10 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in African Women Writers, Afriku, Haiku, Micropoetry, Nature, Poetry
Credit: Zachi Evenor – By Zachi Evenor – Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachievenor/9682551110/, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28084521
Morning Walk
morning walk
a snail uncoils…
from a snail
Failed Haiku Issue 20 (August 2017)
© Celestine Nudanu 10/08/17Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
28 Wednesday Jun 2017
Tags
Afriku, Celestine Nudanu, Ghana, Haiku, Haiku Rhapsodies, Ste J
What more can I say, lovely folks? Another sincere and beautiful review from Ste J, a dear friend and insightful book reviewer who lives in England and blogs at Book to the Future. Thank you so much, Ste J. Please, read on. 🙂
Celestine is a prolific writer of poetry, plenty of which is showcased on her blog, Reading Pleasure. After gaining a fan base in the past few years, a book was a welcome treat for her readers. C’s work has featured in many international Haiku publications and as such is already well recognised within the Haiku community.
With clear imagery, each bite sized piece is simply written but layered with visual beauty 
and thoughts personal to the author, this intimate showcasing allows the reader to see a place through Celestine’s eyes. The concepts of the world around her is brought to us in a series delightful vignettes which read like a moment captured in time.
Perusing these, I find myself transported to an Africa I found tangible, Celestine’s eye for observing the things around her and combining them into something so evocative is a pure joy to read. There is a feeling of peace and clarity through the book that encouraged me to take each poem and then spend time to build up one’s image and the accompanying thoughts around it.
The beauty of such poems is that I allowed myself to get lost in this new place, imagination took over and each piece felt like part of a jigsaw building up a picture of an Africa that was in part real and in part my own romantic take upon it. Naturally Ghana and a distinctly African feel came up a lot in my thoughts as I read through but there is also a good amount of content which is distinct from the African connection and appeals at a universal level.
This is a good book to dip into, exploring various themes – Afriku, Nature, Haiku My Heart, The Divine, and Death – and I found myself taking my time to soak up the atmosphere and then build up an image of this personal take on what surrounds us. For me this book is like one of those coffee table books, that one picks up and chooses a page at random but in this case, each morsel is best digested singularly, with concentration and with much reflection.
What are you waiting for my dear? 🙂 Order your copies from Amazon or for those in Ghana, just inbox me! 🙂
Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
23 Friday Jun 2017
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 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:
21 Wednesday Jun 2017
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 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:
02 Friday Jun 2017
Posted in African Women Writers, Challenges, Haiku, Haiku My Heart, Micropoetry, Poetry
Done for Recuerda Mi Corazon
Wet
morning rain
beneath my bedroom window
a wet school child
Brass Bell, A Haiku Journal, May 2017
© Celestine Nudanu 02/06/17Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
24 Wednesday May 2017
Posted in African Women Writers, Carpe Diem, Challenges, Micropoetry, Poetry, Tan Renga
Tags
Adjei Agyei Baah, Africa, Afriku, Ancient Roads, culture, Nature, tradition
Done for Carpe Diem.
We are to complete the following haiku by Adjei Agyei Baah, with our own two lines of 7-7 syllables each.
© Adjei Agyei-Baah
ancient road
the trails of the masters
absorbed in fallen leaves
Mine
I tread ever so cautious
the souls not to resurrect
Tan Renga
ancient road
the trails of the masters
absorbed in fallen leaves
I tread ever so cautious
the souls not to resurrect
21 Friday Apr 2017
Posted in African Women Writers, Afriku, Challenges, Events, Haiku, Haiku My Heart, Micropoetry, Poetry
Tags
Adjei Agyei Baah, Afriku, Celestine Nudanu, creative writing class, haiku workshop, Nature, University of Ghana
Done for Recuerda Mi Corazon
On April 17, 2017, Adjei Agyei Baah, (a world-renowned haiku poet from home) and myself facilitated a haiku workshop with students of the Creative Writing Class of the Department of English, University of Ghana, Legon. At the end of the workshop, the students came up with lovely haiku of their own, twenty-eight (28) in all. Adjei and I came up with one each. Mine is produced below for your pleasure 🙂
sunlight
patching up
the cracks in my dream
sunlight
(© Celestine Nudanu – 18/04/17)
(University of Ghana Workshop, 18th April, 2017, me standing before the class, clarifying a point)
Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
07 Friday Apr 2017
Posted in African Women Writers, Afriku, Challenges, Haiku, Haiku My Heart, Micropoetry, Poetry
Done for Recuerda Mi Corazon
Shadow Egret
scorching sun
my shadow is too small
for the egret
(Failed Haiku, a Journal of English Senryu – March 2017)
© Celestine Nudanu 07/04/17Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
23 Thursday Feb 2017
Posted in Afriku, Challenges, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry
The photo is by kind permission from Gilly. She pulled me out today. 🙂 🙂
Bird Technology
in the marshes
a weaver’s apartment
bird technology
Copyright © Celestine Nudanu 23/02/17Links for Haiku Rhapsodies:
19 Thursday Jan 2017
Posted in Afriku, Ghana Association of Writers, Haiku, Micropoetry, Poetry, Publication
Tags
Adjei Agyei Baah, Africa, Afriku, Ghana, Haiku, Red Moon Press
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. 
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.
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 3rd Japan–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.
