Trapped in thought – 25- year- old releases poems
Reporting by Shaquawn Gill
A 25-year-old Guyanese native has recently become Guyana’s new author after releasing a special compilation of poems over the Christmas holiday.
Tarik Braithwaite, who is originally from Perseverance, East Bank Demerara, has successfully published his first anthropology, making it both available in E-Paper format and paperback.
In an interview with this publication, Braithwaite expressed his love for poetry and writing that has been innate for him from a tender age, “I started writing poetry since I was 13, but they were small jottings behind a book,” he explained.
The young man recalled that whilst growing up, he would read poems by many renowned poets. These sparked his interest in creating his own poetic art, “I’ve always been moved by poetry and after doing extensive readings of Walt Whitman, Anne Sexton [and] T.S Eliot…”, he said while naming some of his inspirations in poetry.
The book, titled “Trapped in Thought”, contains poems mostly written by Braithwaite as well as several poems written by other young Guyanese poets who were willing to express their talents. Braithwaite mentioned that the poems, which mostly consisted of “confessional verses” were used to tell his story. “I [chose] to use confessional verses in this book since it allowed me to be direct and confess some of the things I faced [whether it] be challenges, past experiences with life, [or] or feelings as it relates to life,” Braithwaite detailed.
“This was done to introduce new poets to the forum and to display the diversity of Guyanese writers. Revon Jordan, Sadiya Yayah, Romelia Hughes, Tkeisha Waaldijk, Shaquan Michael and Quanisha Patterson have all done their part in making this project a reality,” Braithwaite expressed.
When asked about the tedious process of compiling and publishing, the recent Law graduate explained that the procedure is nothing short of a laborious task. “The publishing process was a time-consuming one [and] because I was unaware of the whole process it took me more than three months to learn [what to do] and a couple more months to orchestrate it,” he detailed.
With local role models in the likes of Geary Reid, Braithwaite wishes to inspire other young poets to aim for the skies, and then to go a little beyond the normal standard set for people today. “There is no mountain too big, or too high…at the peak of it all you will achieve great success…[so] never give up,” Braithwaite encouraged.
Braithwaite highlighted that the release of this anthropology not only serves as a personal achievement for him, but as a landmark in young Guyanese poetry as well as a mark of what can be attained in the future. “This project was more than just publishing a book,” Braithwaite says, “It [is] a way to keep poetry alive in Guyana. It is the desire of mine to one day establish a Non-Governmental Organization for young local poets to use their voice as a tool [to]…tackle social ills and bring about awareness [of these issues] …in Guyana,” he said.
The electronic version as well as the paperback version of Tarik Braithwaite’s ‘Trapped in Thought’, which were officially released on December 27 and December 30 respectively, can both be purchased on Amazon via the links provided below.
