Briege Wil­son

It is said that one should fol­low one's own bliss so that the uni­verse would open doors where there were once walls. In­deed this is a con­cept very few of us fol­low, but for An­gela Bal­go­b­in, a bub­bling po­et from the south­land, it is one she has not re­gret­ted us­ing thus far.

This en­er­getic wife and moth­er of three en­joys land­scap­ing, gar­den­ing, singing, play­ing the gui­tar, record­ing mu­sic and it seems as though mul­ti task­ing is the name of her game. How she man­ages to stay look­ing so slim and trim with a warm invit­ing smile one may nev­er know. But, she is do­ing it and of course, she does it with a lot of style.

Bal­go­b­in's claim to fame start­ed two years ago when her sleeps were oc­ca­sion­al­ly in­ter­rupt­ed by po­et­ic thoughts. And, un­like the self­ish dream­ers po­ets are usu­al­ly deemed as be­ing, Bal­go­b­in de­cid­ed to pen her thoughts and pub­lish her work for the en­tire na­tion to be in­spired.

Her first book–Thoughts and Feel­ings–sold out im­me­di­ate­ly. Con­sist­ing of 26 po­ems, Bal­go­b­in ex­plored things most hu­man be­ings en­counter on a dai­ly ba­sis; rang­ing from ques­tions we have on spir­i­tu­al­i­ty down to the whirl­wind of emo­tions we dis­play. Bal­go­b­in is as­ton­ish­ing with her dic­tion and her im­agery is al­most sur­re­al but un­doubt­ed­ly vivid.

She brave­ly ven­tures in­to the dark, se­cret places we har­bour our pain but she al­so high­lights the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty we tend to re­veal to the cre­ator when con­vers­ing with him. But, what is out­stand­ing about Bal­go­b­in's po­et­ry, is the re­as­sur­ing voice at the end of every po­em. There is al­ways a deep pos­i­tive mes­sage or in­spi­ra­tional quote that chal­lenges and ques­tions one's pes­simistic view of life. For Christ­mas Bal­go­b­in re­leased her sec­ond book – A Tree of Love – ded­i­cat­ed to her moth­er Glo­ria who passed away a few years ago. This one is full of nour­ish­ing in­gre­di­ents that are good for the soul.

Equipped with 33 po­ems, Bal­go­b­in claimed her in­spi­ra­tions were main­ly ex­pe­ri­ences she had with sev­er­al per­sons; for in­stance, her moth­er, grand­son, a per­son with bro­ken legs, a sick woman, even her ir­re­sistible temp­ta­tions–ice-cream and a cup of tea. A Tree of Love is full of sur­pris­es and packed with faith, hope, com­pas­sion, love and re­spect for life and mankind. An­gela Bal­go­b­in wished to thank her en­tire fam­i­ly for their sup­port, and So­raiyah, a young fan of hers.

Her part­ing ad­vice to Trin­bag­o­ni­ans: "What­ev­er you do, do it with a joy­ful heart."