Akimbo in Limbo by Olumide Olaniyan - Paperback

The thrust of Akimbo in Limbo is that only those who do not stand with arms akimbo when they are confronted with everyday human travails that we sometimes vainly attribute to nature will conquer and decide their tomorrow. Nature itself is kind. It can also be vengeful because of its plundering by humanity. As for tomorrow, its formlessness has been exploited and used to perpetuate lies. It has been used to pillage the happiness of individuals by beasts called human beings. Now nature, because we have violated it, and tomorrow, because we have bemired it, have aligned to become a mountain on the pathway to every person's triumph. Individuals, communities, countries and even continents have become stagnated and defeated. Some have returned to prehistoric periods in desperation, and surrendered to overpowering daily trials and tribulations or episodic disasters that hurt humanity. Individuals and communities will therefore have to climb several mountains of life to attain their victories, burrow through stones to access the honey buried therein or be transfixed to a position of despair and destruction.
The collection is divided into five parts. Part One, "Homilies", has twenty didactic poems that warn readers of the danger of succumbing in the face of hardship, shame, sickness, treachery, fear and even death. It directs us to think, act and live in harmony with nature in order to surmount daunting human conditions. It uses allegories and parodies to narrate ubiquitous human trials and temptations, and the consequences, whether we surrender or confront the condition.
Part Two, entitled, "Brain, Brawn and Brawl" has twenty-one poems narrating the brawl between humans and nature from primeval times to recent efforts at organising society. Origins of beliefs, clashes and conquests of cultures mould the focus of poems in this Part.
Part Three, "Beneath the Skies" has nine poems which are focused on eternal artefacts such as nightfall, fire, wind, moon, sea, road and the city; using them to tell stories of belief, power and human progression and/or regression.
Part Four, entitled, "Yearnings" has six love songs. It is a potpourri of love's frailty, its elusiveness, its longsuffering. It highlights the tiny line between love and unending lust plaguing men and women; it attempts to explain what happens when love dies.
"Vicissitudes" is the title of Part Five. Poems here, numbering eleven, are rooted in symbolism and elegies written in various forms, including haikus and concrete poems. They emphasise human frailness, stressing the need for humans to be humane.