ACEN CAROLYNE FROM UGANDA; BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

For Acen Carolyne, this is her first attempt at a literary competition like this. She loves the Japanese haiku and was excited to appear on the Babishai 2017 shortlist. The Ugandan writer has since been published in the Mamba journal.

What drew you to enter the competition?
As a poet, I haven’t participated in any literary competition like this, so I intended to give it a try when I came across the call for submissions for the Baibishai Niwe Haiku contest.

Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?
Yeah! I really do love Haiku but I never penned down any until I saw the call for submissions. It’s amazing that one among my first three Haikus I had submitted, made it on the shortlist. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was totally surprised because I least expected it. Thereafter my entry into the contest, I have had an Haiku published in the Mamba Journal and I’m proud of that.

What do you think of the shortlist in general?

Wonderful! reading great Haikus emanating from great minds, each and every Haiku deserves to be on the shortlist and I know it will be a herculean task for the judges declaring the winners.
Congratulations to every brain behind these powerful haikus on the list.

What motivation do poets need?

I think platforms like literary festivals are really encouraging for poets to expose their literary works to the world. Contests will always motivate the writer to keep scribbling.
Poets as well must be self-inspired to inspire the world.

If your 2017 haiku submission were food, what would it be?
It will surely be ‘Banku’ an energy giving food prepared with corn and cassava dough relished by virtually ever Ghanaian. It is one of the most popular food in Ghana enjoy with all kinds of soup, stew and hot pepper. before and after an energy sapping work.
Everybody likes it!

Read Acen’s Babishai 2017 haiku here

the drunken cockroach
reels around the verandah-
rooster chuckles

We at Babishai, congratulate her again. The winners will be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on
The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

We at Babishai, congratulate her again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.
http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

AKOR EMMANUEL OCHE FROM NIGERIA; BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Akor Emmanuel Oche is a Nigerian Poet, Critic, Essayist and thinker. He is the secretary of the Africa Haiku Network. His haikus have appeared on Pengician, Failed Haiku, Under the Basho and the Mamba Journal among others.

Akor Emmanuel (Courtesy photo)

 

              What drew you to enter for the competition?

Haiku writing for me has been one of those things I do almost on a daily basis for the past two years. After being re-introduced to two short poetry forms in 2015, the Haiku and the limerick, I feel in love with the haiku more because it has to do with nature and i am an unrepentant lover of nature. Since then, I have been writing one haiku a day. 

I have always being one of those skeptical about poetry prizes, especially in Africa, I believe it is always saturated in politics and is never fair in its judgments, moreover, awards and recognition are not what makes a writer what he is, they only give him public valediction (my personal assessments though) but after seeing the names of those who made up the judging panel and putting into consideration that this contest had nothing to do with online voting, I thought it wise that it was time I entered my haiku for a contest. 

 Adjei Agyei-Baah and Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian are two haijins I trust so much, I have been working with them for some time now in my office as General secretary of the Africa Haiku Network/ regional ambassador and I can safely say that their judgment is close to infallible, when it comes to African Haiku. So yeah! The AHN co-founders and my colleagues where the inspiration behind me submission.

Two more people I cannot fail to mention as co-inspirers are Taiye Oguns, who constantly reminded me via chats not to forget that I had a contest I must enter for, then my fellow shortlisted poet, Anthony Itopa Obaro, my statesman, who was the first to alert me when the call for submission was publicized. A big thank you to all fours.  

       

               Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

I have had plans for some time now to write an article I titled A JOURNEY INTO LIFE THROUGH THE NIDDLES EYE: MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE HAIKU FORM to be submitted to the Mamba, the thought of it came to me on a sweet afternoon while I was heading somewhere natural to feel nature and write one or two ku’s for the day. Thinking the essay through, I realized that I actually don’t have a haiku story or suffix to say, I have forgotten how, why and when I wrote my first haiku. This amnesia, I cannot tell if it was self induced, psychological or natural, but what I do remember is that sometime in 2015, some interesting haikus about the sun written by Ehi'zogie Iyeomoan I read on Facebook, fired me up from my slumber and launched me into serious haiku writing. Soon after, I joined the Africa Haiku Network and was appointed Publicity secretary by the bored. Prior to this, I had submitted a few haikus here and there, some got published others rejected and here we are still growing still learning.

            What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

Ahh ahh ahh the shortlist hmm!

Firstly, as I have said, I trust the judgments of this years’ judges to be 100% unbiased, apolitical and sincere plus being aware that the contest was blindly judged, what more can I say than that I am very satisfied with the shortlist.

Babishai gets more innovative each year and so does the African haiku form (Afriku), let me seize this opportunity to thank the Foundation for the good work they are doing with haiku promotion in Africa, this years’ shortlist is an evidence of it, some new names have emerged in the haiku world because of this contest and many other secular poets in Africa have also embraced the art form.

Everyone familiar with the haiku family in Africa can testify that this years’ list was both as shocking as it was pacifying. Some expected names of haijins making serious impact with the African haiku made up the major bulk of the list, while the others are made up of new converts embracing the art form and to our surprise are doing very very well with it. It is enthralling to see many of my friends on the list, I won’t mention names but will just say, the list was well selected and let the best man win.

     What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously          competitive world that vies for their attention?  

“He only observes Nature in awe through the lens of many eyes all at once. He documents it all for his own enjoyment. If this later gets to fulfill a higher calling in the life of humanity, then fine and good, if it doesn’t, all the same, he moves on to other things awaiting his own demise. It’s simple for him. Chaos or peace, life goes on until each man meets his end…” This is a quote from my recent publication on Medium describing what the true poet is.

Writing as I understand it and as I was taught to understand it, is personal business. Being a writer, like being a Christian, is first about personal salvation before it becomes a thing of mass conversion and conviction. What kills the fire in many writers in today’s H I G H L Y COMPETITIVE world, is the pursuit for immediate glory, the internet and the fake lives it portrays about everyone has introduced a negative craving for recognition in writers, there is little or no time for delayed gratification and craft honing anymore, and when a writers expectation is not met, it becomes easy for other issues of life to steal his attention; family, friends, work, marriage, poverty, lack et al. I have always held the notion that the true artist is that person who can create a masterpiece in the closet of his room, where no one can see it, later locking it up or destroying it without losing sleep. Writing, for the matured writer, is like sex, most people have it every day but none gets angry or worked up for not telling his friends every day how good he was in bed the previous night; it should be a normal way of life. 

Writing is much about character as it is about talent, at the onset or early stages of being a writer, everyone poet must learn to turn his passion for the pen into a strong habit, that is the only way he can still have enough time and energy to create masterpieces when other worries of life scuffles for his attention. Inspiration is for the beginner, motivation is for the occasional practitioner but habit is the foundation on which masters are built.

       If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?

IGBARI

A native delicacy made out of meshed corn seeds, green beans, vegetables and lots of palm oil. It is native to the Idoma people of middle-belt Nigeria and can also be found amongst the Igala people of Kogi state and the Igbo people in some parts of Enugu state, both in Nigeria. 

Igbari!  not only because it is native to my people—the Idomas— nor because it is my favorite local dish but because, like the character of my haikus, Igbari is very loose in appearance—more like Jollof rice when cooked—but very rich in nutrients. Its loose nature allows enough space for many other condiments to come in. in my case, my haikus allows enough space for many individual interpretations to come in. 

Read Akor's Babishai haikus here
market square–
the town crier’s voice
summons a crowd

Akor  Emmanuel Oche
Nigeria

nightfall
the modulated chirping
of hidden crickets

Akor Emmanuel  Oche
Nigeria

--> We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

KUADEGBEKU PAMELA FROM GHANA; #ABISHAI2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Kuadegbeku Pamela Angela is from Ghana, committed to literary causes and her radar is out for literary landmarks. She pursues writing as a stable career in future. She says that if her haiku were food, it would be fufu and lightsoup. Read more about this enchanting poet.


Kuadegbeku Pamela Angela (courtesy photo)

What drew you to enter for the competition?
I am a keen reader in my own comfort zone and a committed fellow to any literary cause; someone who has since been on a persistent look out for a competition of this nature to rub shoulders with other literary 'landmarks'. I should say this contest is right  in defining my start point in pursuing a more stable writing adventure in the near future. I did have this conviction this contest will carve out a humble spot for me among my peers, and this was entirely the ruling interest that drew me to the competition.

 Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

Personal story? Not precisely please. But I have come close to seeing the practise of haiku as one expressway to encasing all I have read extensively about as an African girl and an aspiring writer so to speak. However, Basho's haiku have practically left an indelible smirch on me since I have read a great deal in my pursuit of learning how to write one myself.

What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

The shortlist unequivocally displays myriad of intellect, with all the Ku showing in their capacities the expected aha moments. It has predictably led to another insightful finding that many African poets have the necessary creative skills in their tanks to compete with the international haiku poets. How ever, as an upcoming feminist, I am someway displeased a lot of female poets have failed to find the spotlight in haiku. This is where the gender literary match is leaving absolutely a lot of our women counterparts behind. Hope they wake to the consciousness come another contest season. But am glad to be in the same run-lane with some big whips so far.

What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

It's really true the dynamics and the interplays have changed unexpectedly in the writing world. Tons and tons of literary materials are day in day out produced beyond the reading population's interest. This phenomenon is sure creating a watertight situation that holds writers at contest end to earnestly keep looking for footholds in their respective continents. This is where this quizzical question stands worth brainstorming over. For me,  it is imperative we produce literary materials that are in close correspondence with our continental demands. Our folkloric stories could be exploited and mutated into readable poems while we also focus some attention on those unforgiving problems that militate against us, giving all to originality. It should be a kind of revival campaign by all to write personally not for the mere fun but for the purpose of writing for the recreation of different reading audience for this century and beyond. I wholly believe the internet dormain can also inject some positive Adrenalines into the whole cause.Thus, the social media pages could help disseminate the brand-new poems we produce. Maybe our devotion to writing haiku could project us also into the circles of success.  What we essentially need now is some regionally based literary groups which can keep whetting the mindset of young poets to write for our print and the audio-visual media as well. These written poems must be solution finding containers than problem detecting ones. It's been too long a habit of diagnosing the pain through our writings, let's prescribe some near- good solutions now.

If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?
That would be fufu and lightsoup! I’m salivating already folks.
**********************************
You may read Pamela’s haiku here,

moon circle
palms into palms
an armless child breaks the ring

We at Babishai, congratulate her again. The winners will be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

OBAJI-NWALI SHEGUN: BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Obaji-Nwali Shegun comes from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. This is his second submission to the Babishai Haiku contest, a form of writing he says, is extremely demanding. Obaji’s purpose-driven nature leads him to work diligently and passionately.

Obaji(courtesy photo)

What drew you to enter for the competition?

First of all, I offer a colossal credit to the sedulous and purpose-driven judges for this recognition. Yes! Even if I’d not be a able to row the boat further to the winners’ range of the sea (In my tiny mind though) being among the shortlisted poets, only, is a tender draft, self-healing and heart-warming as it is gratifying. The inclusion of my names and wee lines in the list is ,to me, like lifting a twiddling crab from its hole and setting it in the cue of hyenas, buffalos and leviathans. Oh yes! Such metaphors decorously define the poets making the shortlist. Their creativities transfixed, electrified and compartmentalized me the almost hundred times I circled the arts. The lines shrewdly and astutely picked by irrefutably great and sophisticated Haiku masters muscularly shocked me, and like Carlsberg’s Jacobsen vintage beers excessively taken made me blotto and wholly sloshed.

I was vastly overwhelmed, when I saw my poem in the list. What was I doing when the bang came? What was I doing? Ok, I was in a Vesta Cyber Café in the West of Rivers submitting a short story to Quramo short story prize ‘ bam’  my Gmail inbox spilled it. I felt gashed not with a sword but with hyper exhilaration. I wanted to leap off the swivel chair holding me all the while, but there was a serious crowd that will hardly fancy my yelp and squeal of triumph. The crowd circumscribed the way I had arranged to celebrate the dawn of my victories; if at all I’ve got more victories ahead, but I should believe i have more on the way.

Talking on the magnet that pulled me like metal into this soul-saving competition I’d have to admit its my immense love for Haiku. Last year I had mistakenly stumbled on a word ‘Afriku’ while surfing the internet and the curiosity to unravel the denotation and connotation of this completely new word ushered me into a vast pool of teensy lines that ended up burying me in wonderment and reverence. The capability of words among 17 syllables to effortlessly carve a hole of longing, nostalgia and bitterness in my heart and thereafter abandoned me panting, grunting and facing the images and sounds of the glitches perturbing the continent, the splendour of nature wrapped in aesthetic words instantaneously compelled me into falling in love with Haiku poetry. And since then I decided to study hard, I meant very hard  realizing Haiku is never, never and never as easy to write as nippy as it is convincingly is. Haiku is an exploration, getting a perfect Haiku done demands you jettisoning the comfort of your minds zone and going exploring. If you never darted into the dark with shovel and digger, you’d always come up with a flat and passionless Haiku. This was a big fact I realized after embracing Haiku my new love. I realized Haiku is an angelic maiden sitting in the shade of tree physically convoluted but interiorly soft and lovely, only demanding anyone who desires to love her to follow the particular principles with which the wavy routes to her realm is laced.

I clapped few words together and joined the 2016 Babish Haiku contest but failed. But I choose not to be deterred or unnerved, in that I was indeed in love with the power of Haiku, its ability to surround  a lot of issues in a jiffy and get a large amount of work done and not because of the competition or incentives. Let me digress a bit, Haiku thought me, I’d sometimes fail in letting her fling me to places if I was only interested in winning a competition. And she’s right, am already on places. I am a winner by getting shortlisted. It’s even enough for me even if I’d not step further. 

Now let me flow on, I relished Haiku, the long-winded and eye-opening type of poetry as I enthusiastically immersed my body and soul in the noble genre of poetry. 2017 Babishaiku contest came and I effortlessly joined the race, realizing I was good to go.

So, to be frank with you my love for Haiku, its beauty and convolutedness and a sense that I’ve mastered the art ,to a particular encouraging level, motivated my interest of entering the competition.             

Do you have a particular personal story with the Haiku?                

A particular personal story with Haiku? I elaborately shared it in the first question but I’d complete the story this way. When I bumped into a Wordpress blog outlining Haiku poems written by an African a particular poem stung me, its tenderness and featheriness. Its fluidness and readability- the poem that would become my port of call in this remarkable poetry genre. The poem is one of the Haiku poems written by Adjei Agyei-Baah. And it reads:

Lights return

The cheers of kids

Stamp out the crickets

Yes, simple as it seems, it blew my mind away. How this very few lines naturally and readily captured a moment? A moment I could relate to as an African and a Nigerian living in that part where you’d have to wait for NEPA lights for weeks and when it comes you go feral and haywire in unprecedented jollity. So, I felt unleashing my mind piece by piece  and yet ensure a germane sense would be a good vocation. A fact about  Haiku is, once you mastered the art, the organization of its figure you’d tell the world your stories as nippily as possible. Even the so-many-schedules-entwined individuals will find time to gulp your Haiku and capture the message without all the ado posed by novels and short stories.  And like seriously am enjoying Haiku. It saves my time , energy and free me from the rigour of expectorating too many words to tell a story.

What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

Wow, wow, wow. As I mentioned earlier, the intricacies or multifariousness, intriguing imageries and sounds and brilliance of the shortlisted poems is extremely amazing and super-terrific. Each poem delved robustly into divergent issues and moments one could smoothly relate to.  And the judges? I doff my headdress for them. A shortlist indubitably reflects the wit, cognoscenti and savviness of it judges. The judges are masters in this art. They’ve started a revolution the whole of Africa would very soon turn to and enjoy absolutely. Afriku is a wave and very soon its altruistic fragrance will swallow Africa and it will easily, as it does, on larger scale, enlighten us, offering the assizes with which to confront the numerous challenges unsettling the continent. Once again the shortlist is super-terrific and mind-blowing.

What motivations do poets need to keep writing in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

You’ve got a good question here. My candid advice to poets out there is to read and read many poems and write and write many poems. If your reading is shallow, your writing will definitely be light and narrow. Like, if Haiku is your forte read plenty of it. Mamba Journal is there, Mercy Ituri and Adjei Agyei-Baah blogs are there for you to guzzle (I mentioned them cos their works introduced me into Haiku, ). If it’s other forms of poem go for them via the search internet engines. And I promise  you of incredible places .  Please, lastly, do not write because you want to win an award write for the joy you derive in what you write and the sky will be your limit.

If  your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?

Ha ha ha…… as an Effium-Eboyian if my submission should be food it would be  esisa  and ugu soup with plenty okporoko  and anu nchi, my mentor, Obinna Udewe will understand this than anyone. But, since I presently live in Port-Harcourt I’d prefer Edikang ikang and Afang soup. Ask, Ngozi Olivia Osuoha she’d giggle.        

Obaji’s shortlisted haiku is here:

roadside

gaunt vultures nipped

a zonked drunkard 

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.
http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/
The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

                     

---

 [R1]

KWAO JONATHAN TETTEH FROM GHANA; BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

-->

Kwao Jonathan Tetteh (Courtesy photo)

1.        What drew you to enter for the competition?

As a poet, I haven't participated in any literary competition like this,

so I intended to give it a try when I came across the call for submissions

for the Babishai Niwe Haiku contest.

2.      Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

Yeah! I really do love Haiku but I never penned down any until I saw the

call for submissions. It’s amazing that one among my first three Haikus I

had scribbled made it on the shortlist. I couldn't believe my eyes, I was

totally surprised because I least expected it.

Thereafter my entry into the contest, I have had a Haiku published in the

Mamba Journal and I'm proud of that.

3.     What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

 Wonderful! reading great Haikus emanating from great minds, each and

every Haiku deserves to be on the shortlist and I know it will be a

herculean task for the judges declaring the winners.

Congratulations to every brain behind these powerful haikus on the list.

4.  What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

I think platforms like literary festivals are really encouraging for

poets to expose their literary works to the world. Contests will always

motivate the writer to keep scribbling.

Poets as well must be self-inspired to inspire the world.

5. If your 2017 haiku submission were food, what would it be?

 It will surely be 'Banku' an energy giving food prepared with corn and

cassava dough relished by virtually ever Ghanaian. It is one of the most

popular food in Ghana enjoy with all kinds of soup, stew and hot paper

before and after an energy sapping work.

Everybody likes it!

Read Kwao’s haiku here

under the bright moon,

fairy tales bring chill bumps

around log-fires

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

OSEMWENGIE ZION FEELS AT HOME WITH THE HAIKU

Osemwengie Zion (Courtesy photo)

  WHAT DREW YOU TO ENTER FOR THE COMPETITION?

Having stopped writing haiku for some time, the competition came as a path leading one home and I couldn't help but follow. When I wrote my first haiku, I had a deep connection with it but gradually, the love started to wear out till we became silent lovers on separate shores bearing broken memories of the sweet past.

So when submissions were called for, I hurried to write mine not mainly for the contest but as a way of an errant coming back. A lover returning home after all is spent.

  DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR STORY WITH HAIKU?

The first haiku I wrote was in 2014 for a contest organised on Facebook to promote haiku. When I read about it, I rushed to learn a few things about the style. It was not just a style but a world of its own. It was beauty locked in a small room. However, after that time, I wrote quite a number of them until the love wore out.

  WHAT DO YOU FEEL GENERALLY TOWARDS THE SHORTLIST?

Haiku is melting a century into the body of a decade. It is telling so many in very few. The task before the poet is a very taxing one and anyone who can write such poems is a miracle.

The shortlist is indeed magic and the writers are a miracle. The poems are beautiful.

 What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

Writing in times like this is difficult but not impossible. Writing should not be seen as a substitute for anything but as a soul without which one can not live. To keep writing, place value on it and see it as breath. Motivation comes from within and the value we place on things determines how we see them.

    IF YOUR 2017 SUBMISSION WERE FOOD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

First, I'm glad it isn't food as the meat of a man may be another's poison.

But, if it were, it would have been Éwa Ágoyin, a special kind of beans.

Only those who suffer amnesia would forget the taste in a hurry.

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

CHARLOTTE AKELLO FROM UGANDA; BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Introducing Charlotte Akello.

Charlotte Akello from Uganda, was shortlisted for the Babishai 2017 haiku prize. She is proud that Ugandans have represented well this year and if her haiku submission was a food, it would be cooked pilau, she says.

What drew you to enter for the competition?
I love writing haikus so when I heard about this competition, I decided to submit.

  Do you have a particular story with haikus?
I love nature and I love poetry. It's only natural that I fall in love with haikus. I usually take pictures and transform them to haikus. I started writing haikus last year and there's nothing more relieving. I can still capture memories with haikus even when I don't have a camera.

        What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?
It's great. I love the depth in the little poems. Too much is said in a few syllables. I also love the fact that Uganda is well represented unlike last year. This shows that Ugandan poets are getting on board.

   What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?
Poets need to be patient and aim to become better each day. Some poets tend to give up after a year or 2 yet writing in general needs a lot of patience.

 If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?
Pilau. It is eaten on festivals but everyone has his or her definition of a perfectly cooked pilau.

Here below is Charlotte's haiku.

A slice of the moon
swimming in the calm night pond--
another festival

Charlotte Akello is proud that Ugandans are representing well this year. We at Babishai, congratulate her again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862.

The full festival programme is here.
 http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:

http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

FRED KWEKU FORSON FROM GHANA -#BABISHAI2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

-->

    Fred Kweku Forson from Ghana, was shortlisted for the 2017 Babishai Haiku contest, inspired by one of last year;s winners, Kwaku Feni Adow, also from Ghana.

 

Fred Kweku Forson (Courtesy  photo)

          What drew you to enter for the competition?

I knew nothing about haiku as a type of poetry until one day on Facebook I read that a Ghanaian, Kwaku Feni Adow had won a haiku contest. I became curious and began to search for the meaning of haiku and all that it entails. After reading a little about it online and a lot more of the haiku others have written especially from the Mamba, I knew I could also be a haiku poet.

The opportunity then presented itself when I read on Facebook of a call to submission of haiku to the 2017 edition of the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation haiku contest. I didn’t waste time but began to pen some images/scenes and sounds down. I then submitted the first three haiku I ever tried my hands on and, hooray, it’s been shortlisted.

         Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

I’ve been writing poems especially rhymes at my leisure times and whenever I wrote one, I would ask my younger brother to proofread for me. I really do worry him with that. He thinks I’m very good at the poems I write but frustrated since I’m not gaining anything from it. He feels I’m wasting that talent. Because of this, he would sometimes refuse to proofread my poems.

When I wrote the shortlisted haiku, I read it to him and asked him whether he finds any sense in it but he asked me to leave him alone and that he has better things to think about. I didn’t tell him I was submitting it for a contest though. So when he read of my haiku having been shortlisted in a contest, he came back from work that evening and reminded me of how he paid no attention to me when I asked him to ponder on the shortlisted haiku for me. We all laughed over it because he was so excited for my haiku having been shortlisted.

 What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

After going through the shortlist, I was wowed by the exhibition of great African talents in haiku. It feels so intriguing to read such images and sounds briefly penned down by fellow Africans who respectively see and hear far beyond those images and sounds.

   What motivation do poets need to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

I believe the greatest motivation of every poet is from within himself, the moment you begin to see and feel something within you, and you just can’t help it but to artistically express it in writing.

But one big external motivation of every poet, I believe, is knowing that his poems have a wider audience across the world and people actually find inspiration in his poems. Therefore, poets and their poems must be given the necessary exposure through competitions and features in journals like what Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation and the Africa Haiku Network have respectively started doing, etc.

         If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?

“Apapransa” is a Ghanaian delicacy prepared with corn flour, and that is what my 2017 submission would have been. “Apapransa” is best enjoyed when it is made to be pregnant with chops of salted fish and any other fish deemed necessary and garnished with palm oil. The delicacy is not too appetizing or attractive at the mere sight of it but, the moment you begin to take bites of it and you gently continue to masticate it, you will definitely end up grabbing the chops of fish hidden in it. This immediately gives you a different and even more delicious taste.  

When you first read my 2017 haiku submission at a glance, you may just be tempted to think of it as a mere construction of words in a sentence. Much meaning may not be seen it. But if you take your time and carefully read through it, you will end up getting the deeper messages and lessons embedded in it. Then, you will appreciate my haiku the more.

Let my haiku speak to your mind, soul, spirit and your life! 

Fred Kweku Forson Ghana, is a foridable talent. We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862  The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/19/babishai-haiku-2017-shortlist/

Follow us on Twittter @BNPoetryAward