There is a popular, clichéd philosophical definition of literature (and, by extension, art itself) as the ‘mirror of life’. I would like to add that in such ‘mirror’ we find artists perpetually finding succour, because, while art turns toward life, the artists are lineaments of such life; hence, they, often than not, are wont to be reflected in the mirror of their arts. This is the case in John Onyeche’s 25 Atonements.
Also, a significant point in relation to the above proposition is that, while the work of the artist mirrors a life in which people live willy-nilly, the artist’s is spurred by the therapeutic use to which art has been proven. Relevant to this is also the need to have their personal experiences documented. Thus, it becomes obvious why Onyeche chooses art as the urn in which he pours his melancholia. For instance, in “Atonement 13”, we read:
This is a note to be read when you are of age
the story of your birth, and little deaths
lining your father’s pocket and your mother’s devotion
In another stanza of the same poem, we find the persona imploring the newly born daughter (when she is of age) to be aware that he has documented what transpired before and at the time of her birth and where she could find it. This applies to any reader as well. We read:
Walk into bookstores and ask
of books about love—
a father’s love heavy on his wife’s placenta (25).
Also, in “Atonement 7”, he writes:
I stare at your birth with fish swimming
In the crude river of my eyes (19)
The artist’s intent here is to have his experience documented just so his daughter, the essence of the documentation, as well as the reading world can access it. This way, the heavy burden is eased by the geniality of art.
Thus, it can be said that in 25 Atonements, Onyeche further makes the case for the geniality of art, and, thus, proves that it offers the artist succour. It should as well be noted that this is not only applicable to the poetry of Onyeche, as it has, especially in this era, become a trend, dotting the edge of the canon of contemporary literature. Literary critics and essayists have approached this rather burgeoning trend on the premise that private subject pervades contemporary literary space 25 Atonements further proves the critics’ claim in this regard. It is in the light of such private thematic aesthetics that the case for ‘finding succour’ is established here.
There is also the issue of the kind of subject which pervades the art that offers the artist succour. Against this peculiarity, contemporary literature (especially the poetry genre) has been criticized for being imbued with grief and a sort of social disillusionment which has private impact on the artists involved. Contemporary literature has been criticized of being reflective of the artist’s emotional trauma propelled by the kind of experience he or she faces, from the family (as in Onyeche’s 25 Atonements) and the society at large.
This does not imply the devaluation of such literary output, where private issues form the pivot, even when it seems, as Ejesu (2021) puts it, that “there is little or no room for the interrogation and discussion of poetic works that project private experiences, works that are radically faithful to the lyric-hood of the lyric form, poems in which the poets appear to be saying: that my experiences are not public does not mean they are not valid”.
Significant to this is the fact that not that the world will merely read and eventually become aware of the artist’s experience, but also that a timeless relevance is attached to such experience. The artist is not just the toy of muse influenced by the tide of life; he or she is conscious of the geniality of art, hence, turns toward it.
Here, in 25 Atonements, Onyeche does not mince his metaphors and imagery of a grief-stricken life. While this is an undisputable truism, it should be noted that 25 Atonements is a testament to a particular moment in the artist’s life, and indeed his family. It captures a time of distress, and a very traumatic one. This informs the poems’ meditative undertones, for in them the poet offers poetic prayers. He seems aware that, just like Ukamaka Olisakwe (2020) says, ‘art is lifeline’. He knows that art is genial, and is the best berth to swim toward when the tide faces him.
The collection is written based on, and dedicated to, the birth of his daughter. In it, also, he poeticizes the psychological trauma that accompanies her birth. From the first to the last poem, Onyeche seems gripped by the moment; the plot of his life orchestrated by the coming of the newborn. First, we find that a “scar” is involved in the delivery process. The use of ‘scar’ being symbolic of the caesarian process through which the baby was born. In the first poem, for instance, we read: “your scar came with a life” (“Atonement One”). In “Atonement 11”, the poet writes further:
Your navel is cut to stitch the world
Your scar is meant to show the stars
You walk a death-road to save the world (23)
Also, although the poet seems to acknowledge his unworthiness of the rigour his wife went through to bring the baby to the world, as in “I am the earth without form/that does not esteem it even”, he however commends her valour, comparing her, in a sense, to the torture Jesus went through just so humanity can be saved. Hence, for the poet, the baby is symbolic of humanity. The significance of the child is proportional to humanity and vice versa.
The use of “earth without form” evokes the sense of the poet’s fatherly flaws and shortcomings; one without light or orderliness (happiness). Just like the book of Genesis recounts of the creation of heaven and earth, the poet’s use of “…bringing the light/the beauty of our earth” entails the joy and orderliness that the birth brings.
The collection establishes a parallel with the point raised earlier that 25 Atonements is a testament to the poet’s psychological trauma occasioned by the circumstances surrounding the birth of his child, hence, is inundated with the subject of grief, as captured in “Atonement Two”, where the poet writes: “I traverse intersecting roads”. The metaphor of “intersecting roads” (which is descriptive of the poet’s experience) captures the muddled situation his life is thrown into. Hence, he decries:
My soul trudges
this cup is heavy on my lips (15).
Language, in 25 Atonements, is as bare as the experience it describes. The poet attests to this, when he writes that: “the song is cloaked with metaphors/unable to clothe rippling grief”. His life no longer moves at the pace he wishes, for the situation, (symbolized by “cup”) is too hard for him to bear alone. Life is a water that one cannot do without. However, the cup with which the persona’s is fetched is heavy.
However, the poet, although troubled, is enthusiastic; he seems determined to live, to face it, while paying attention to how his life is influenced and or affected by it, as he writes: “still I long to swill to the dreg/and listen to the slurp”.
In another poem, “Atonement 5”, the poet reveals the nature of life he is faced with; one in which loneliness and anguish keep him company. He writes that: “someday, brokenness comes brimming up the fort”; ‘fort’ being the climax of his patience and zest to live on. Even the future, at this point, becomes blurry, hence, scarry, as he writes:
Not in praise of what I have overcome
the future still looms in the horizon
as I run round the wall, wishing &
gathering self, only to throw into the ocean
hoping the world will find me (17).
The act of “gathering self”, the poet presumes, is finding succour in art, for it is through such art (perhaps, his poems, which are reflective of his “plight of dreaming and fathering”) that the world will find him. ‘Finding him’ is an achievement, a way of attaching timeless relevance to his grief.
I would like to conclude with the notion that, for Onyeche in 25 Atonements, the succour which art offers an artist in distress is that, inasmuch as it is a universal phenomenon, it is his own way of teaching the world how to live and cope with emotional trauma, and also rely on the therapeutic nature of art. Hence, for him, as well as anyone inclined to it, art is genial. As such, he chooses to romanticize his distress and grief by “writing himself onto the petals of flowers” (as we find in “Atonement 23”). Through art, the poet’s determination is kindled, hence, he envisions the timeless lesson the world can learn from his ordeals, as he wishes that his “flower” will “grow by the riverbank, yielding in and out of season”. Even so, while he wants his daughter to be conscious of the philosophy passed down from his father to him, he equally wants the world to accept the inevitability of circumstance, and rather face it, as we read in “Atonement 24”: “I remember my father in one of my dreams/he held my hands/walked me into the terrain of manhood/I remember his words of how to know myself/from wherever I find myself/he said it is the art of letting go/& moving on where life calls our names and circumstances answer”. This reinforces Ainehi Edoro’s (2023) assertion, in her review of Chika Unigwe’s The Middle Daughter, that “it is not because suffering has any kind of mystical access to the truth of life but because, in breaking, we get to reassemble the self, life, the world”. And this is what Onyeche urges.
Through this chapbook, Onyeche has shown that art, while reflective of the personal experiences of the artist also offers the artist succour from the everyday troubles of life.
Bio:
Nket Godwin is a poet, critic, essayist and teacher. His works have been published in both online and print magazines and anthologies. He’s the author of the chapbook, Sexperimenting Verses. He writes and teaches in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
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