Book review: Rumblings of my inner thoughts

by Bayo Oluwasanmi

rumblings

There is more to a poem that meets the eye. Adeboye’s work in Rumblings Of My Inner Thoughts gives great examples of how a writer can use elements such as point of view and characterization to create and resolve complex paradoxes….

Rumblings of My Inner Thoughts written by Yinka Adeboye is a collection of love poems that abounds in metaphor and African imagery. It depicts the fears and hopes as well as the joys and heartaches of love.

The book is full of majestic pictures of love overflowing with passion in variegated colors. With vivid pictures of stimulating feelings of love, the poems extol the bliss of love and burning devotion of those involved in the enterprise of love.

Lovers must relate to each other from the soul, not merely by routine or protocol. The best way to overcome love problems is to involve your heart, not just your head.

The 53-page book contains 34 poems.

Does truly love mean you will never do anything to offend or you will never need to seek (and give!) forgiveness? Absolutely not! “The Wound in My Heart” page 27, recalls with nostalgic pain of the wound of love in her heart:

“It bleeds and smarts

The wound in my heart

Howbeit I crave for vengeance

I cannot just say goodbye

The broken Melody of Love

There my heart beat of his want

The wound therein it is

That paves a way for a strong hatred”

Still smoldering from the burning ashes of love, her new heart of forgiveness is noteworthy. In a rare magnanimity, so it seems, with a forgiving spirit she takes him back.

In what reads like doxologies of praise and forgiveness, she reassures him of her continuing love on page 36 with the poem “I Wish to God I Hate You.”

“If only to bury the hurt

I will harden my heart

Known to me the agony I bear

Now I see the efficacy of love…”

“Never will I stop loving you

Though the foundation shakes

Though the earth be moved…”

“I pray I do not want to hate you

May this love grow daily for you…”

That is a great pattern for forgiving and be forgiven in love disputes. Have you wronged your mate, parent, or child through something you have said or done? Then take the initiative in asking for forgiveness.

Love means wanting to say sorry. Has your spouse offended you? Be quick to offer forgiveness. Forgiveness could be likened to building a fence at the top of the cliff than a hospital at the bottom.

Most often, author’s experiences inform their writings. If we are to go by her poems in the book, I believe the reader is privileged to pry into rumblings of Adeboye’s inner thoughts.

Most of the poems deal with love gone sour. For example, “Lost Hope,” “Dare to say Goodbye,”  “I Can Do Without You,” and “Reminiscences” eloquently invoke the readers’ sympathy and empathy for anyone caught up in the bubbling cauldron of love.

The time and age we live have dramatically altered the definition and true meaning of love. What we’re witnessing today is murder and decapitation of love as it were. Societies now struggle daily to cope with collateral damage from relationships and marriages purportedly based on love.

The book reads like the diary of the author. The book delivers an entertaining account and perspective on love. The author, Yinka Adeboye is a proven Yoruba linguist and a gifted fiction writer.

Her educational accomplishments include earning her B. A. in African languages and literature from the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. She also holds a MCA (Master in Communication and Language Arts) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

She is a Poet, and a freelance script writer. She has authored both English and Yoruba books including O Soju Mi, a fiction novel on the biography of an account of the grace of God in one of the struggling moments a woman could go through.

Adeboye’s multifaceted background establishes her as a versatile and talented writer whose writings in both English and Yoruba are a delight to read.

There is more to a poem that meets the eye. Adeboye’s work in Rumblings Of My Inner Thoughts gives great examples of how a writer can use elements such as point of view and characterization to create and resolve complex paradoxes such as love and hate within a relatively short and literally concise work.

Love – the paradox in which the institution of marriage is intended to house a living union has been sullen with a jealous and hateful relationship instead.

The characterization in “Dare To Say Goodbye” is a powerful element in the paradox:

“You were, my everything,

To you, I was nothing

Your affection I yearned

You never knew … Less cared

The futile tears

Of empty nights

You never gave a thought;

You never cared a hoot.

For who was I? Another victim

A rolling Ball

Beyond words it hurts

You will leave me I know…”

Adeboye’s Rumblings Of My Inner Thoughts is an example of a dramatic monologue. Like the skillful poet of dramatic monologue that she is, Adeboye sets the scene in a monologue through implication.

Other authors including Chaucer and Shakespeare wrote in dramatic monologues; but Robert Browning perfected the form and made it his own. “My Last Duchess” is Browning’s classical example of his dramatic monologue.

As Adeboye’s work on love begins to wind down in the book, the paradox of love and hate seems to be resolved through vengeful expressions. She uses symbolism, irony, diction, and imagery to achieve a haunting effect. The poems are incisive, haunting, and lyrically barbed.

In “My Love” page 8, for instance, symbolism is at play: “My love can be as constant as a Star…” Take a look at “Who Cares” page 26 for example of verbal irony:

“Who cares if you greet or not?

Who wants to see your front?…”

“Come upstairs if you dare!…”

“Why chicken out when you look?…”

“Who cares what you say in turns?…”

Read these lines for beautiful diction in “Folly Of Love,” page 27:

“Her dreams are shattered

Dreams wreaked by your words…”

“A chance to meet other Birds;

To love and fly awhile…”

Rumblings Of My Inner Thoughts concludes with images of love gone sour in “Farewell” page 19:

“Fare thee well to the Mountain Rock

In which no Shelter is encouraged…”

Pay attention to the words “Mountain Rock,” and “Shelter.” The lover is the “Mountain Rock” and “Shelter”-a protector and provider who she ought to rely upon, but cannot.

Yinka Adeboye is wondrously gifted in simplicity and elegance in the art of language. She has a knack of dragging you to the place and the time as she wills. The shift between places and times is seamless and delightful to say the least:

“Come upstairs if you dare!”

“…Why chicken out when you look?”

To be seen at the side of the brook.” (“Who Cares” p.26).

I completely love the author’s way of expressing the sensitive thoughts and dilemmas of human mind as a lover. The poems give the reassurance about human vulnerability to be loved and be rejected.

Some of the poems present a comfortless and disturbing reality about love. She discusses one of the most delicate ingredients of life in a very adroit manner. And interestingly all this is done with great wit and slapstick humor.

The language is extremely simple. The poems move at a relaxing pace and is extremely absorbing without being dull or loose.

The sensuality and the longing of the heart are essentially prominent to the poems. The writing progresses in such a way to connect the reader so vividly with the story that the reader’s emotions oscillate in line with the author.

The author has brilliantly depicted how the human mind tends to flow back and forth in the stream of love.

All in all, the poems are brimming with emotions, good, bad, and ugly, penned down to perfection by the author.

The book is a must read for every sensitive and passionate lover.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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