BOOK REVIEW: Kasie – A balm for loss, love and life

Book: Kasie – A balm for loss, love and life

Author: Jude Ilo

ISBN: 978-978-984-856-0

Designed and Published by: A’Lime Media Limited

Year of Publication: 2020

Reviewer- Salamatu Sule

Kasie is a debut collection of Prose and Poetry for healing of the heart by Jude Ilo. Unlike every other work of poetry, this book is a therapeutics for the losses that we encounter. This collection is divided into three parts namely: Flashes of Pain, Love and Utopia.

It is a dirge dedicated to Natasha, the Poet’s daughter about the heart break of her death at a time when the family was still in that state of mourning the demise of the poet’s father. So, the question is how do you cope with the series of losses that’s so dear to you? In Kasie which mean “To be Comforted”, Jude says it all and as captured in the introductory, this is:

To the angel that left too soon,

Natasha Nkemdilim Ilo

February 23, 2014 – August 28, 2016

The science of life is that of the “Unity of the Opposites”. While they stand in contradiction to one another, they are also interdependent. For where there’s no life, there will be no death. And where there’s no death, it then means that life had never existed.

The understanding of life scientifically is the coordinated activities of the element of matter. For example, solid, liquid and gas into a being guided by rational thoughts and emotions.

But life outside the understanding of science can be said to be emotional attachments to relationships between individuals either as Parents/Children, Husbands/Wives, Brothers/ Sisters, Friends/Foes.

The impact of the emotional attachment of the individual to the above relationships determines his life and the void felt after death. The void felt in this collection is that of loneliness and pain as the poet vividly capture it that, it is the sort of loneliness you feel even in the midst of the crowd

The pain and fear get more intense, but he slowly

finds answers despite how painful they are and starts

accepting reality. – Kasie (An Ode to those Standing Today)

While life is characterized by the physical interaction between individuals based on emotional attachments, death is the end of both the physical and emotional interaction between individuals in most cases living that permanent feeling of loss that could never be physically replaced. In Kasie, the feelings cannot be replaced except for the comfort of that which is left behind.

‘Kasie’ writes Jude, ‘Kasie’ cries Udo, ‘Kasie’ sings Ilo.

‘Be Comforted’ you who will have the privilege to

swallow these fierce verses. they will ease your pain,

make you aware of your vulnerability and give you

hope.

But with death, there’s always comfort which can be determined by the ability to manage the physical and emotional loss of the deceased. This differs between individuals. Others take it philosophically that it is part of life which is not only inevitable but unavoidable. Others sees it from the religious perspective that it is the appointed time for man to die. While others conclude it from the fact that while the deceased was still alive, his relationship with living has been defined by positive interactions. This is what the author is all about to say in this work; the positive interactions with Natasha, his father and even Emilia who played a critical role to see to the publication.

Unlike the forgetfulness of a loved one as is usually the case for some, the poet weaves life back for Natasha, to be alive in spirit to do the much that she has hoped to achieve; the Natasha Jude Ilo Foundation is birthed!