Jumoke Verissimo Quotes
born 1979
Jumoke Verissimo (born 26 December 1979 in Lagos) is a Nigerian poet, novelist, children's writer and critic. Jumoke was born in Lagos.
Random Jumoke Verissimo quote
13 quotes
The world is afraid to read poetry, but the world is full of poetry.
I come from a place where family speaks of love and sacrifice.
Don’t we know it already, don’t we? To age in this land, is to arrive in a grave?
Poetry is something that I enjoy doing. I do other forms of writing, and it captures the essence of several things. It is my way of understanding the world and how it works.
We know fear. We are not afraid. Our concern is that this power we carry is nothing before those who do not know what it means to be strong.
The voice you read is my subconscious observing the privilege to let these things, spaces and people inhabit me. My voice is therefore these elements and more.
Our trauma is layered, historical and governance; there’re people who don’t want to make things better, and (think) we deserve it. And we know that we can make things work.
Even when you’re out of Nigeria, you’re still haunted, you still need therapy. You’re always going to be Nigerian even when you change your passport. If there are things that ring of suspicion at any international airport, you’re still singled out for questioning.
I am traditional, I respect the knowledge of ancestral relations, and the idea that I am connected to an idea of being that I am still coming to terms with
In poetry, even if it’s not the narrative type, you find that narrate ambience, characterization and setting even though you are not telling a story. So, that is what I borrow from poetry, that sense of translating the unspeakable.
We ask for bread; it gives us stone; we ask to live it takes our breath
We stand up tall; it cuts our legs; we sit wearily; it shoots us down
How could we not have known that our land drinks only young blood