The Smell of Exile

The Smell of Exile is a collection of poems that speaks about complex and diverse human experiences. They are simple stories about people, their hopes, dreams, and their indomitable spirit that clings to something mystical as they struggle to survive in a foreign culture. To the first time reader, it outlines and examines the cultural and historical effects of human-nature disconnection, the severance of an African poet from his time-honored customs and traditions of Africa, and his being caught in the rituals of the new world. But, the feeling of separation from a birthplace is one of the largest and greatest universal sources of nostalgic feelings, and of suffering of which Padmore Agbemabiese has been inspired to talk about in various styles and art forms.

Tales narrated by the poems are sensitive and capture the imagination in order to provide the reader with an escape or a journey into the realm of the mystical, supernatural, and esoteric world of that human tragedy, loss of identity. In the poem, One Gentle Night, Padmore Agbemabiese brings us this feeling of loss:

one gentle night
I saw the moonlight coming out in the dark
and remembered the crickets at home

soon
I cuddled my soul with joy at the moon
but the crickets did not return my song

gush
I raised my head and looked again
it was the floodlights from the street corner

slowly
and sorrowfully I lowered my head and thought of my far-away home