Author Note: Hussain Ahmed
Hussain Ahmed is the author of the poem “Oath,” published in The PuritanIssue 29, Fall 2017. Here, he answers our contributor questionnaire as part of our ongoing author notes series.Does your poem have an interesting origin story/compositional history you’d like to share? This could include interesting factoids or bits of research that informed the work.
The poem is a collage of several fragments from the events that surrounded me at a particular time. An uncle who serves in the Nigerian army had returned from Maiduguri, fighting the Boko Haram. He came with the news that his friends had lost their lives in the fight. I imagined how their wives and children would react to the horrible news.What was it influenced by? (i.e., were you listening/watching something when you began to write? Were you in a meeting or class at the time? Was it after a film, art show, concert?)The poem was influenced by the urge to outlive my fears of losing the people I love. Even though I have witnessed family cry when relatives die, the grief only lasts a few months before they move on.Tell us the best thing you’ve read lately, or a poet/fiction writer you’re jealous of, or a story/short story collection you wish you wrote.I am a great fan of Tarfia Faizullah, for the beautiful, bold and evergreen poems she writes, to give voice to themes that are sometimes reported in whispers, about the violence against women. She blends her imagery in a vivid format that could create a new level of sanity in her audience.
Poets are the best lyricists you can find anywhere in this world and beyond.
However, a book I wish I wrote is The Famished Road by Ben Okri. It is the only book I have read over and again because I always find something new anytime I read it.Did music lyrics have anything to do with the piece we’re publishing? Were any particular lyrics important to you in your development as a writer? Is there any recent lyricist you’ve been digging, and why? Is there any piece of writing, by you or someone else, that you would like see turned into a song? Why?Actually, music lyrics have nothing to do with the poem, but they have a lot to do with my art of writing. Poets are the best lyricists you can find anywhere in this world and beyond. And lately, I have been digging up many poets, making sure I get to read everything they publish. I have been digging Traci Brimhall, Meghann Plunkett, Chelsea Dingman, and several others. Their poems should be made into songs, as they will fit many occasions from weddings, commemorations, birthdays, and even funerals. There is a language of absolute pureness in the poems they write.In your practice, what would you say is the balance between silliness and seriousness?In my practice, the balance between silliness and seriousness is separated by a thin line. I write mostly at night when all my siblings are asleep. I switch off the light and then switch on the television to a sports or music channel. Then I watch the empty page of my laptop and I wander into thoughts about the day, many days before, months, or years ago. What I write in the night does not pass to be edited until after several days or weeks. But sometimes, the poems come to me fully made. In those times, I write the poems in one sitting, without having to let them settle for some literary sieving.
Hussain Ahmed is a Nigerian writer and environmentalist. His poems are featured or forthcoming in Puerto del Sol, Prairie Schooner, Vinyl, Yemassee, Gigantic Sequins, and elsewhere. His chapbook was a finalist for the 2017 Hyacinth Girl Press contest.
