Lena Grace Anyuolo dedicates her selected poems Rage and Bloom to the multitudes within her, and the multitudes surrounding her. This dedication reminds me of American poet Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, 51. In that beautifully nuanced poem, Whitman declares: Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Anyuolo goes further by not only observing her many-layered innards, denoted as multitudes, composed of varying thoughts, feelings, roles, presumed roles and paths punctuated by missteps in the wrong and right directions. By peering within herself, she realizes that the multitudes within her do not make her a freak. They make her human and thus both complement or contradict the multitudes around her. Okay, she uses the words “multitudes surrounding me”.
This suggests that she somehow feels hemmed in by those who surround her like they are about to jump her, so to speak. Also, by channeling Whitman’s 'I contain multitudes' self-description, she points to the diversity within her in the shape of inner differences and how these play out in the choices she makes and lives she chooses to lead.
By embracing this inner diversity, she reflects the need to embrace her outer diversity. Divided into three sections under the themes of rage, transition and bloom, by the way it is structured, this book is a departure from Whitman’s immortal words.
That’s because Whitman’s contained multitudes lent themselves to the description of "The Minotaur.” The Min otaur, a half-human, half-bull creature, symbolizes duality, the untamed aspects of the human psyche, and the confinement of the labyrinth, which expressing the complexities of humankind.
Although similar, Anyuolo’s poetry collection points to Cerberus, a multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog in Greek and Roman mythology, each head labeled by each section of her book namely Rage, Transition and Bloom. Well, so it appeared to me. Possibly you need some of her poetry to agree or disagree with me.
It is a little somber, so you might have to wipe away some of those tears of bittersweet passion to appraise the revolutionary quality of this poem. The tone is somewhat resigned, apathetic even. However, that could be because the persona has made up their mind to tilt against the proverbial windmills of her times.
To do so is fraught with danger and, yes, even death. But the persona is too focused on peace to be bothered with such a denouement. So the persona’s vision soars above their circumstance to defy death by looking beyond it to something that will endure: peace, presumably an inner peace which is the only lasting peace we can have. In section two, Transition, the poet really lets fly with the poem “The Angry Part of Me”.
I think we shall stop there. The anger is catching and so we might all be angry soon. By this, we expose our private parts to a public airing of our dirty linen, only to have this linen cleansed by poetry.
Title: Rage and Bloom
Author: Grace Lena Anyuolo
Price: Shs25,000
Availability: African Studies Bookstore
Pages: 63
Published: 2022
