Life is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.
AMA ATA AIDOOLife is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.
AMA ATA AIDOOthe best way to sharpen a knife is not to whet one side of it only. And neither can you solve a riddle by considering only one end of it.
AMA ATA AIDOOAt the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.
AMA ATA AIDOOOnce in a while I catch myself wondering whether I would have found the courage to write if I had not started to write when I was too young to know what was good for me.
AMA ATA AIDOOHumans, not places, make memories.
AMA ATA AIDOOLove is fine for singing about and love songs are good to listen to, sometimes even to dance to. But when we need food for our stomachs and clothes for our backs, love is nothing. Ah my lady, the last man any woman should think of marrying is the man she loves.
AMA ATA AIDOOOnce an interesting idea or theme occurs to me then I would want to write a poem about it. The rest, frankly, is not difficult.
AMA ATA AIDOOSoyinka’s Death at Dawn, Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts, Stevie Smith’s Not Waving but Drowning and Wislawa Szymborska’s Some People come to mind immediately. But there are plenty, plenty more that I enjoy.
AMA ATA AIDOOThe very old certainly do not go back on lunch remains but they do bite back at old conversational topics.
AMA ATA AIDOOThings are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.
AMA ATA AIDOOGhana is like a lion without a head
AMA ATA AIDOOTime by itself means nothing, no matter how fast it moves, unless we give it something to carry for us; something we value. Because it is such a precious vehicle, is time.
AMA ATA AIDOONo matter what anybody says, we can’t have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet.
AMA ATA AIDOOIt is a matter of some interest, that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds one of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas?
AMA ATA AIDOOPeople are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.
AMA ATA AIDOOSometimes a word or an argument will trigger a poem.
AMA ATA AIDOO