PROFILE OF WILLIAMS O’SEUN

WILLIAMS O’SEUN is a rising young poet. An alumnus of the prestigious University of Lagos, O’Seun is a brilliant graduate Historian. Born in the early 90s, O’Seun is one promising poet who is blessed with an awe-inspiring creativity and ingenuity. His poem,

‘Nocturnal Rhythms’ recently won him the bronze prize in Tony Tokunbo Fernandez International Poetry Competition. He is proudly Gun (Ogu) of Lagos origin. O’Seun currently serves as a Corps Member in Kogi State Ministry of Health, Lokoja.

His poetry career began to take shape in the second half of 2005 as a senior secondary school student, after his erstwhile English Language teacher, Mrs. Temitope Funke George spotted his prospect as a potential wordsmith. She nurtured and inspired him to develop his then nascent interests in poetry. By the time he was a school leaver, his initial foray into poetry had began to take roots. Intent on giving a voice to his ink-spills, he ventured into performance poetry late in year 2014. Up till *this record time, he has, on two occasions, performed couple of poems for a group of Corps Members in Lokoja, Kogi State. He hopes to further develop his spoken word Propriety, morality, virtues, optimism, paradisaic utopianism, love, nostalgia, nature and realism are some notable themes in O’Seun’s poems. His poems are inspired by any and every emotion, everyday social experiences and phenomena. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A. E. Housman, J. W. von Goethe, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Milton, T. S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda, William Wordsworth, Wole Soyinka, J. P. Clark, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Thomas Moore, W. B. Yeats, Alexander Pope, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Frost, and Aram Saroyan are some of his mentor-poets. Poems by ‘Poetique Polymath’, as his pseudonym goes, are ideational, purposive, moralistic and never obscurantist. Plans are underway for the publication of his debut poetry anthology in no distant time. Recently, his “I Found My Twin” was published in Love Poem Anthology edited by Abegunde Sunday Olaoluwa.

Williams believes in being eclectic, learning and imbibing the outstanding qualities of different great poets and poetic traditions. He indites standard form poetry as well as free verses. A good number of his poems are written in impeccable Yoruba language. This word-connoisseur believes poetry is – and should be – more than an avocation, as it could be developed into a full- fledged, life-long career. As well, O’Seun holds that poetry should be more than just be, but As an affable nature-lover, his pastimes include reading, poetizing, birdwatching, nature photography and collecting. He is as well a freelance redactor, essayist, eloquent orator, and a creative computer graphics designer. In all, given the resplendence of his poems, Williams O’Seun is one astounding, outstanding poet to look out for.

Williams O’Seun can be reached on:

Twitter: @WheelhelmsCheun

: callme4hope@gmail.com