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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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