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HAIKU RHAPSODIES – ANOTHER EXCITING REVIEW!

23 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Afriku, Events, Ghana Association of Writers, Haiku, Haiku My Heart, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

≈ 6 Comments

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Afriku, Celestine Nudanu, Ghana, Gilly Goldsworthy, Haiku, Haiku Rhapsodies

I’m tickled pink to scarlet today (if it is possible under by black hide) 🙂 🙂 for I woke up to this lovely review of Haiku Rhapsodies from Gilly Goldsworthy of UK, blogging at https://lucidgypsy.com/

Please read on:

Celestine Nudanu has been a blogging friend for several years. We met through our shared love of Haiku, the Japanese short form poetry. She hails from Ghana, a country I Exquisite haiku and senryu from Ghana fell in love with in 2007, unfortunately before Celestine and I ‘met’.

Haiku Rhapsodies, Celestine’s first publication, is a real feast for Haiku, the book is divided into five sections, Afriku, Nature, Haiku My Heart, The Divine and Death.

Afriku is my favourite. Our poet’s words are so very evocative, bringing back memories of my brief visits to West Africa flood back. Here are just a few examples to tempt you.

in tandem
child’s thumping feet
and fufu pestle

rush hour
hawkers trail the cars
bumper to bumper

mirage
the cocoyam leaf
shimmers

From ‘Death’, Celestine brings us the moving,

dreaming of the stars
you forgot to say goodbye
that final journey

and has a firm belief that poetry has a place in our final moments.
Haiku Rhapsodies deserves a place on the book shelves of those who enjoy the form, not just in Africa, but wherever we find ourselves in this vast world of poetry.

Well done Celestine!

What are you waiting for my dear on? 🙂 Order your copies from Amazon or just inbox me! 🙂

Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:

Debbi Antebi Reviews Haiku Rhapsodies

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Afriku, Events, Ghana Association of Writers, Guests, Haiku, Haiku My Heart, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

≈ 10 Comments

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Afriku, Celestine Nudanu, Debbi Antebi, Ghana, Haiku Rhapsodies

Folks, another beautiful review of Haiku Rhapsodies from Debbi Antebi, UK. Thanks a million, Debbi.

REVIEW

Delightful Collection of Haiku, 20 Jun. 2017

Spanning five main themes, Celestine’s poems make us see, hear, smell, taste and touch, as well as feel. Her haiku depict stories that are universal, and they do so through vivid imagery. One of my personal favorites is about a mother gathering her unsold melons at Exquisite haiku and senryu from Ghana sundown. This haiku evokes feelings of sorrow and hopelessness in twelve short syllables, capturing big emotions in a concise way. I have many other favorite poems in the book, and I am confident that the readers will enjoy exploring them just as much as I did. Strongly recommended for all poetry lovers!

Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:

Review: Afriku (Haiku and Senryu from Ghana) by Adjei Agyei Baah

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by readinpleasure in Afriku, Ghana Association of Writers, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

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Adjei Agyei Baah, Africa, Afriku, Ghana, Haiku, Red Moon Press

Title: Afriku (Haiku and Senryu from Ghana)

Author: Adjei Agyei Baah

Binding: Paperback

Genre: Poetry (Haiku/Afriku)

Pages: 87

Publication Date: 2016

Publishers: Red Moon Press, USA

Review

Happy New Year to you all my lovely friends. I pray this year brings us all much joy and achievement. I am on leave but I shall be blogging every now and then.

Today, I’m posting well, a sort of review of AFRIKU, HAIKU AND SENRYU FROM GHANA. by Adjei Agyei Baah, a fellow Ghanaian and one of the first to write haiku, (long before me) in Ghana. He is the first to coin the term Afriku; haiku written to denote the peculiar culture and imagery of Africa.

Adjei’s is able to capture the depth and wealth of African sounds, sights, images and smells in simple and yet rich language. The added beauty of this debut jewel of a haiku and senryu collection is the translations from English into the local vernacular, Akan. Image may contain: text

How excited l was yesterday as l delved into the book and feasted my eyes and senses.

Simply check these out:

morning dew
perhaps heaven weeps
for mankind.

How very apt. How so profound.

distant cry
the heart fall
of a mother

My heart did a flip when l read this. Motherhood, the joys and pain.

just a moment –
distant lightening connects
sky and earth.

The sheer brilliance, the beauty of such a phenomenon as l imagined it.

Oh and many more.

It is a must to grab a copy of AFRIKU, HAIKU AND SENRYU FROM GHANA. Well done my brother. You make Ghana proud. Adjei’s book is yet to hit Amazon but copies can be obtained from the Red Moon Press.

About the Author

Adjei Agyei-Baah is a founding partner of Poetry Foundation Ghana, a teacher, and lecturer for Serwaa Nyarko Girls Senior High School, Kumasi and Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana respectively. He is also the co-editor of Poetry Ink Journal, a yearly poetry anthology in Ghana. He is widely anthologized both home and abroad and among his outstanding works are the praise songs “Ashanti” and “Ghost on Guard” written for the King of Ashanti and the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana respectively.

Adjei is a devotee of the Japanese poetry form haiku and has written and published in e-zines and international journals such as Frogpond, World Haiku Review, The Heron’s Nest, Shamrock etc. and is one of the top winners of 3^rdJapan–Russia Haiku Contest 2014, organized by Akita International University, Japan, making him the ultimate recipient of the Akita Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Award.

Adjei is a co-founder of Africa Haiku Network, and co-launched ‘The Mamba’, Africa’s first international haiku journal.

Haiku Rhapsodies – Another 5 Star Review!

16 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Afriku, Events, Ghana Association of Writers, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

≈ 6 Comments

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Afriku, Celestine Nudanu, Ghana, Haiku Rhapsodies, Khaya Ronkainen

Khaya Ronkainen had this to say about my debut haiku collection, Haiku Rhapsodies, after purchasing a copy from Amazon. Thank you, Khaya. Very much appreciated my dear. 🙂

REVIEW

A superb collection of simple yet intense verses that can be read in one breath, and some more. The author weaves with words, and brings about vivid and thought-provoking images. Brevity of a poem focusing on a particular moment communicates a raw thought, yet is beautiful and offers deep insight. In all, this is a joyous and an enlightening read. I highly recommend it.

Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:

Lisa Hill Reviews Haiku Rhapsodies

27 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Afriku, Events, Ghana Association of Writers, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

≈ 8 Comments

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Celestine Nudanu, Ghana, Goodreads, Haiku Rhapsodies, Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill, whose fine book blog, ANZ Litlovers Litblog I follow and comment on, has reviewed my book Haiku Rhapsodies on both her blog and Goodreads.

Thank you Lisa. 🙂 Please read on… 🙂

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember that I have made the 31840669 acquaintance of a poet called Celestine through her comments, and I have made reference to the haiku that she shares on her blog, Reading Pleasure. I subscribe to this blog, and so Celestine’s haiku pop into my inbox on a regular basis.

Haiku is, because of its apparent simplicity, more often a travesty of poetry, inane, banal and derivative, but Celestine has adapted this form to create small jewels of thought. Often I find her words consoling, sometimes they lead me to pause and wonder. And I have wanted to have them, not just in ephemeral cyberspace, but mine to have and read whenever and wherever I like. Today, to my delight I have discovered that Celestine has published a collection, Haiku Rhapsodies, and although I can only have it in a Kindle edition, I bought it immediately. (I really want a print edition, to keep by my bedside, to read as I read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, much as many would read a Bible).

The poems are grouped into four themes:
•Afriku
•Nature
•My Heart
•The Divine

I can quote one from Afriku because it is part of the product description at Amazon.

empty calabash
reflects the fading sun
a beggar sits in gloom

Just eleven words, and yet immediately we feel it. A beggar has spent all day fruitlessly. He, or maybe she, has nothing. Nothing at all. There is no judgement, no appeal to the western pocket yet we know that this powerful image is representative of a great injustice in our world.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/10/11/h…

Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:

Gillena Cox Reviews Haiku Rhapsodies

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by readinpleasure in African Women Writers, Afriku, Events, Ghana Association of Writers, Guests, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication

≈ 12 Comments

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Afriku, Ghana, Gillena Cox, Haiku, Haiku Rhapsodies, Lunch Break, review

My friend and haiku poet from Trinidad and Tobago, Gillena Cox recently received a copy of my debut poetry collection, Haiku Rhapsodies in a book swap. I received a copy of her lovely collection, Moments which I’m currently delving into.

With her kind permission, please read below Gillena’s review of HR which she originally posted on her blog, Lunch Break.

❧✿❧Saturday Share❧✿❧ #19
Review of ‘Haiku Rhapsodies (verses from Ghana) by Celestine Nudanu

‘Afriku’ opens the rhapsody, with a serenade of rushing streams and weighted sun dances. Our hearts are steered to a few sampling from nature’s basket – of humanity, hunger and loss, and the mystery of divining.

bamboo flute
rushing stream calms
the savannah

black night
the voodoo priest
shivers at the moon

market day
the stench of unsold wares
fills her stomach

These micro aha moments traverse to wider meanderings, for the inclusion of a Ghana secular in a global essence. Her chapter ‘Nature’. Shares such moments as

carnival
masquerades display
autumn

At the chapter ‘Haiku My Heart’, i paused a little longer in reflection, for the naming of this chapter, made me go back to first meetings with this sister haijin. We met through the linky redirecting of listed blogs at ‘Recuerda Mi Corazon’ – a Haiku blog hop hosted by Rebecca Brooks. So it was through blog hopping that i first read the works of sister haijin Celestine Nudanu. But this is side tracking a bit.

Celestine chapter ‘Haiku My Heart’ sensitises us to icons of family, sentimental, and passionate love. Here her ‘i-she,’ flaunts, who is Celestine.

mother’s pride
his bead earrings
adorn me
(for Cyril)

chocolate delight
Valentine’s day
on my tongue

And finally in her chapters ‘Divine’, followed by ‘Death’; here she identifies for us glimpses of life in: joy, nature’s share of blessings, pain, and strife by a unique perspective, that is Celestine.

raindrops
ticking off the days
to Easter

fresh lilies
the little girl’s gift
sways the coffin

These are some of the signposts, planted along the way in Celestine’s rhapsody: the high roads, the low roads, the mud tracks, the lighted paths; as she takes our hand and invites us to journey with her, through her heartland Ghana. She presents in her epic wanderings gems of glittering haiku. Taking us along treks of delight, mood swings of teardrops, and the pauses for extra pensive murmurings from our heart.’Haiku Rhapsodies (verses from Ghana) is a definite must read, or you don’t know what you are missing. Thanks Celestine for a journey and a serenade unique to Ghana.

–gillena cox, Oct 2016.

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