Sandison Jumbo’s dinner on Saturn’s Rings: A timeless poetic treasure

There’s certainly a rarity in the poetry that turns the ordinary, mundane into something exotic and priceless, poetry you’d want to read and reread for its sheer, infinite pleasure. This is the sort of poetic gift that Sandison Jumbo has gifted his readers in Dinner on Saturn’s Rings (Kraft Books Limited, 2024, Ibadan). At once joyfully playful, serious, and reverential, Jumbo seemingly demystifies certain opaque concepts and, like the engineer that he is, crafts endearing lines that touch the soul in a heartfelt manner. In each of the five sections of the book – Life: Life and Journey; Belief, Faith and Ritual; Memories; Nature and the Physical World and Love and Laughter – Jumbo teases out the essence of life and living in stimulating lines that speak to the humanity us.

The title of the work itself speaks of man’s infinite capacity to attain even the most seemingly unattainable. Indeed, who dines in orbit and in the planetary body called Saturn? But man’s capacity to dream big things into being persuades Jumbo to believe that it’s possible to dine in Saturn. And in the opening poem ‘In Thrall’, Jumbo makes the seemingly impossible possible, as he writes, “I’ve scooped plasma from the sun/To cook meals and heat my bath,/Moved Mount Everest just for fun;/None can ever walk my exact path…/I’ve had dinner in Saturn’s rings,/Kicked the moon like a soccer ball,/Plucked light rays like guitar strings-,“ and ends the poem with the punch lines, “I’m a minstrel with an unchained mind/Or some raving loony in sanity’s cloak./It’s no matter, to what you’re aligned,/Life is easier if seen, in part, as a joke!”

Jumbo bursts the gloom and doom nature that most humans surround themselves with and charges them to loosen up, as life is for living and fun. His next piece ‘The power within’ is an extension of the first. In spite of how optimistic man is about life, life still happens in strange, inexplicable ways. What then? Give up and take the inglorious exit route? Never, Jumbo admonishes, but a recourse to the inner strength to overcome challenges, as he writes, “When ill wind is a magnet to your wings/And you’re stuck knee-deep in life’s marsh,” then it will be time to “Be hopeful, fate will not forever hatch/Dark patches to make life an unrelenting stringer./On your inner strength you must learn to latch-/Adversities may visit but will not forever linger.”

Jumbo continues on this bright outlook to life in the piece ‘Live!’, where he advises ‘Beat your gong/And lift your song/With a joyful dance,/Embrace each chance… And if bills give chills,/Climb loftier hills-/You’ll surely sleep best/When laid to rest.” Also, his only Pidgin English poem in the collection ‘Make we chop life’ extends the joyful tone of the collection, which however also contains some sombre pieces that also show the dark side of life in a measured juxtaposition that balances out life’s many-sided parts – joy, pain and some things in-between.

“Omo! As I wake up this sweet morning,/And thank God we no dey in mourning/… But na wetin I get na Agege-bread and hot akara,/So I chop am well, den wear my fine ankara,/… So, abeg make we thank Baba God for life,/We go dey enjoy am together, without strife.”

But Jumbo does not end this first part of his collection without pointing out his country’s collective shame and actually wishing he weren’t a part of country that holds out so much promise that is squandered by her political class, whether PDP or APC. ‘I want to stop being a Nigerian’ and ‘Should we?’ are two pieces that dampen the joyous mood of this section; “I want to stop being a Nigerian/Who propagates falsehood and hate/Against brothers from another region or state/For ethnic or religious supremacy,” and then he wonders, “Should we only rain curses on the Ay-Pee-Cee/ Just as years ago, we did to the Pee-Dee-Pee,/And continuously wallow in trepidation and self-pity,/Till insurgents rampage through every city?”

In ‘Belief, faith & Ritual’ section, Jumbo, although sold to the modern religion, has not forgotten his past where his ancestors once lived and subscribed to faiths other than the prevailing ones. This sensibility ripples through this section where he gives due regard to all that had gone before till now. But he’s no a blind believe like most of his contemporaries who worship mere god-men, as ‘Fate of the Faithful’ shows. But perhaps the most poignant piece in this section is ‘Faith’ where, like the fishermen in biblical times, two men set out in a fishing expenditure in the Bonny estuary to cast their net. The sheer artistry of casting the cone-like net is so vividly portray in its kaleidoscopic glory that their faith is their ally in the uncertainty that gamble in the vast ocean.

‘Memories’ section takes the poet to his famous native Bonny island that is perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean’s waves sing unceasingly day and night. Memories here run deep and poignant, just as the last section ‘Love and Laughter’ is also flirty, cavalier and chivalrous.

Jumbo’s Dinner in Saturn’s Rings is a deeply felt poetry collection that sings to our humanity. Although he starts out writing in alternate rhyming schemes, the style does not quite encumber his verses from flowing and hitting home. However, Jumbo burst into pure poetic elegance when he jettisoned the alternate rhyming scheme for free flowing verses in the latter part of the work. This brings out his poetic prowess and it’s a joy to read him. Dinner in Saturn’s Rings is beyond modest achievement for which Jumbo deserves praise.