Ekpe Inyang
Illustrated by Marie-Brenda Offy Inyang
190 Pages | 6 x 9 x .43 | © 2020
ISBN: 9781942876595 (Paperback)
Just a Bend delivers an overall powerful message of assurance that, although life is full of bends, these should be taken only as moments for deep reflections given that no journey is ever predictably straight or short. It is a collection of deep, scintillating, captivating, motivating and inspiring poems that span various subject areas; culture, the environment, politics, economics – to highlight the human intrigues of marginalization, exploitation, jealousy, and hate that give rise to the multifarious human predicaments and woes. Despite this dark side, Just a Bend also portrays the bright side of life by celebrating care, love, and peace, and even individuals that deserve to be recognised in space and time. It offers a unique experimentation with type, style and form, that aims to encourage and inspire people who might not have thought of reading a poem, let alone, writing one, to pick up the golden sceptre in the bold journey of poetic expression.
Praise for “Just a Bend”
Ekpe Inyang’s subject and engravings are reminiscent of those of the English poet William Blake, who both question innocence and experience. Although Inyang’s poetry is grounded in mundane experiences involving individuals and places, the poet addresses philosophical issues of human existence, love, and death. The poems constitute a creative collage of word and image that seek to bridge the temporalities of hope and despair, goodness and evil, and an Edenic past and the present despoliation.
— Kenneth Usongo, PhD, author of Art and Political Thought in Bole Butake.
Just a Bend is a masterpiece, a well-integrated collection of poetry that straddles Africa and other parts of the world. The poems capture the improbable wonders of nature, untapped human and natural resources, fractured earth, environmental pollution, ecological hypocrisy, and hope in the midst of hopelessness.
— Dr. Lami C. Adama, Assistant Professor of English, Claflin University, South Carolina
“…Ekpe has used his rich experience to produce a scintillating piece that takes us through a breath-taking poetic journey, exposing us to various types of poems that address myriad issues that confront us today.”
— Daniel Agoons, Literary Critic
