Your poem had some truly stunning lyrical lines, such as “because a man’s body can not be / the temple of God // & remain a swelled sky with a leaking roof”. I love the way you explored the themes of health and mourning an ill body. Can you tell us more about what sparked the concept behind this poem?
The concept behind this poem is real life-based. Usually, I view poetry as the greatest proximity between my existence and every other thing that goes along with it. Here in this poem, an obvious representation of my closeness to the life of my diabetic dad and the struggles he undergoes to keep up with surviving is captured in its purest truth. Diabetes, as I’ve learned, can be genetic and that’s exactly the case with my dad; my grandparents had the same sickness, my uncle died a few years ago as a result of this same ailment and now my dad is managing the same sickness. There could not have been any other honest way to express this kind of traumatising scenario other than through poetry, of course, that has been the nearest to transparency I’ve come to expressing it.
How does your experience in the field of medicine shape your poetry?
Being a potential medical laboratory scientist (clinical scientist) and at the same time a poet is never an easy journey, but the beauty that comes with bridging the gap between medicine and literature can be equated with the aura of the emergence of a rainbow after a suppressing surge. Sometimes, when I view a stained slide in the laboratory during our classes in the hospital, I often think of literature as the only thing that can bare the complexity of life with honesty the same way a microscope bares the intricacy of a sample obtained from a patient. It is this honesty that poetry offers that has kept me sane; it is the same honesty that has offered me the dexterity and resilience needed to survive the ugly vicissitudes that come with being a Nigerian. Sincerely, clinical studies have moulded my language of poetry and the way I follow up my existence to its barest molecular tier.
You’ve described your poetry as “vital piece[s] of your body”. What guided you towards poetry as a vessel for your creativity and talent with words?
Our body will always thrive to sharpen itself in the nearest way it can and like Ocean Vuong rightly asserted in one of his poems: “our body sharpens by cutting.” You see, there will always be a piece of our bodies peeling off from us and it’s our journey as creators to collect these pieces into the immediate honest content we can; this is exactly what I do as a poet. I keep collecting my honest pieces into poems and even when these poems should always be about me, they always extend to everyone else and it’s so because honesty is relative.
Where can our readers find more of your work?
My works have been published in several places and many of them are upcoming in several places as well. The easiest way to get in touch with most of the published ones is through Google. Hence, any reader who googles Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan, will always have a handful of my works.
Interviewed by Munira Tabassum Ahmed
Hyades Magazine 