Synkroniciti is honored to welcome Nigerian poet S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan with two richly evocative poems that explore patterns of identity. The first, “my ruins are so beautiful that i wear them like a regalia” was a finalist in our “Patterns” poetry contest. It is dedicated to the lives lost in a traffic accident in 2012 and explores the disjointed and complex feelings that accident brought out in Olaitan’s being.
“my ruins are so beautiful that their exit could lead you into another/ entrance. it is with ease that a thread slips through the eye of a needle/ without grammar. some days: a griever becomes grief. a song becomes/ its singer. a sad song spilling over.”
He moves from an inexplicable sorrow that precedes knowing, to the surreal revelation of the accident, to a thankfulness for the gift of living in community and being able to mark the days.
“i thank my God. if not for anything but for the gift of tesbi. or a memory/ he’s bestowed on it to count & name my wounds chronologically/ as they appear. an archive of aftertaste.”
Tesbi are Islamic prayer beads, and Olaitan’s faith imbues his poetry with strength, thoughtfulness, and serenity in the face of life’s obstacles and challenges. He doesn’t over-explain and his surrealistic style allows us to dig for meaning and understanding, which makes the truths we find all the more precious because they take on the voice of our internal musings. We feel immersed in his experience and it becomes part of our awareness.
The second poem, “shift” takes place against the backdrop of Black Muslim identity in Nigeria, illuminating how modernity interacts with spiritual traditions. A young man who once swore to be holy now styles women’s hair, another is elected to public office only to find that all is rotten. Does this mean that they can no longer be spiritual or does it mean they possess new ways of embodying faith and community? We see this all over the world where traditionalism has become the defining trait of too many religions. As we age, we come up against the disparity between what we have been told is holy or successful and what those words actually mean in practice. It creates angst but also makes us grow.
“i grasp the truth: i do not resist change// but hunger for the familiar./ now i know it is not just about me// but the voices that told me i was/ too much to be something. now i see// it is not the voices, it is the burden// of colour that insists on remodeling our essence.”
Olaitan’s poetic voice is mysterious and modern, full of vivid sensory imagery, and his use of redaction as an expressive tool is masterful. Read his marvelous poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan is a Nigerian introverted poet, pupil of Laws, and graphics designer. Member of Oyongo Collective. He writes from Ilorin, a city he fondly describes as “a breath from heaven.” He currently serves as Poetry Editor at Words-Empire Magazine.
He authored the shortlisted chapbook Life, An Objet D’art (Arting Arena Poetry Chapbook Prize 2023), and won the 2024 Prose Purple Writing Prize (Poetry category). His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Bare Hill Review, Pictura Journal, Carolina Muse, Synkroniciti Magazine, Exist Otherwise, UGR, Eco Punk Literary, and others. When not writing, he enjoys tea, cherishes his parents, and listens to Billie Eilish in the dark.