The Volume of Love, Grief and Music | A Conversation

(L,R) Wale Owoade, Oyin Oludipe

THAT VIRTUAL evening, relishing the possibility of a postscript for EXPOUND's The Dirty Issue, we had slipped into other diversions of the mind. One of those had been his—what he did consider—primordial longings for the city of Abéòkúta and the AKÉ Book and Arts Festival, whose songs had just begun to swell from across the miles to Ìlorin, home to his university life.

Another, however, was my intimation around a poem he had written a day before our meeting. The below is a conversation - a brief communion of thoughts which had ensued after Wale Owoade's interesting work:

OYIN. 
THE VOLUME OF LOVE, GRIEF AND MUSIC is a rewarding read.

WALE.
Thank you, brother.

OYIN.
I read, “Love is air / And dear at the same time…”

You know, I have always asked myself this: which of these two, really, is immortal?

Life or Love?

WALE.

It’s a tricky one. From what I have seen, I will go with none. Both are slaves to time.

In another thought, there is an ‘afterlife’ for love: memories.

OYIN.

Tricky thought, I think.

Yet, it would be Life that shall give Love a capacity of being;

Even though we soon, eventually, in life, lose many things we love.

WALE.

Love is slave to life; life is slave to time.

I agree.

OYIN.

Then what is Time slave to? Death?

WALE.

Yes. Death. Which reminds me of this question:

Is death ripeness?

OYIN.

“Rust is ripeness, rust / And the wilted corn-plume…”

That is according to Kongi. Well, it is only convenient for a

Bored world to call ripeness staleness.

Nonetheless, we await the promise of the rust.

WALE.

True. Those who wait rust…

Those who cannot wait die?

OYIN.

Those who rust wait to die.

Marvellously, every soul eventually does rust.

WALE.

Interesting. The soil lusts after our rust.

OYIN.

Or, perhaps, it is our rust that lusts after the soil.

WALE.

Beautiful!

OYIN.

Yes. Beautiful.

 

 

Wale Owoade is a Nigerian poet. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in publications like: Diverse Anthology of World Contemporary Poets, Via GrapeVine II, The Lake Poetry Journal, Yellow Chair Review, Euonia Review, Black Mirror Magazine, WORD Up, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, and many others. Wale is the Publisher and Managing Editor of EXPOUND: A Magazine of Arts and Aesthetics and is currently working on his debut manuscript.