Artists statement by Ayo Ayoola

Artists statement

Ayo Ayoola was born in Ghana in 1970. Currently she has Nigerian nationality. She es a poet, educator, lawyer, peace builder and public speaker. She is a law lecturer, Faculty of Law, Wisconsin International University and ADR Practitioner. She was the former Head of Law and Senior Lecturer at Kings University.  Ayo is the Founder/President, Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation, Vice- President, Poets of the World. (Movimiento Poetas del Mundo) and World Poetry Movement Coordinator (Ghana).

Ayo has several local and International certificates in Creative writing and has attended various Local, National and International Workshops and Seminars on creative writing and presentation.  A spoken-word and performance poet, she has written volumes of poetry, a short story and a play. Her aim is to employ poetry for positive social change. Her poems and other literary works have appeared in several international and national anthologies, magazines and journals. She is a recipient of several awards.

By Ayo Ayoola-Amale

Visualize yourself in a serene beach soaking in sunshine from nature right into eternity.   You look down the path, watching several birds chirping and twittering. You burst into songs… just now.

As you sat there, your whole being sang. A beautiful poem. The poem builds.  It enters the mind, and is greeted with beauty.     The eternal is found within, always.    You have followed your heart.   

I usually don’t plan my poems in advance, I feel the energy at the right moment and i make poems. A sanctuary within that is more valued, connects with the pasture of energy around me.   My poems recognize and honor the human spirit with a sense of joy.   

Ultimately, I am attempting to create a positive change in which poetry is the vehicle.              This little flight above is what the act of creating is for me. I let the lure of the unknown to move stealthily in, bypassing my conscious mind, my creative journey becomes totally fulfilling, joyful, magnanimous, rich and exceptionally beautiful.  Stepping in, and keeping on, in this paradise is vital.  Heaven kissed my soul.  I love poetry deeply! Yes, i do...

My inspirations?  That’s fresh.  Nature, humanity, more nature.  Nature never stops                     astonishing me with its splendor, design, loveliness, color and form.    I deeply believe we are all one- One humanity.

My work is not only about nature and humanity, though.  It is also about all forms of energy, such as the sun, sound, light, experiences, lots of peace and love you see in your being-ness.     

My poetry is distinctive, thought provoking and moving; sometimes challenging and deeply profound, and always completely acceptable. I perform with an energy and passion that can transform life. 
In some ways, I feel most alive when I am writing. Poetry helps me feel life. I love to write. To pour out my soul. To let my sun shine out from me.
Giving this piece of myself to humanity, totally and truly.
I love poetry; it puts a smile in my writing. For with Poetry I am fully charged.
I want to be nature. Normal is nature; Poetry is nature, unblemished, natural, even.
The very essence of my being defines reality.
I am myself, i am wholeness. I feel life!   You see, this world we live in is an astonishingly beautiful world, filled with all of the peace and joy we will allow.    The best, the very best!
Love, peace n’ poetry,

Humanity is my sun

Poems usually mirror their authors’ personal purpose.  We consequently imagine a positive relationship between the quality of poetry and its author’s ethics.  We find a positive relationship between poetry and ethics and initial evidence that ethical people can be a foundation for excellent institution.

There has been a lot of important work on the relationship between poetry and ethics. The relationship is extremely inconsistent not just because of the conceptual unsteadiness of the terms in question but also because any effort of union could threaten to limit the independence that opens the practice of poetry to its diverse prospects.

Poets in the Past and present have been concerned with the ethics of poetry. Is it ethically acceptable to write poetry in an age governed by pain and wickedness?
 There has been an effort to connect poetry and politics.

What are its reasons for being?

Historians, writers and poets, me included, have acknowledged the fact that there are at least two origin of the “ethical” to decide on in our present academic milieu. 

The first is Kant and has to do with the application of principles as to what is right and good. These principles are either universal or contain the moral customs of incorporated communities.   The aim of ethics is to grow and remain above reproach in one’s behavior, thinking, and character. The French philosopher Emmanuel Levine offered an alternative to this normative theory, arguing that “the claims other people have on me are in advance of whatever reasons might be used to decide or justify my conduct. I am responsible for the good of the other, come what may—that is, my responsibility is an-archaic, on the hither side of moral principles and the reasoning’s that provide their support—which means, among other things, that my relation to others is not one of knowing, but one of proximity, as of skin exposed to the touch.”

Poetry is not stationary or the same for everyone. Poetry does not follow a method. Poetry’s meaning is affected by the reader. What is true in a poem for me may not be the same for you. Through your involvement, you affect a poem’s interpretation, consequently changing the poem.

That’s what I refer to by the ethics of poetry. The meaning of the poem and its effect on the reader changes with every person. Thus in and of itself, poetry is ethics, making us to study the universal nature of morals and of specific moral choices.   Again, i ask “should poetry be ethical or otherwise?”

On Poets in Our Time

 The poet’s power, though invisible, is very real.  Poets are one of the unappreciated voices of influence for social change.

The social role of poetry has changed very much in the last 200 years. Poets were unappreciated then, by a huge majority of the population, and they are only somewhat less recognized now. Emily Dickinson’s views regarding pertinent political issues in America were not sought after when she was alive. Presently no one in authority in 2015 is asking for Nick Flynn’s views on climate change.

I’m interested in the social context for poetry, what poetry becomes in the process of reading or performing poetry. Some of us are activist; I strongly believe that poets and poetry should be agents of positive change within their communities and beyond. We must encourage interventionist approach to poetry, through our poems, essays, talks or when organizing events.         

Poetry as a social activity also addresses or redresses the relationship of consciousness to language. The role of poetry as thinking in, around, and about the premises of spoken language: to discover, to show, the formal scope of language, without the need of creating a reasonable, or directly communicative presentation about language or poetics or philosophy.

Poetry’s social function is to envision how language works inside its culture, while evaluating of the culture; this suggests that poetry can be an opposition to the strengthening of cultural values at the essence of politics and entertainment. However, poetry’s artistic function is in the pursuit of the delight of sight, sound, and intellect.

Poets are often accused of being too intellectual, not emotional enough and their poems- too difficult, too complex, and also too theoretical.  Poems are usually expressive, lyrical, in free verse, and the sine qua non of poetry.  Poetry and poetics, theory and practice, are interrelated. Poetics is an extension of the practice of poetry, and poetry is an extension of thinking with the poem and also the reflection of poetics.

 As social forms, a singular value of poetry is the freedom, complexity, and depth that derives from its small scale.  Poetry can do many things with language that can’t be done with conventional story-telling.

Today, some poets write of universal themes in an accessible manner.  Poets in our time prefer to imagine themselves as spectators not as legislators as the English poet Percy B Shelley’s famous claim that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

Ayo Ayoola-Amale presentation site Peace From Harmony website
Ayo Ayoola-Amale talks to 'Love Begins With Me' - Pt 1 Youtube video
Information about Splendors of Dawn Foundation Transconflict website
Splendors of Dawn Foundation Website
Sobre los poetas de nuestro tiempo Por Ayo Ayoola-Amale

Published at March 17th de 2015