OBALÚAYÉ by Jide Badmus
OBALÚAYÉ is a poetry collection for the things that plague us. OBALÚAYÉ is a Yoruba god of infirmities and healing.
The poems in this book talk of cradles and graves and every experience in-between, employing the duality attribute of the Orisha of epidemics. Each poem is an experience of health and death wrapped in a pod, of strength and flaws and a thirst for things that elude.
This collection explores the human cycle—the routine of life and death (and a possibility of restoration, rebirth). It seeks to understand the things that haunt us—our fears, our nightmares, quest for freedom, the weight of responsibilities, the paradox of hope, devotion and betrayals, failed states and the covid-19 pandemic.
OBALÚAYÉ is a realization that “life is a cocktail of sweet, sour and insipid” and we are born to run this cycle, reaching for light, reaching for freedom…that ultimately leads to the grave.
Jide Badmus is an engineer, a poet inspired by beauty and destruction; he believes that things in ruins were once beautiful.
Jide is the author of There is a Storm in my Head; Scripture; Paradox of Little Fires; Paper Planes in the Rain (co-authored with Pamilerin Jacob); Silk Psalms (with Alozor Michael); and Anatomy of the Sun (and everything beneath) co-authored with Tukur Loba Ridwan. He has a Pushcart Prize nomination.
Badmus has curated and edited several anthologies such as Vowels Under Duress; Coffee; Today, I Choose Joy; and How to Fall in Love.
He is the founder of INKspiredNG, Poetry Editor for Con-scio Magazine, and sits on the board of advisors for Libretto Magazine.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from University of Ilorin, Nigeria and a Master’s in Information Technology Management from Binary University, Malaysia. He is married to Linda and they are blessed with two daughters, Nora and Nicole. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.