Popular Stand and Other Poems
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Ushie Joe: Popular Stand and Other Poems (Uyo: Scholars Press, 1992)
We came here as to a marketplace
And arrived at different times…
We leave at different times;
But at the end of the day
We all must leave
Whether we sold at a profit or loss
Like the shrub in this volume, the poet watches the “arid arena, where our Aristotles, their pockets yoked to a
pillory, bleed for an ebbing world”.
Popular Stand…is the poet’s observatory beaming its light onto a homeland of highly cerebral giants, clement
weather, rich vegetation, wondrous birds, aquatic splendour but decimated and ravaged by gossips, myopic
leaders, liars, sots and thieves.
Welcome to a metaphoric journey of verses into our country; beautified with grandstanding, oddities, sharp
contrasts and tough roads.
Joe Ushie lectures at the University of Uyo, Nigeria. His other poetry volumes include Lambs at the Shrine (Kraft, 1995), Eclipse in Rwanda (Kraft, 1998), Hill Songs (Kraft 2000) and A Reign of Locusts (Kraft, 2004).
Description
Contents
The shrub
By the year 2000
Popular stand
To tamuno west
In the farm
Elephant
The sot
The one-man show
Our hero
The monkey
Song of the bedbug
Aka uke
What do I do?
Song of the bachelor
Mixed grill
A butterfly
A trip home
Bekwang river
Amebo
Cosmetics
The tiger
The scapegoat
Son of the soil
Dread
The bed bug
The fauna
Trunk calls
When I think
PASSAGES
Prologue
Early return
The stump
The highway
Awaiting the reaper
Tough roads
Prof. Joseph Ushie
Joseph Akawu Ushie is a Professor of General Stylistics and Literary criticism at University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria.
He is the current Vice-Dean, Postgraduate School, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He was born at Akorshi, Bendi, the hilly Obanliku Local Government Area (which houses Nigeria’s foremost tourist attraction, the Obudu Cattle Ranch) of Cross River State, and he attended St. Peter’s Primary School, Bendi, Government Secondary School, Obudu, and the University of Calabar, Calabar, where he studied English and Literary studies, and was the Secretary-General, Student Union Government in 1980-81 session. He subsequently obtained the M. A. (1988) and PhD (2001) in English from Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan. Professor Ushie had served as Head, Department of English, and on several boards and committees in the University of Uyo. He had also been Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, Judge, ANA national literary competitions (2009 – 2010), Juror of the Canada-based International Poetry Competition (2017) and a Co-Editor, Montreal 2017 Global Poetry Anthology.
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