Enwinma Ogieriakhi 1966 The Artist



Another Poem. I do happen to like this one … and it's also fascinating to think about it as an insight into one person's view of artists in Nigeria in the 1960s. Someone who actually produces art himself, at that.

The Artist
There again he goes,
An artist he calls himself!
Deep-set are his searching eyes
Seeing more than others see.
Wearing a look that saintly seems.
He hates the most,
Those things that others love:
Our beauty's not his beauty,
And ever looking higher or lower,
He is forever out of tune,
Who is this person,
That loves solitude, never cheer?
What manner of man is this,
That is HERE and yet not HERE,
Like a weed in the desert waste.
Others to him are either fools,
Or he's a fool to other men!

Enwinma Ogieriakhi, Nigeria Magazine, December 1966 (No. 91), p. 310

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