The Place of Truth and Facts in Poetry : A Deconstruction of Tukurism.
One couldn't possibly understand the way a poet thinks unless one is familiar with the different fabrics of thoughts that make a poet think. This is no word of advice or a gem of wisdom. But let's say it is an introduction into the deconstruction of one of the finest works we have seen dissecting the concepts of truth and facts and establishing the duty of the poet in a post-truth world. There is a long-standing question here about poetry and truth, about its language and its facts and the pretense of literature. The world so chaotic that a poet could write down an aircraft crash or a train leaving its tracks and only have to wait upon them to manifest. And as these are certain to manifest, it becomes impossible to determine to what truth does the poet pretend to know and to not know: is it to the truth of his prophecy or to the truth of factual misfortunes?
I saw eternity in two-folds; / of living, of dying, of the dilemma / that visits the heart like a long-lost lover / who comes to apologize with roses / on valentine's day / (pg 19, spectrum).
Fundamentally, a truth is different from a fact as a lie is different from being wrong and incorrect. A beautiful lady like my girlfriend is a subjective truth. She may not appeal to your taste and preference. And when you say she is not beautiful, you may appear wrong to me, but that doesn’t mean you’re lying. Truths, like lies, can be distorted. But a burning fire is a fact. It burns me as much as it burns you. A tribal mark on my face, a tattoo on my skin— these are all facts as long as they are apparent to us. It appears the difference between both concepts lies in the way they happen to us. In the way we feel and know them. We know truths abstractedly, particularly employing the mind and the heart. Facts are what prey on our bodies, on our skins, leaving imprints or scars, good or bad. The similarity of these two is in the fact that both can be pretended and which is the reason for the scrutiny of poetry’s empathetic state.
I come to terms with a truth, that / this river, the bloodstream of mother nature / can take in & throw up any black & white / or any shades of grey trying to cleanse / with her silver cotton of purity / (pg 20, spectrum).
However truths are more celebrated than facts, perhaps because of their ability to trigger varying opinions and the human leanings towards submissive superiority. But if we had been celebrating facts, such fixations of what we all agree on would not ignite curiosity and the world would not be much moving than it has been. There won't be inventions or the application of innovations. There won't be impoverishment of technology or the poverty of laughter. But in language, facts should be more celebrated than truths. The contemporary quest for truths in expression seems pretending. Moreover, truths have been overstretched. Fake and factitious news now pervade the human minds. The state of a poet should therefore not be in the true sense of feelings but in the factualism of emotions. Tukur's stronghold is his ability to assume human psychological states with such fluidity, infuse dynamism in them and relate feelings with factualism that we never need to doubt the genuineness of such assumptions. His knowledge of the place of truth and facts is what makes his works believable and his writings a movement for factual poetry.
this theatre tells tragic tales / sorrow claims the plots of nights / like joy acts its scenes in mornings / the weary eye of god, the moon, ceases / to follow this land to the waterloo it's heading / now, our nights of plights lose sight / we don't know who is at the driver seat (pg 30, joys of nationhood).
Truth and fact as much as they adjudge the sense of feelings and emotions also influence the definitions of romance and sexuality. Sometimes I tend to ask what is the true state of making love and feel I should have asked what is the factual state of making love. In truth, both questions do not mean the same although they appear factually the same. Writers know that the believability of truth hinges heavily on factual illustrations and stories of them. Consequently, the submission of a new identity or a new label has never been much easier; it only pleads for a stretch of believable stories, fictionally wrapped in factualism. Tukur in his sensual appreciations has no reason to isolate the facts from the truths as there is no urgency for a new identity or for a new voice. The motive is clear and simple: to celebrate the body of a woman and acknowledge her physiological truths. Thus Tukur merges both the truth with the facts to effect a sensually appetising imagery.
your tight grip, my craving / your roundness, soft like dough / hold me by my length / where there is no pleasure / in cutting loose but long suffering / be my nun / I will worship through your lead / (pg 17, haven grave).
Tukur’s exploration of truth and facts becomes much more pronounced in the aspect of religiosity. Religion is in fact the defining factor of truth and facts and their most prominent separator. Tukur is however able to identify the gaps among the three by placing them in their rights almost effortlessly. Every religious stronghold seems to agree on one undeniable fact— and it is in the existence of one God who is the ruler and ultimate. But they are too opinionated about the truth to have noticed this commonality. Their differences about God are not as extremely diverse as their differences about his messengers and the ways this God is to be served. In 'this christmas’, Tukur clarifies us on the priority of oneness and unity. Using Christmas as a kind of Eden, he admits us into the larger picture of togetherness and shows the factual dipleasure of God at those who are destructive of the oneness of humans with their truths.
From Bethlehem to the rest of the world / God holds blasts of fireworks in his black garment / of stars. He doesn't want to throw them / at those who corrupt the festive nights / With their euphoria / ( pg29, This Christmas).
Conclusively, it is necessary we move away from truth-poets to fact-poets. However, sometimes, when faced with a kind of urgency, we can employ both truths and facts, since facts, like truths themselves, are not always facts. A fact is a part of reality and truth is a property of sentences, utterances, propositions, etc. Truth therefore is more inherent to writing and is an integral tool of poetry. So on one common view, a poet should know the place of truth and the place of facts in a fast-moving technological post-truth world in a way Tukur has done to us.
About the poet:
Tukur Ridwan Ishola Olorunloba is a Nigerian poet and essayist whose style cuts across diverse themes and forms. Tukur is an aspiring author, literary and social critic, a freelance content writer and editor from Lagos State. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Nigeria. A Boy’s Tears on Earth’s Tongue is his first published collection of poems. Click here to download: https://www.wrr.ng/download/boys-tears-earths-tongue-ridwan/
