On the Waves of Lost Memories Selected Poems

Okot P'Bitek, writing in Africa's Cultural Revolution, Macmillian Books for Africa, Nairobi, 1973, reminds us that "writing, like painting and sculpting, is a mere tool for expressing ideas. As the painter uses brush, color, and a surface (. . . canvas, the walls of St. Peter's Basilica . . . the walls of a cave), and the sculptor uses a chisel and a piece of wood or stone to produce shapes and figures, the poet uses words for expressing his feelings. The voice of the [writer] and the pen and paper are mere midwives of a pregnant mind."