A Fire In My Head

by Ben Okri

A powerful collection of new and recently completed poems by Ben Okri covering topics of the day, such as the refugee crisis, racism, Obama, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Corona outbreak.

In our times of crisis
The mind has its powers

This book brings together many of Ben Okri's most acclaimed and politically charged poems.

Some of them, like 'Grenfell Tower, June 2017', are already familiar. Published in the Financial Times less than ten days after the fire, it was played more than 6 million times on Channel 4's Facebook page, and was retweeted by thousands on Twitter.

'Notre-Dame is Telling Us Something' was first read on BBC Radio 4, in the aftermath of the cathedral's near destruction. It spoke eloquently of the despair that was felt around the world.

In 'shaved head poem', Ben Okri wrote of the confusion and anxiety felt as the world grappled with a health crisis unprecedented in our times.

'Breathing the Light' was his response to the events of summer 2020, when a black man died beneath the knee of a white policeman, a tragedy sparking a movement for change.

These poems, and others including poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Barack Obama, Amnesty and more, make this a uniquely powerful collection that blends anger and tenderness with Ben Okri's inimitable vision.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

Published January 7, 2021

About the author

Poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.

He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).

His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.

In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).

A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.

In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.

Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Emily B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most powerful of this collection were the political poems. However the rest were less impactful and left less of an impression on me.

[Rebecca]

Protest poetry runs the risk of prioritizing message over art. Unfortunately, that is very much the case here. I read about the first 40 pages and found the poems cringe-inducingly unsubtle. Repetitive, sentimental, elementary. “Closed, Still Open” was the best of the lot: “how do we improvise in these difficult times? / how to keep our art and spirit alive? … no more can we blame god / or the gods. we are the evil / that keeps on coming back to us.” But even this ends with an atrociously contorted line (made to rhyme with “improvise”): “upwards our dreams must we revise.” Other painfully obvious or just plain weird lines: “It seems wars are about separation / Not unity”* (you don’t say?) and “for every music heard / there are tears unheard”**.

*from “The Unknown Hour”
**from “Lines on a Drawing”

[Chloe Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it over few months just reading a poem or 2 at a time, found it quite dry but the last one about grenfell tower was very touching

[Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, Okri's poetry is so powerful and impactful. The political relevance is astounding and the topics discussed are hard-hitting.

[Cláudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“still your hearts. breathe like new.
centre yourselves in the part
of you that’s most true.”

[Aghogho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read and think-worthy. Okri does a lot of justice to the important issues of the day in a bare-all approach; when the truth has to be divulged, there is no use being obscure, he seems to say. Lancinating poetry if you please. Loved the piece on race, Brexit, Grenfell, Obama, Floyd especially and the 'softer' love poems too. Brilliant collection overall.

[cloe.lovesreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t feel the poetry

[Iulia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ben Okri has written a book of good politics and bad, terribly bad, poetry. It’s plain embarrassing.

[your brilliant friend · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is often the question in life
Whether to stay or leave.

So begins what I think is the longest poem in this horrendous book of dismal, generic poems. Anyone with any sense will here throw the book out the window, or burn it down, or use it in the toilet, to at least get some value for ones money. Luckily for me, it's a stolen ebook, and I won't throw away my phone in the name of Okri. I read on:

It’s a fundamental thing we believe.
History began with staying or leaving.
We stayed in the garden long
Enough for celestial history
To ripen, the slow completion
Of that cosmic task. There was no time
In the garden. Neither clocks, nor necessity,
Nor referendums presided over
Our ancestors’ temporal stay.

I couldn't go on, and yet I did. The poet is relentless in his poverty of intellect, and is full of cheap cant, and is just generally dull, and, quite unfortunately, unaware of all these shortcomings.

No one who knew the war, misery,
Untold and untellable suffering
Of life outside the garden would have left
Voluntarily. This is of course a metaphor.
Not to be taken on a razor’s edge.
To want to leave Europe is not the same
As leaving Eden. For Eden was perfection,
And nothing afterwards can ever be. Only
Degrees of imperfection, degrees of beauty,
Degrees of agreeable possibility, scope for
Growth and mutual growth, the space in which
To help one another on the difficult journey
Back to the rose garden, is maybe the best
That we can hope for. Those who sell some thing
As the perfect dream always sell a lie.
(Naturally, the italics are mine.)

At this point, one genuinely can't go on. But, out of decency, I check what the last lines of his great poem are. (So long is it one can't help pitying the poet who wrote it, perhaps applying the whole effort of his intellect to it, going so far as to rhyme some parts, but either too weak or too lazy to do it well, or even be consistent with the rhyme).

When the dead return and find
That no one’s home. Only the wind
Rattling windowpanes of history.
Or they return and find that we’ve
Forgotten them, and they resume
Their old habits in our living spaces
While the fingers of evening climb
High on the white walls, and the clock
Strikes an hour no one knows.

Reading lines like these, I find myself doubting that Okri has any intellect at all. He must be a very dull person indeed, to write so badly. He will not stop to think what he's doing. If he has any friends at all, he either does not seek their counsel or he does not take heed of it when offered or, more likely, his frinds are too polite to tell him the truth: these aren't poems, buddy.
When he's not writing political poems of protest, he is a master of the lyric, weaving the high themes of race and love and loneliness with style, breaking lines quite gratuitously, as if they wronged him, all the time avoiding caps, perhaps hoping to be taken seriously, like e e cummings. He will not write a good line. He goes from platitude to platitude, from bad rhyme to bad titles, juggling his badness like a skilled juggler, never dropping any of it, all the way to the end. If I found Warsan Shire dismal last week, it is because I hadn't read Ben Okri. Even she is not this bad, not this dull, by God.

We are beyond definition. The state
Can’t measure our true estate.
Not the school we attended
Nor our parent’s name, nor the university
We studied at, nor the forms of apprenticeship
That life offered can define or measure
Our cosmic potentiality.
No one can define us except ourselves.

[Jesse Hassinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a skipping stone over water, Okri’s poetry touches the surface of things, giving name to different atrocities and benevolence without any deepening of understanding about of what he writes.

The last straw was the George Floyd poem, “Breathing the Light” where he writes: “you called your breath / sixteen times, like / a sad lover, while two / white women filmed / the grim catastrophe / of injustice that bloomed / there in lincoln’s / graveyard”. While there were many people gathered and documenting the lynching of Floyd, it was Darnella Frazier, a teen-aged Black woman, whose footage became infamous. How does her (continued) erasure from Okri’s poem do anyone any justice? Further to the point, later: “you died into silence / but the big world / rose up in speech // there’s no poetry / of change greater / than when the world / sees at last that / it can be free” - as if every oppressed person worldwide was waiting for a moment in time outside of their own actions to “see at last that [they] can be free”. It is dismissive, at best, and disappointing from someone who has written about anti-colonialism so well, previously.

[Keerthana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

Okri's 'A Fire in My Head' is such a profound exploration of the complex state of the world, addressing many contemporary issues, such as climate change, Grenfell Tower, but Okri, rather than focusing on these contemporary issues, uses them as catalysts to illustrate a wider point; he highlights the dire state of the world and the need for immediate change, whilst also providing moments of hope, beauty and wonder, which were pleasent surprises embedded with the darker, and deeper themes of the collection. Overall, it was really refreshing to tackle a collection of contemporary poetry that reflects on themes resonant in my own thoughts and reflect on them.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes it’s best not to choose but to wait. Often we hurry to choose before we know what We are choosing. Lost is the wisdom of waiting. Neti neti. Neither this nor that. Neither that nor this. Waiting the way destiny does, the way trees do, Spending all winter and spring to decide about summer. Meanwhile all that’s true within them always Growing, lifting the antinomy of life and of death. They grow when they can, they die when they can’t. Given half a chance they always grow back, On concrete or stone or the side of a hill.

Some lovely poems for those moments when you need a quiet uplifting word for existential awakening.

[Jo The Black Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a Socially and politically charged short read, then I think this book of poetry will be right up your street.

The poems focus on many current social issues, including;
The Grenfell fire, President Obama, c*v*d*9, boko haram etc.

It was an enjoyable, refreshing and thought provoking read and I'll definitely be thumbing (virtually) through the pages of my Kindle again through this book of poetry.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first reading of Okri's poems. There were some very evocative and moving pieces such as the poems about Grenfell Towers and Notre Dame, often the pieces calling for justice and tackling political matters. I suspect a number of others I didn't do justice, not knowing their context. Maybe I should have done some more legwork but sadly have other priorities at the moment.

[Lois Carr-Nieves · Rating 4 out of 5]

- Noteworthy, Lyrical, Relevant

- The poems about George Floyd and Grenfell Tower were particularly moving to me, they were incredibly powerful

- A very good collection of poems, definitely recommend it if you enjoy poetry or you’re looking to read more

*Full review to come*

[Meds · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

First poetry volume I'm reading that focuses so much on politics and world issues. It was quite nice especially because it's quite recent. They were also uplifting and empowering.
Other poems in the volume have mystical, spiritual elements and I loved a lot of those bits.

[sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don’t read many poetry books, but this one was a great read. although i am not familiar with some topics addressed, i will investigate more and maybe reread this books with a different perspective and more depth. the political poems are very impactful.

[Petter Nordal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okri challenges me to hope wisely, not avoid thinking about the ugly problems in the world, not to pretend and make believe, not to wallow in apocalypse. Beautiful poems about everything from Shakespeare to love to the front page news.

[Julia Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

These poems took me a long time to get through. I found the meter hard to figure out, and the author seemed to rotate between rhyming and free verse. Despite moments where I appreciated an effort at social commentary on race and class issues, this collection didn't really resonate with me.

[Karolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben's words are full of light, spiritual, enlightened, his poetry claims an optimistic vision for the earth, while exposing the wrongs of the times.

[Saliha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some poems were bangers others were not. I was more captivated by the political poems than anything