Haiku originates from Japan and there, it is their oral form and usually in a sequence or linked verse form (called renga, renku or haikai no renga) up to 100 verses and more. The introductory verse to the sequence is the hokku which is now called haiku.
WHO IS TO BLAME FOR A BADLY PUBLISHED BOOK: AUTHOR, EDITOR OR PUBLISHER?
The fault for a badly written book lies with the writer while the fault for a badly published book belongs to the publisher’ while the shame is a joint venture. A respectable publisher should never knowingly publish a bad book.
A BOY IS NOT ALWAYS A BUTTERFLY & OUR MOTHERS ARE NOT ALL MOONS: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO NIGERIAN POETRY?
It is time for our poets to realize that a boy is not always a butterfly & our mothers are not all moons. Poetry is first an expression of self before anything. Be original.
A POET’S PAST MUST ADRESS HIS PRESENT (an essay by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
One finds a poet who sounds less like his environment or the rest of his remaining works. One finds a horde of clannish poets who have resumed trapping their styles in the net of the other. One finds a literary community that has forgotten to produce the spirit-immersed poetry, the kind that broadly establishes the contaminant emotive will; not the kind that breeds a hive of self-importance—tributes and odes to self—that which undermines the vicarious role of pathos.
THE LENIENT POEM AND SUBTLE MEANING (an analysis by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
THE CHANGING NARRATIVE OF TOUCH: A REVIEW OF DONNA OGUNNAIKE’S SPOKEN WORD PIECE ‘TOUCH’
“Touch” is a word, and in a larger sense of it – it is a language portraying relationship. Various cultures speak this language, it mirrors the relationship between the virus and human interactions. In Nigeria, amidst our diverse cultural beliefs and traditions, every ethnic group understands the underlying power of touch; from pouring libations to the gods, to exchange of greetings and other realities captured in this performance piece by Donna Ogunnaike called “Touch”
“FACEBOOK IS NOT A SAFE PLACE TO POST YOUR POEMS” & OTHER ISSUES FOR NIGERIAN POETS
Again, by saving your works and releasing them only on foreign platforms, you are inadvertently taking everything away from us and making us have to borrow access. Right now, we can no longer read anything from most of our good poets unless we first access them from foreign platforms.
WHY POETS TAKE SNIPER: AN ESSAY ABOUT SUICIDE AMONG WRITERS (by Sa’id Sa’ad Abubakar)
Today, we have seen numerous death of young promising writers by suicide. Exactly last year, we lost the talented Chukwuemeka Akachi, whose death spreads like a sandstorm. The same year, an online literary blog published the name of five young students writers who died by suicide.
ON NIGERIAN WRITERS, DEPRESSION & SUICIDE…
In reality, many people discover writing after suffering some physical or psychological discomfort that they want to talk about. Perhaps due to their social circumstances, these people cannot find a voice loud enough to reach the audience they want, or they do not even think anyone is willing to listen or able to hear them. Then they discover writing.