I See The Invisible

ruth be told, writes Nnimmo Bassey, I never thought I would write another volume of poetry after the last.

This new book is a compilation that is more meditative than the previous collections. There are moments of reflection on the colonial and neoliberal foundations that permit a willful disconnection from nature and the resultant destructive extractivism.

The poems were written over a wide span of time and require some pondering as poems often demand, of course. Although written over a broad time spectrum, they fall into identifiable themes. The harsh times that birthed the earlier volumes were blunted with doses of humour as poetry is largely therapeutic and contributes to our wellness and well-being.

Poetry is an indispensable cultural tool with which we laugh at the wicked and add the needed bounce to our steps as we march on to end ecocide and give our people and other beings a chance to retain our being.

The call of this volume is that we must ensure that we see the invisible and hear the inaudible.

Nnimmo Bassey is a Nigerian environmental justice activist, architect, essayist and poet. He is the director of the ecological think-tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and coordinator of Oilwatch International.

He was a co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”