The Spoken Word Comes Alive

Aug 04, 2019 Book Review…

Book: Notes from a Love Bird
Author: Meeka Nyota
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

Meeka Nyota sets the tone for the indefatigable ‘Notes from a Love Bird’ with a driving homage to her muse, her creative and mystifying inner voice.

The book cover of Notes from a Love Bird

Her muse transforms banality to insightfulness, even reshaping personalities and destinies.
In ‘Habakkuk’, arguably the most imaginative and compelling of her writings, the transcendence of Nyota’s poetry is clearly defined. Words are not mere words culled from the consciousness. They are intuitively spewed from an incomprehensible source. Like the prophet-sage Habakkuk, Nyota’s fire rages from origins unknown. She reveres what he represents. “What I receive didn’t cost a dime,” she pens. “It was given from the soul, I think of you when the thought for a great poem evokes. I think of you with every stroke. Not by chance but with purpose you came into my life ignited a flame. Natalie no more, Meeka Nyota mi name.”
In the eponymous ‘Notes from a Love Bird,’ she rhetorically questions the nature of love. With vivid imagery, she describes the feeling as “the sweetest song, the kind when nature offers demonstration especially when birds and flowers get along, the buzzing of honeybees,” and “a symphony that needs no introduction.”
Nyota writes with resounding passion. She is consumed by the divinity of love. She transmutes the carnal into the sublime. Like the alchemist that changes lead into gold, Nyota strives for love’s perfection. Mindful she is, though, that her quest could be catastrophic. In ‘My Mother’s Final Lesson,’ she recalls this caution. Embedded in her bosom, Nyota, in turn must counsel her daughter to never allow another to usurp her individuality. “My child,” she intones, “I share with you today the last words my mother shared with me, never waste your life with a man who brings you misery, always strive for the best you can be.”
Throughout, there is the collocation of love and nature. In ‘Love Smart,’ she writes, “There are many varieties of love, shape, size, colours just like animals and unknown species of herbs and flowers, there are many varieties waiting to be discovered…”
And in ‘Full Submission,’ she pours out her deepest feelings, describing the length she will undergo to quench her desires. Again, nature is ever present – “I want to climb the tallest mountain, swim in the deepest sea, go into the garden and pick you an apple from that tree. But that still wouldn’t express how much I love you.”
But this endearing poet is never aimlessly accommodating. She can be resilient, steely, impervious and mindful of the disappointments that beset relationships. We witness this strength in Arguing With A Wall – “I dream for us yet you make me feel unhappy and magnetically small constantly singing the blues…Is it because I don’t massage your ego, is it because I’m not carefree enough because I’d rather take care of my child, my home and other more important stuff. Is it because I act mean, act tuff, royal flush, don’t call no bluffs, strictly conscious. I am that diamond rougher than rough.”
In her later offerings, Nyota seamlessly veers into mysticism, adding diversity to her overall presentation. It is a well-timed transition away from her perfervid yearnings. In the ‘Moon and I,’ she reaches out to the celestial, raising her vibratory connections toward the Divine. She soars spiritually, guided by the stars and planets “to the things we cannot see with our eyes,” but “know that all is aligned,” that “true power resides in the mind.”
In ‘Sacred,’ she dabbles in the esoteric attributes of love. A partner unconstrained by the world makes her whole. His wisdom must shine through – “Knowledge must be his favourite food, he must have a revolutionary attitude organic and pure…he must have water to replenish my Nile, put my family first he must that that the womb is sacred not just fertile.”
She closes assertively, “The Universe knows all I have to give, I wish to revel in the positive, Brave as a lion, Kemetic as the phoenix, humble warrior, link me if you read this.”
‘Notes from a Love Bird’ delivers a passionate statement on the complexity of love, a complexity that has befuddled the wisest among us.

Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Copyright (c) 2018 Meeka Nyota
ISBN 9789769638700
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Recommended

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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