Poetry

miles in Pathos and Other Poems is a collection of selected poems by Khainga O'Okwemba. The poet stands on the opposite ends of his contemporaries because of his faith and reverence in the traditional forms of poetry. He is intimately Augustan in craft and romantic in idealizing the poetic forms. The poems are written in three models divided into separate books, with each book sub-themed. In Book One we have the celebratory short poems called Poems of Homage which are inspired by the poet's admiration of canonical African writers: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Chris Wanjala, Peter Abrahams, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Ayi Kwei Amah, Denis Brutus, Christopher Okigbo, among others. The Incidental poems in Book Two called Poems of Known Tradition , adopt identifiable forms; rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, repetition, stanza, terza rima, sonnet, and which take on socio-political themes. In Book Three we find the mock epic narrative poetry with the title Pearls of Laughter. The narrative poem needs first to be enjoyed as a love story, and as a satire. Every piece has a life of its own. However, the work is well appreciated when the fragmented pieces are united into one, a feat generally admired by the poet