who bought an axe and drove all the way from Nairobi to Eldoret to kill a woman he “loved”.
Sample this:
And at one of my dark paths,
I kissed the lips of Satan.
Scarred, I lived to tell the tale…
Had the Eldoret girl survived the axe attack and was asked to write about the affair, the above words would have sufficed. The excerpt comes from the poem The Lips of Satan.
Kissing the devil
For the duration of their affair, the poor girl, time without number, kissed the lips of that man—and yes, that man was the devil himself; only a devil can do what he did to her.
Still, we must pause to examine the potency of words used in this poem and the imagery they express. Poetry, wrote American poet Rita Dove, is “language at its most distilled and most powerful”. When she writes about dark paths, she refers to that period in the life of the writer, when she walked the badlands and wandered into the snare of the devil. The Bible says that Satan is a cunning individual, who will use all manner of trickery to pull you in and once you are in, it is downhill all the way…
The line “I kissed the lips of Satan” can be interpreted both literally and figuratively. Of course, when love is still hot, kissing is one of the activities that lovers engage in. It can also be interpreted to mean the things the two lovers did together or the things she did for and by the lover, who later turned out to be “Satan”.
Another endearing aspect of Moraa’s poetry is the word play, which makes the book such a joy to read. The poem Falling for the Soldier has the following lines, which in my view capture the poet’s mastery of the language:
I fell in love with a warrior,
Subsequently turning me into a worrier.
Look at how she uses the two rhyming words warrior/worrier to capture the romance with a military person, who gave her what Moraa’s generation would call “character development”,; turning her into a nervous wreck.
Still on the conniving lover, the poem Manwhore (touché!) examines how womanisers make naïve girls think they are the most loved persons in the world, only to realise that they were all along being led down the garden path.
Each of us more stupid than the last
Each of us prettier than the last
Each of us falling harder than the last
Each of us thinking they were the best
Look at the repeated use of the phrases “each of us” and “than the last”. Repetition, as a tool in poetry, is used to lay emphasis; reinforcing the point that the ‘victims’ were many and that their naivety had turned them into helpless navel-gazers.
Beautiful Mess, speaks from a deeply wounded heart—from love, perhaps?—and how such individuals sometimes choose to wallow in that pain.
I’ve given second chances
But I better numb my senses
So, I crawl back into my shell
My own beautiful hell
They get close I growl
They try to touch I howl
I prick and they bleed
What if I’m all I need?
Now, you can see why this particular piece was chosen to be the title poem. See how easily the rhymes flow… The author must have taken her time to work on this poem; or it could be that it comes from that place deep in the heart that is so pure in thought and that which is capable of singing.
Yea, this poem sings…
Tribute to Okot p’Bitek
This review would not be complete without looking at the poems Son of Lawino I and Son of Lawino II. These two poems are an ode to Okot p’Bitek, the Ugandan poet who bequeathed East Africa, the classics Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. It is always a beautiful thing when a creative pays homage to another creative, especially one of a much older generation like Bitek.
Take particular note of how Moraa truncates Song of Lawino to Son of Lawino to express her feelings to, well, son of Lawino.
How thoughtful is that?
I must confess that those two are my favourite poems in this whole collection.
After reading this poetry anthology, one must wonder whether the poems are an expression of the author’s own experiences?
Mbugua Ngunjiri, a Kenyan art and literary journalist, is the curator of the digital arts and culture platform Maisha Yetu. Email: mbugua5ngunjiri@gmail.com
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