#BehindThePoem: DOMINO I

FIRST of all, I have a confession to make. I have never played domino before, I have never seen anyone play domino before, I don’t even know the rules of dominos, the only thing I know about domino is its spelling and its pronunciation however I have a ten chaptered poem titled “DOMINO.”

DOMINO I is the whole foundation of J.Y. Frimpong. This poem is like my first ever published poem (published on facebook and in “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES). Before this poem, I had not done much writing. The only writing I did at that time was writing poems for a few friends of mine. In fact, many people who knew me did not even know that I could even do poetry till I released this poem.

Before DOMINO I, I had no plans of becoming a poet but many events around me pushed me into writing this poem. I was suffering inside and I wanted to express my feelings (am a bit emotional). I was facing relationship issues, friendship issues and also I felt so depressed in my whole life at that time.. In my entire life, I have been a lot successful in many projects I had undertaken till my biggest failure which lies on the path of relationships (where relationship here implies a boy and a girl kind of special dating relationship stuff) popped its head up. That has been my greatest failure and because of that I have promised myself not to enter in a relationship (at least for now). I felt and I still feel that my two failed relationship is so alright and enough for me. That is why my maxim since 2011 has always read “My mobile phone battery last longer than most relationships on this Earth”

So then I remember it was a Monday, I couldn’t take it any longer so I took a pen and a paper and I wrote these words.

When I am crying,

I will walk in the rain.

When I am sweating,

I will walk in the sun.

When everyone thinks I am “this”,

I will hold my neck high and say I am “that.”

For if I don’t defend myself who would?

For if I don’t cherish myself who would?

For if you allow them to get you

It will have a domino effect on you

The world;

May judge you by a picture.

May think they know you better than yourself.

May think you are nobody.

May think you are useless.

But;

You are something worth more than a picture.

You know yourself better than anyone does.

You are someone somebody looks up to.

You can be used for things beyond measure.

After writing these lines, I put “DOMINO I” on my facebook notes and tagged a couple of friends and I got many responses (positive ones) telling me about how they loved my work. I was very happy inside but then I was suffering from another problem; although I had successful let out my emotions, I became afraid of my own poem that I couldn’t read it again after putting it on facebook. Whenever I tell people that after writing poem and publishing “DOMINO I”, I have never had the courage to read it, they think I am lying. I couldn’t read it because I felt that it was just reminding me of my failure. For about 2 years, I was so afraid of reading this poem. The only time I got over this fear was when I decided to embark on this “Behind The Poem” project that I have this courage of reading it again. After reading “DOMINO I” again, I asked myself “Why were you so much afraid of this poem?” And as for the rest of the “DOMINOS (II – X), I always read it as least once a month even before this project.

In compiling the poems for “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES”, I just copied and pasted it without even reading it to see if there was a mistake in it. Every time I read “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES” I always skipped this poem but right now, I look at this poem and smile because I think that it is a good poem and it has shaped my writing style up to now.

When I was choosing the theme poem for “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES”, almost everyone recommended that I choose this poem but I didn’t because I just didn’t want to read it again. So when I made the announcement that I had chosen “LIVING TO DIE” as the theme for “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES”, most of my friends were so disappointed. Maybe I think that it was one of the reasons why people felt that “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES” would have been better if I had listened to advice. They were just blaming me but what they didn’t know was that I was so ashamed to read my own poem. I hated being reminded of my failure. Probably, if I had chosen “DOMINO” as the theme poem maybe I would not have had the motivation to write “THE MYTH OF THE RAINMAKER and “THE CREATION STORY” and the other poems of “A BOOK THAT NEVER DIES.” Living to die is my biggest influence and I am going to talk about it in the next edition of “Behind The Poem”