Good Morning and Welcome dear adorable readers and members to “HAPPY SATURDAY WITH AN EMINENT POET” a weekly interview program jointly organized by POEmarium by Dr. Nk Sharma and WRITERS’ MIRROR, ASSAM, INDIA.
Today, we present an Interview with dear Martin Ijir, a poet of international repute/
Bipul Kalita:-Good Morning dear Sir. You are most welcome to our interview program.You are undoubtedly a popular poet. Our readers will be happy if you say a few words about yourself.
Martin Ijir:- I am the Second in family of six, from Nigeria. Read Economics (Education). I am a poet, a teacher, author, an activist, Editor, Humanist and a seeker of true meaning of the Light. Apart from writing I love playing games
Bipul Kalita:- What inspired you to be a poet? Who left an indelible impact on your notional-emotional outpourings?
Martin Ijir:- God inspired me, a visiting genie always tells me how to write. Although, personally as a being there are indelible notions life brings. All I do is to write them down obeying the first law of poetry as guided. I have never allowed my emotional notes to reel over my poetry instead I allow the emotional notes to conform with my genie. This conformity makes me understand the brimness in being a poet.
Bipul Kalita:- What is your conception of a poem?
Martin Ijir:- A poem is a concise, succinct and apt cadence of words in a simplistic way to reach an aesthetic perfection from ages to ages, craving for balance and harmony between universes.
Bipul Kalita:- Very nice concept, no doubt. Who are some of your biggest influences in your poetry?
Martin Ijir:- I read everyday because I am a seeker of the true essence of Christ, the one that will usher in New beginning. I can’t say I have the biggest influencer whose style of writing I followed but I have read works of the mighty minds: The Bible, Shakespeare, Flaubert, Nietzsche, Freud, Soyinka, Tagore, Kafka, Shelley, Pushkin etc. I read them at a very tender age.
Bipul Kalita:- What is the state of contemporary Facebook poetry worldwide ?
Martin Ijir:- Thanks to technology. Facebook poetry has dived into the bunker of fibre across nations, trimming cultural streaming and pigments, erasing age gaps. Facebook is a veritable tool for sharing, writing, getting read and being read, making contemporary poetry to be blossoming.
Bipul Kalita:-You are absolutely right. Hope, those critics who are demeaning Facebook poetry should realize how technology has provided an open platform for all creative minds to expose themselves on one hand, and their creations have reached their readers easily on the other.
Anyway, do you think you were meant to be a poet?
Martin Ijir:- Yes. I was born a poet, no one teaches me to write poetry. I started writing poetry at a very tender age. God destiny men, it is up to you to know thyself and embrace your calling. The breath given to my soul was inscribed in me to be a poet. Therefore, with utmost joy I am a born poet.
Bipul Kalita:-Great. As a poet, can you work anywhere or there is a fixed cell to work in?
Martin Ijir:- I work everywhere, write everywhere, as long I have my pad and if I don’t have a pad I write in my mind, stored them in an archive inside, later I transfer them into a metaphysical pad.
Bipul Kalita:-Superb. You have gone through the poetic works of globally reputed poets who are writing for different poetic groups belonging to different countries. How do you feel when sharing your views with them?
Martin Ijir:- Elated a wide distance that is cut short. Some are very profound, friendly, some dwindling, others have attained the brim of enlightenment. The brim of enlightenment is the savor offering of being a soul and being a heroic poet celebrated by your longing soul. That is why master poets are read, read and read again and again. I pray many understand the joy of being enlightened to be distinguished and reputed.
Bipul Kalita:-Very nice observation, dear Sir. Would you like to comment on the overall standard of poems of the Indian poets who are writing for Facebook groups?
Martin Ijir:- Overall standard of all poets is quite impressive. Especially poets from India, some are fiddling while others are great.
Bipul Kalita:- Please share one of your early / latest poems , preferably a shorter one .
Martin Ijir:- Here it is.
Taking a new bride
The hue in the sun glows its york green
The tainted red in the embryonic glean
Hides beneath a faithful bride
Only kings adore left prints on the shore
Quickly affections climaxes like mountain
Quickly affections strides as green
The leaves of silence turn so brown
Like hefty arms of a genomic giant
The queen bore wintry sadness
As the king left for garde-manger, insufficient tears
Life yellowish hue turns green
Breaking all love chains bonding us for years
(c) Martin Ijir 2020
Bipul Kalita:- Plato said,”At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”
What do you say, Sir?
Martin Ijir:- Plato is right. When one is blurred by sentimental fallacy of love, pain makes him a poet, that’s an emotional notion to poetry but not innate or instinctive rays of knowing the realms in love. He ascends into an embryonic glean that buds words. Each step in love makes a makeshift of becoming a poet but not a born poet. Only a born poet touches love as love, as love on a sky, love in a soul, love sleeping on love-sheets as stars twinkling in between the abyss of emblazoned rays.
Bipul Kalita:- I appreciate your views, dear Sir, on love and on a born poet. Is your poetry subjective? To what extent does it mirror the lives of the underprivileged?
Martin Ijir:- The primary aim of my writing is to bring liberation, love, hope, faith to all without hate, prejudice or malicious pap to smear or favor any person. It holds truth as its firm post. Individual perspectives to my writing mirror the class you stratified self. I don’t believe in the word “underprivileged”; everyone is privileged, so is my poetry.
Bipul Kalita:- What should be the role of a poet against the backdrop of the present world situation ?
Martin Ijir:- To encourage, to light darkness that is glowing over us. To point and guide others with a lamp of love imbued in writing so that people will have hope of being here, and hope of thereafter. Rudiments of attaining eternity should be told clearing in a concise form.
Bipul Kalita:- What do you prefer, rhyme or blank verse ? Why?
Martin Ijir:- I don’t have a preference when it comes to my writing. My writings are in all forms because it is guided by my genie, my usual visitor tells the word, all I do is to obey and write. I never plan writing rhymed lines or blank verse. “What’s written cannot be undone” and what’s told must be written.
Bipul Kalita:- Ours is an age of experiment. How does this affect the field of poetry? Do you also experiment with your poetry?
Martin Ijir:- Yes I do, necessity and circumstances breed thinking; so this tavern needs to be exploited evenly but usually I am guided by my usual visitor.
Bipul Kalita:- What do you think about the relevancy of our Groups’ vision and mission for promoting Global Peace, Universal Love and Humanity ?
Martin Ijir:- You guys are doing a great job. I would love to thank Dr. N.K Sharma Sir for his innovative idea of bringing all sundry across the globe into one group, showing love to everyone encouraging emerging writers, making many buckling their pen. Also, I commend all team members for their teeming support in achieving this Herculean task. God bless you all.
Bipul Kalita:- You are a published poet. How many anthologies do you have to your credit so far?
Martin Ijir:- I have five anthologies, editor to three anthologies and many unpublished works. Four are poetic discourse, and one is a prose-poetry undergoing printing but thwarted due to Covid-19 lock down.
Bipul Kalita:- Great. Heartfelt congratulations too. How do you manage your profession and passion for poetry at the same time?
Martin Ijir:- Kudos to time, the mother of records, programming, utilization. My profession does not hinder my writing because I knew the importance, housed in a time. Thanks so much to time, it helps me a lot in managing my profession and poetry
Bipul Kalita:- What impresses you most about our groups and why ?
Martin Ijir:- It is constituted by well self humble personalities starting from its founder, admins and members ; team spirit makes goal-target easier.
Bipul Kalita:- Do you have any suggestions to offer to the fellow poets?
Martin Ijir:- Keep writing, keep reading and above all allow conformity with your soul.
Bipul Kalita:- Thanks a lot dear Sir for being with us this morning, sharing freely and frankly your precious views on poetry. I hope, we will meet again with new topics for discussion.
martinijir's Blog 