Book cover featuring Oluwakemi Linda Banks.
ANGUILLA--Starfish – a Journey in Healing is the first anthology of poems by Oluwakemi Linda Banks and it incorporates her psychological and cultural work. She is a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychology who has been writing poems, songs, children’s short stories and drama for many years.
The anthology consists of five parts. Part One of the Starfish Collection is comprised of poems which support Healing From Violence; Part Two – Reaching out and Embracing Life; Part Three – The Power of Love; Part Four – Reconnecting with the Divine in Me; and Part Five – Healing and Freedom. Banks decided to use the starfish as a metaphor for healing because in researching the starfish phenomenon she has discovered some amazing facts about these seemingly inconsequential, humble sea creatures. “The Starfish has an amazing ability to heal, grow and regenerate limbs and even its entire body into new physical ways of existing. We too possess the potential to develop new ways of thinking and being that can facilitate healing and renewal. With Starfish as your ally these possibilities can become your new reality,” she writes.
She notes, “Starfish is about compassion, understanding and what is common to people who overcome suffering. With each poem the voice of healing grows more audible as it blends in with that of restoration. The author engages readers in a labyrinth of varying, yet familiar emotions of shunning negativity and embracing joyfulness, with a sense that one can recover from a fall from any depth or magnitude if we re-connect with our power source.”
She will be launching her anthology on Friday, April 6, at Magic City. The programme will be varied and include some of Banks’ poetry read by fellow poets, family and friends as well as musical entertainment and a video presentation.
