KWEE Liberian Literary Magazine Jan. Iss. Vol. 0115 May Issue Vol. 0515 | Page 23

Liberian Literary Magazine a different style, approach and language. I have enjoyed writing in each of them. In looking back at my student years, though, it seems like such an immense privilege to have spent several years just studying and writing poetry! Although I loved reading and sometimes writing short stories, and reading the great novels, though writing novels always seemed too gargantuan a task to me, it was always poetry that appealed to me the most. So for four years, I devoted my studies to the Romantic poets, Keats, Shelley and Byron; the incredible Imagist writers, especially Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, James Joyce, D.H Lawrence and others. Then the Beat poets, Kerouc, Allen Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Neal Cassady and Charles Bukowski, in particular. I very fondly remember buying Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems with an intro by Williams Carlos Williams for $2 at the famous City Lights bookstore. Still sits on my desk! Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture I have also come to really enjoy some of the incredible, contemporary female poets such as Sylvia Plath, Alice Oswald, Maya Angelou and Gwendolyn Brooks. There is just so much great writing. What books have most influenced your life/career most? Well, each one of my careers and each aspect of my life has its favorite books. I’ve already mentioned the poetry ones. I’d have to say that several books really jolted me when I first read them and still linger in my head today. Lord of the Flies by William Golding would be one. I love writing that deals with the struggles of governing in the midst of chaos…sound familiar? Aldous Huxley’s classic, Brave New World, written in 1932, and also the name of my radio program, has always astounded me for its accurate depiction of what the future was to bring. Several city planning and design books have stayed with me in all my years in that profession, especially, Kevin Lynch’s planning masterpiece, The Image of the City, and the wonderful perspective on architecture and building with mud by 23 Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy, called Architecture for the Poor. And finally, I guess, two books that stopped me in my philosophical tracks and really made me think outside my personal and cultural boxes were Malcom X’s By Any Means Necessary and Richard Wright’s, Native Son. How do you approach your work? The Imagist poets really laid out for me an actual manifesto for how it is to write in that style, most importantly, and I’m paraphrasing here: Use the language of common speech, using an exact word, not merely a decorative word. It may be better to express yourself in free verse rather than conventional structures. Absolute freedom in the choice of a subject. Present an image and not deal in vague generalities. Write poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred or indefinite. Focus on concentration…the essence of something. While my writings have been relatively true to those principles, in Higher Glyphics, my recent poetry book, I rather