YOU NEED TO PAUSE (TO FIND YOUR OWN POWER)

GENRE: POETRY TITLE: YOU NEED TO PAUSE (TO FIND YOUR OWN POWER) WRITER: STEVE OTIENO, KENYA REVIEWER: OMADANG YOWASI, UGANDA
 
Glad are those who come out of emotional imprisonment, for mood swings no longer have a hold on them! You are wondering if this is Biblical, right? I laugh at you.
Well, it's the poem, “You Need to Pause” that made me speak in a Biblical tongue.
 
You may wonder where the theme of POWER lies in this poem, but honestly, this is a poem that employs good use of mystery to tackle the theme of Power. One's self and their emotions playing tricks on each other is something so common nowadays, but what happens to most people is that they end up getting lost in their emotions to the worst of experiences.
 
The poet's creative title pours fragrance to the poem by suggesting what could be best done to find one's power. You Need to Pause doesn't necessarily mean one has to stop on a physical journey they're on but to embrace silence and fall in love with a mental mantra to boost one's emotions. As one reads the poem, one finds that the persona is enslaved in a "prescribed note of rhythm," this is symbolically used to mean state of mind and it's what the persona finally frees himself from in the last stanza thereby ultimately finding his power.
One's power in the poem lies in battling with one's emotions and subsequently taming them.
 
I enjoyed reading and reviewing this poem largely because of the good use of mystery, symbolism and diction.