I am Andinet Demisie (Andu Mela). I was born in Gaynet and raised in
Debretabor. Debretabor is the capital
city of Emperor Tewodros and Gaynet is the land of fearless warriors. I
consider myself as a born poet. Nothing catches my attention like the
beauty and vibe of words. And nothing concerns me like spending a night
with out reciting a poem from my favorite poetry collection.
I sometimes dare and ask myself what is a poet ? and is it my true
vocation ?. I soon came up with a bold answer that it is matter of life
for me. I know a true poet is a king and a master of this world in a
true sense. When I was a 12 years boy I was attending an Ethiopian
Orthodox priesthood education called Abenet (Kolo temari). There I met a
well known Gonder Debtera (like a black Magician) and the Debtera gave
me Abesho (a traditional medicine that believed to make a student
smart).
Since that day I have lost myself. Now
after many years I reflect back and I found out that my sickness came
from that Abesho medicine the Debtera gave me. Because When I was living
in America in exile for 10 years I became a Bi-polar patient. I
suffered from a mental disorder sickness for the last 10 years. I have
been in more than 10 psychiatry centers and hospitals including the well
known Amanuel mental specialized hospital in Addis Abeba Ethiopia. I
am in a long healing process and my health is hopefully improving after a
long hard straggle with help of my loving family.
However the Abesho Medicine I took when I was a 12 years boy helped me
in a positive ways too. It ignited my poetry gift and makes me a true
poet in many ways. I am now living with a spirit that came from that
Abesho medicine and of-course the medical doctors called this spirit the
voice. They considered it as a sickness that need to be treated. But
for me the spirit is like a friend and
companion
that guides me in a everyday life. It is a Daemon like phenomena. It
inspires me to write good poems and mysterious verses. And I can say it
makes me a Genius of some sort. Yes, it is working ...
As I write my introduction like this I look for the hidden message in
the words. That hidden message is nothing but the poet in me. It is to
live a life of a poet and to write poetry in blood period. Even when I
was in America as an immigrant with different culture and language, I
didn't hesitate to study theater and poetry at the University there.
Because I know that it is my true call ... I see the poet as messenger
of God. Like the prophets the poet delivers his messages in chosen words
as the Oracle of the Greeks and as the ancient faith of Ethiopians.
My blog
http://meyesawian.blogspot.com/
and
My Facebook Page are Masterpiece works of mine. As an Actor and a poet they represent my whole work as
a religious and an artistic platform. My Meyesawian blog reminds me the
Stoa paint of Lyceum in Greek and the great British poet John Milton put
it in his work in a marvelous way. In paradise regained book four John
Milton shows how a poet or an Artist become a King. Yes a poet can be a
King Complete in his masterpiece work merits through a course of time.
Here is a historical testimony of John Milton work for you.
"Great
Alexander to subdue the world,
Lyceum there, and
painted Stoa next:
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-
measur'd verse,
Æolian charms and
Dorian Lyric Odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,
Blind
Melesigenes,
thence Homer
call'd,
Whose Poem
Phœbus challeng'd for his own.
Thence what the lofty grave
Tragœdians taught
In
Chorus or Iambic, teachers best
Of moral prudence, with delight
receiv'd
In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life;
High actions, and high passions best describing:
Thence to the famous Orators repair,
Those
antient, whose
resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce
Democratie,
Shook the Arsenal and
fulmin'd over
Greece,
To
Macedon, and
Artaxerxes Throne;
To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heaven descended to the
low-rooft house
Of
Socrates, see there his Tenement,
Whom well
inspir'd the Oracle
pronounc'd
Wisest of men; from whose mouth
issu'd forth
Mellifluous streams that
water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the Sect
Epicurean, and the
Stoic severe;
These here revolve, or, as thou
lik'st, at home,
Till time mature thee to a
Kingdom's waight;
These rules will render thee a King
compleat
Within thy self, much more with Empire
joyn'd."
In the American great poet Ralph waldo Emerson essay entitled "the
poet" we can again be sure that the poet is a king or an Emperor in his
own right. When I was reading this essay in American book stores I
remember how delighted and energized I became. My faith in the poet grew
up and it became rooted in my own Ethiopian way of self expression and
Identity.
I said to myself I swear I would become
like a born poet bold and passionate.That is exactly what I kept in my
heart to this day. Here is a quote from Ralph waldo Emerson Essay "the
Poet" , see the depth of the poet and his potential heights as a king or
as an Emperor in his own right. He writes "The poet is the sayer, the
namer, and represents beauty. He is a
sovereign, and stands on the center. For the world is not painted, or
adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some
beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe. Therefore
the poet is not any permissive potentate, but is emperor in his own
right. Criticism is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes
that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and
disparages such as say and do not, overlooking the fact, that some men,
namely, poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of
expression, and confounds them with those whose province is action, but
who quit it to imitate the sayers. But Homer’s words are as costly and
admirable to Homer, as Agamemnon’s victories are to Agamemnon. The poet
does not wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and think
primarily, so he writes primarily what will and must be spoken,
reckoning the others, though primaries also, yet, in respect to him,
secondaries and servants; as sitters or models in the studio of a
painter, or as assistants who bring building materials to an architect."
It is all about being a poet ... becoming a poet ... a born poet. And the kingdom is at hand.
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