Things are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.
AMA ATA AIDOOThings are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.
AMA ATA AIDOOI always wanted to write poetry, even when I was very young.
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 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 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 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 AIDOOI’ve written poems about gifts.
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 AIDOOPoliticians are easy to attack, but frankly, we are all guilty of not meeting the needs of Africa’s young people properly.
AMA ATA AIDOONo matter what anybody says, we can’t have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet.
AMA ATA AIDOOGhana is like a lion without a head
AMA ATA AIDOOToyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information.
AMA ATA AIDOOAfter all, if we look closer into ourselves, shall we not admit that the warmth from other people comes so sweet to us when it comes, because, we always carry with us the knowledge of the cold loneliness of death?
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 AIDOOIts a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.
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 AIDOO