In See What They’ve Done to Our SunRise, Anyidoho continues to push the boundaries of poetic expression, crafting a unique voice that is both personal and universal. The title of the collection is itself a powerful statement, suggesting the disillusionment that has befallen Africa, while also hinting at the possibility of renewal and rebirth. Through the poems, Anyidoho invites readers to reflect on the past, engage with the present, and imagine a future that is both uncertain and full of promise. Thus, the “sunrise” in the title is both a symbol and a metaphor, hinting at seed time (a muted echo of his recent compilation titled SeedTIME) and the truncation of the hope and aspirations birthed by the sunrise. The sorrow and pain inflicted by malevolent forces who have stolen the people’s laughter are expressed in the title poem “See What They’ve Done to Our SunRise”: “They brought in Clouds from Foreign Skies / Filled Our Air with Acid Rain /that / Chokes the Breath with Blood / Blinds the Eye with Cobra’s Spit.” However, there is a window of redemption in “Rebirth of Our Land”, a testament to the poet’s ability to balance sorrow and hope. Thus, as in his earlier collections, the poems in See What They’ve Done to Our SunRise express a deep sense of sadness and loss, but they also affirm the resilience of the human spirit. For instance, in this collection, nostalgia, or distance, is not necessarily loss, but a disconnection from relationships, places and landmarks, tempered by time and circumstances, now and again reclaimed from the mist of memory and celebrated through poems on the theme of love: “I Must Learn to Let Go SomeTimes / Though So Strong So Deep My Love… / Knowing the Winds and the Trains / Will Bring Them Back Again and Again/ Though Just for a While Each Time” (“They Will Be Gone”). This balance is reflected in the poet’s use of imagery, where the darkness of suffering is illuminated by the light of hope and laughter; a testament to Anyidoho’s skill as a poet and his commitment to exploring the complexities of the human experience.
One significant thing about the collection is its arrangement in “movements”—not an entirely new format in the Anyidoho repertoire. It is a deliberate structural choice, similar to a musical composition, lending further weight to the poet’s immersion in Anlo musical traditions which have defined him as a poet-cantor straddling both tradition and modernity, as well as the page and the stage. This structure conveys various meanings and symbolism. It reflects thematic development and narrative progression in which the poems tell a story or explore a theme in a progressive manner. It also creates an emotional arc, with each movement evoking a specific mood or atmosphere. Also, the movements’ musical analogies insinuate a sense of rhythmic flow, with each movement building upon the previous one. In this way, harmony and discord are arranged to reflect the complexities of life and further enhance the import of the journey motif that undergirds the entire collection—the movements representing a journey or pilgrimage, with each poem marking a stage or milestone; also reflecting the cycles of life, death, and rebirth, or the cyclical nature of human experience. There are four movements in all: Movement One: Nostalgia; Movement Two: Blues for the Land; Movement Three: A Bouquet for Ancestral Souls; and Movement Four: Husago.