Home in Motion
by Tolu' A. Akinyemi
The Roaring Lion Newcastle


"Documentation is very important for writers, to avoid erasure and preserve history, events, and memories."

In this poetry collection, readers journey through homes old and new, familiar and unfamiliar. They also navigate the spaces between an old life’s ending and a new life’s beginning. The book opens with a poem about calling a place “home without apology or / Elucidation.” Other poems explore what it means to be an activist for the things that cannot speak for themselves. Readers watch as cities are personified, bank accounts are drained, citizenship pledges taken, and a poet witnesses a series of personal, cultural, and national events, which they carefully document in these verses. A few poems capture the intimacy of family life as siblings rival and an attentive speaker encourages another person to “never forget home, / Kin & kith of vibrant histories.” Meanwhile, readers find freedom songs to sing and skies where home transits “through pregnant clouds.”

The intimate, confessional tones of these poems make them immediate and necessary. For example, in one poem, a vulnerable speaker admits, “I have journeyed through vexatious winds on / alloy wings.” In another, home becomes “ a burning bush,” and the speaker acknowledges, “I am the ashes of remembrance.” These poems remind readers that, since home is a physical place, home can also be a sentiment and an inexplicable emotion that an individual carries in their heart. The speaker shares, “My affinity with home is a broken song,” and this statement will resonate with anyone who has ever left or been forced to leave the land they call home. Nonetheless, the speaker is very aware of their homeland’s foibles, and they do not shy away from addressing them. This is most evident in the poem “My Country.” The speaker states, “My country’s brightest lights / Have disappeared into the night.” They are also aware that their country’s “shining knights” are “fleeing from evil reigns.”

Other poems possess a philosophical element that speaks to the wider human experience. For example, “Lost Years” speaks to the collective experience of regretting how quickly time passes and then trying to make up for lost time. The speaker asserts, “I am looking for my lost years; some respite— / Old soul with no bite.” The same theme shapes “Recipe for Longevity.” In this poem, the speaker pays tribute to Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in the US in 1907 and held the title of being the world’s oldest known living person. The speaker takes note of the historical events—two world wars, two pandemics, etc.—that shaped Morera’s life. The speaker then leaves readers with thoughtful advice: “Lump the filth of regrets / & worries in the general waste. / This is the recipe to harvest gold crust / From the bruising earth.”

Other selections explore a lighter side to human existence. For example, poems like “Warmth” bear a romantic sense of devotion. The speaker describes their emotions as “a cyclone.” The speaker’s devotion shines as they confess, “I have constructed a home / In your heart / Made of solid wood / & fine art.” The theme of home and making a home emerges, this time as finding a sense of self and belonging in another person. The same theme appears in “Our Love.” In this poem, the speaker describes love as “a loaded gun,” “a wrecking ship,” and even “a mysterious bird.” For the speaker, the love is “lethal” and it comes to “a fatal end in the cloudscape.” Nonetheless, despite the romance’s devastation, the speaker maintains their devotion to their partner.

This is a unique poetry collection. Its authenticity lies in its memorable voice, shaped by keen observation and a vast wealth of experience. More so, these poems speak to a number of individual and collective events and encounters that, in some ways, will help readers find a commonality with the speaker and the world around them. This poet leaves no subject and no event unobserved. This is a book that readers will not soon forget.

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