Arrows of Joy in a resonant quiver

Arrows of Joy is a buoyant title that does not fail in the delivery of the cover’s metaphor. The fusion of struggle, and anxiety, with the resonance of musical hope is reflected in many of the art pieces crafted by the author, Muyiwa Babayomi.

Although the author concerns himself with many subjects, the centrality of the motif of hope. This is discovered in different shades in well-crafted metaphors, personified landscapes, and prolific evocation of emotions through simple things. 

For this poet, Africa is a paradise whose cadence has remained despite colonial and postcolonial plunder. He deliberately dispenses with the shock of modern Africa and retains the tranquillity, spirituality, and conviviality of the landscape by depicting Africa as an Eden. One is tempted to suggest that the author invokes a long lost Africa in a dream through the poem, ‘Root’.  

With the poems in this book, text and context are adept to consistent play. While the poet uses simple words, he conveys double-layered meanings for readers with different poetic ranges to appreciate the work. In the poem, ‘Weep Not Child,’ there is a quiet resonance to the struggles of motherhood, the relentless preservation of minute connections between mother and child. The transition between the whimper, wail, a sleeping child, and the space of rest is midwifed by the mother. A mother who assumes her role with grace suspends personal struggle for her child.  

Unassuming poetry fondles with the mind of the reader, it does not forcefully impress its beauty or its excellence on the mind of the reader. You will need to soak in the poems to discover that internal and rhymed musical syncopations are deployed to achieve these free and less punctuated flowing poems. Largely free or subtle in ideology, the poet recognisesnature as a witness to the collisions that bring about creation and destruction. In the poem, ‘Morning Grass’ lovemaking is codified in ‘the brazen fold of petals.’ Here intimate connections unfold in layers of shorthand nuances under the sun, brimming with longings. The continuation of the race depends on the greens, the sun, and the things we start under the sun and unveil behind enclosed petals. 

Memory is also retrieved by the poet in his recreation of a known folklore. The Poem, ‘Wise Old Tortoise’ is a story between the lion and the tortoise and is reconfigured into bardiclore reminiscent of the Germanic times. However, this lore is African, yet restored to poetry which one may argue would have been the primal form before it was unbundled for public storytelling. Enlivened with rhythm and cadence, the poem can be read to children and is unputdownable for adults in search of nostalgia.  

For the reader, poets should know how best to arrange their works to create perfect mood transitions. In this, the poet falters leaving the reader in different emotional swings per poem. For example, with the reader enmeshed in hues of hope, love, and joy, the poem, ‘Unyielding’ darkens the skyline. Heavy with angst but robust in meaning, the author retrofits death and mourning into a clogged tunnel where hopelessness overwhelms mankind. It is at the short end of the poem that you find a glimmer of hope. I would have preferred to have this poem at the later end of the collection, signalling its finality. 

Another poem, ‘Cane Town Crier’ borrows from the same mesh. The author who attempts to conceal political discourse by unveiling a tapestry of characters bring to the fore a middleman between the rudderless ruling class and the disgruntled oppressed class. The town crier embodies the trauma of the imbalance in society yet tries to escape by dousing his emotions with opium. The unspoken trauma is reflected in his dressing, his wandering, and his abolished voice. His opinion of ideas is unheard; he is simply a vessel to shock the populace like a rudderless masquerade. 

Drawing the same mood from the marketplace, the poet discovered a woman disembodied by the high cost of goods in a ‘Floral gown’. Her frustration signifies the façade of a thriving economy and her attempt to retain beauty despite the nerve-wracking symbolic social conditions. While the poet tries to retain hope by uncovering beauty in chaos, her petaledaccouterment is denied praise in the face of unfavourablehaggling. 

This poet is conscious, yet feigns simplicity. Within those seemingly simple poems of love, joy, and hope are trepidations that reach across the page. In the poem, ‘Foundation Stones’ he explains the daily chore and the strain of a working man. The pain of rigour is only salvaged by peace at home and the memory of loved ones (the voice of one’s mother). Only these serve as balm to a wounded worker. Here, hope begins the cycle of the day and ends it. 

While exploring hope, the poet dives into the issue of illegal migration with the poem, ‘Sea Shores’. Amidst the pillage, the raging storms, and the decrepit state of humanity, hope is a contested landscape between the coast of Africa and the shore of Europe. Amidst the raging storm and threat to life, hope is an attempt to escape hardship at home and death at sea, to gain entrance to an assumed heaven (an advanced country). 

In all, Muyiwa Babayomi’s debut work of poems is impressionable, a clear departure from poems without depth and style. His dynamic flare to craft a combination of words is a delight, while his descriptive prowess leverages musicality to sustain the reader’s interest. However, the discordant tune is in the disarrangement of individual poems. Overall, it is refreshing to have an excellent literary voice.