Favourite Five: Dami Ajayi

Dami Ajayi is one of the publishers of Saraba Mag. He was recently shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize. You can read some of Dami's poems here. He tells us about his favourite five (plus one) poetry collections.

Prufrock and Other Observations by T. S. Eliot
I have been told many times that I am heavily influenced by Eliot and my amiable answer is often, who isn’t? It is not arguable that Elliot is one of the poets who came out of 20th century with an irresistible scaffold of influence. I find The Love Songs of Alfred J. Prufrock to be a major masterpiece that I have attempted to parody but have failed colossally by personal standards.

West African Verse edited by Donatus Nwoga
Donatus Nwoga’s anthology of West African poets was in my school syllabus for junior readers and it is perhaps my first exposure to the possibilities of African poetry, if there is anything so called. I read this book into the depth of the nights as a youngster and it sunk in me a yearning to wield my pen in the fashion of great masters of African expressions like Wole Soyinka, Kwesi Brew, David Diop, Lenrie Peters and J. P. Clark.

Satellites by Lenrie Peters
The Gambian poet and surgeon’s first collection of poems showed me that poetry could measure humanity in the realms of medicine. It unveiled how the sinews of poetry could be firmed with medical parlance and how humanity could burst out of clinical scenarios with a haunting freshness. After all Eliot once called mature poets thieves, so Satellites found my inspiration for Clinical Blues.

Logarhythms by Niran Okewole
This is a rare gem, an exuberant first collection by psychiatrist and award-winning poet, Niran Okewole. This collection educated me on the possibilities of being contemporary, dialectical and relevant all in one spell. "Twenty-five Seasons" was a poem that saved me from the throes of depression in my last days in medical school; it showed me the universality of human experiences and how a poet’s duty is to look into varying situations with a discerning lens and fresh ink.

The Rain Fardel by Tade Ipadeola
Here is a poet with whom I’m well pleased. His poetry is a melting pot where rigorously exhausted muse meets mastery at its best. Ipadeola approaches poetry a Victorian slant that is surprisingly relevant and this is surprising in these days of free verse and prose poetry. The Rain Fardel is a compendium of poems and choreopoems that come alive in the mind of the reader like incantations that seamlessly blends culture, specialty and acute observation into crisp and eloquent verses.

Giovanni’s New Room edited by ‘Biyi Olusolape
Biyi Olusolape edited Saraba’s fourth chapbook of poetry which themed on love. An e-book comprising of poems by several poets of Nigerian descent engages a difficult theme but succeeds. Love is analysed in its numerous variety: self-love, awry love, consanguineous love and sensual love. And this is done with a tinge of contemporariness. It alludes unequivocally to James Baldwin’s Giovanni Room from where its title was borrowed.