How to Dance in Time
On Discovering Healing and Purpose in Writing with Jenim Dibie — Episode 15 (2022)
If my life was good, jolly, and perfect, I wouldn’t have been motivated to write. But the intensity of my struggles made me seek salvation somewhere, and I was just lucky to find writing. Writing saved me. — Jenim 2022
Our guest on this episode is my friend Jenim, a poet and a writer who I first met in college. I remember Jennie always keeping to herself, although extremely popular because of her beautiful smile. She has written over 500 poems, three poetry anthologies, and just released her third book, How To Dance In Time. Jenim started writing early on and has since made a name for herself. She likes to read, dance, and watch The Office in her spare time. She dreams of living in a house by the sea one day, with ten dogsand having written a hundred books.
Jenim describes growing up as crazy fun and beautiful. She was born and grew up in Warri, Nigeria, the second child of four. Despite being, as she describes herself, “painfully shy” as a child, she loved music enough that she joined the choir and then a dance group and was passionate enough about it that she became more confident. Even now, when she writes, her shyness is dispelled by her art.
She attributes the shyness to her upbringing and to not feeling empowered to express her feelings. Even though she was significantly more so than her siblings and struggled even with making friends. Then she found poetry at age 13 and discovered a way to communicate her pain, fears, and pressures. She started sharing her thoughts on social media before she even knew she was writing poetry was, and still likes to say poetry found her.
She shared the inspiration behind her first book, Scarcass, written when she was going through tough times. She found writing healing and still considers it her “purest work.” However, she considers her second book, The Calligraphy of God, to be her best and How To Dance In Time her lightest.
We discussed her faith and how she wrestles with it through her work. She was born into a Christian family but has found her faith journey a rollercoaster ride. She went through a spiritual crisis in 2009 and became agnostic and later atheist but rediscovered her faith last year after a heartfelt conversation with her brother. She feels that her relationship with God since has been different, with a newfound lightness and joy.
She shared about other writers she finds inspiring, as well as those whose tragic stories serve as a signpost of how she does not want to end up like them overwhelmed by “inner demons.”
From writing from a place of darkness, pain, sadness, and depression, she now writes from a place of joy, decision, purpose, and responsibility. She’s different and “hasn’t scratched 5 percent of her talent and gifts”, she says. She is finding her path in this new version of herself.
Also, happy birthday, Jenim!!!
Listen to the full episode here:
Mo! and Doc Ayomide
🅻🅸🅽🅺🆂:
Listen: https://bit.ly/Jenim2022
Download: https://bit.ly/Jenim2022DL
Or on the website: www.mosibyl.com
Resources:
Jenim’s social media — Instagram: @Poetetmisery; Twitter: @scarville; Pinterest: Jenim Dibie; Facebook: Jenim Dibie; Website: jenimpoetry.com (You can find all her books and poetry here)
Buy her latest book here — How To Dance In Time