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POET OF THE WEEK: “ANYTHING CAN INSPIRE POETRY”— ADEDAYO ADEYEMI AGARAU

<body><div class&equals;"booster-block booster-read-block">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"twp-read-time">&NewLine; &Tab;<i class&equals;"booster-icon twp-clock"><&sol;i> <span>Read Time&colon;<&sol;span>5 Minute&comma; 27 Second <&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine; <&sol;div><p>Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau a holder of the National Diploma of Nutrition and Dietetics of Federal Polytechnic&comma; Ede is a social entrepreneur whose verses stick thorns in corrupt minds&period; Adedayo is the CEO of QualityPoets Foundation&comma; a group of young poets who are devoted to giving new poets a voice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Agarau’s poems have been published in several anthologies like Epistle of Lies&comma; Via Gripe Vine II in South Africa&comma; Eriata Food Poetry anthology&comma; Tributes to Nelson Mandela&comma; Wind of Change &lpar;BPPC&rpar; anthology&period; He also has been featured on Rowspoetry blog&comma; Words Rhymes &amp&semi; Rhythm&comma; WordUp&comma; Larryfreedom&comma; Poetivists&comma; and more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He has won several poetry awards including&semi; the <em>What Can Words Do<&sol;em> online poetry challenge &lpar;3rd Edition&rpar;&comma; <em>Pulse Student Poetry Prize<&sol;em> &lpar;Season 2&rpar;&comma; the <em>Tony Tokunbo Fernandez<&sol;em> poetry competition &lpar;Gold Prize&rpar;&comma; and also the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest &lpar;2015&comma; July&rpar; and the Eriata Oribhabor Food Competition in 2016&period; Agarau was also ranked the 13th  in the 2014 EGC list of poets who rocked Nigeria&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>His works centers on corruption&comma; politics and social vices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>————————————–<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>How and when did you start writing poetry&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I started writing in 2011 after secondary school&period; I wrote several things which by now I don’t know what genre to place them in &lpar;that’s even if I can find them&rpar;&period; Around November 2012&comma; I met Rasaq Malik Gbolahan on the 2go platform through a lady who took me through the basics of poetry&period; Rasaq referred me to his &OpenCurlyQuote;notes’ on facebook&period; I read his works&comma; his chants&comma; dirges&comma; elegies&comma; odes&comma; he took me through it all&period; I met Kukogho around that time and I had my first poem posted on WRR in January 2013&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>What is your source for inspiration&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>For a poet like me&comma; anything including the smallest thing can inspire&period; I write out of inspiration&period; At least&comma; I wrote &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Poetry hates me” when I had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;writers-block&period;” But all the same&comma; music inspires me a great deal&period; The news does too&comma; you can too&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Do you have a role model in poetry&quest; If this is so&comma; is this role model a template for your writings&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yeah&comma; I do have role models&period; Niyi Osundare&comma; I didn’t talk about him earlier&comma; sorry sir&excl; Niyi Osundare’s work gave me the touch of simplicity I still write with today&period; Rasaq Malik’s writing as earlier said defines African poetry and I think that’s what I still do&period;<br>&NewLine;Shittu Fowora is a man I look up to so much&comma; although he isn’t a template of my writings but the consistency and the awards I have won today is because there is a Shittu that sends me back to my notepad<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>On what type of theme do you write most&quest; Or are you one of those poets who cannot be pinned down to one theme&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Often times&comma; poets say I do love poems&comma; some say its war&comma; others says its corruption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>If I had just one theme they all will easily identify it&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Yes&comma; I write on love&comma; war&comma; corruption and other themes but all are written to effect change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Do you have a particular style or type of poem you thrive on&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A style&quest; Yes&comma; I have a style of writing poems&period; But I however experiment on other forms&period; I got a tutorial on forms from Kukogho Iruesiri Samson sometime ago and I still have them in my archive&period; I write haiku and do a lot of free verse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>What do you consider a conducive atmosphere for writing poetry&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Peaceful solitude in the ambience of awesome nature in the company of birds is what I define as conducive but what to do when there are no such environments&comma; everywhere becomes conducive&period; In the marketplace&comma; where there are several themes to write on&comma; on battle fields where there are several hopes falling short&comma; on the streets of hustle where there are several dreams melting are very conducive environments for writing too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Is poetry paying your bills&quest; If not&comma; according to your own assessment of your foray into the art so far&comma; is it capable of paying it in the nearest future&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Allow me to laugh&period; Poetry has&comma; in its own very small way&comma; been paying my bills&period; I have won competitions that have cash attached to it&comma; but&comma; we hope that it gets better&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The government is scared to pay people who speak continuously about their corrupt deeds&period; I’m fine with poetry as long as it is termed the tool for change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Apart from poetry&comma; what other things are you involved in&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I studied Nutrition and Dietetics&period; I am still a student&period; Aside that&comma; I sing&period; I recently decided to take music serious&period; Also&comma; I have a Brand &lpar;Ready Aim Media&rpar; I’m working on with my partner &lpar;name withheld&rpar;&comma; this brand in conjunction with other brands like WRR&comma; PIN&comma; ix2 media&comma; hopefully will work things out for poetry and poets&period; I also have a personal brand I’m working on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;QualityPoets Magazine” that should set out soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>One of many&comma; one the most debatable topic in poetic circles is&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;are poets born or made” there have been numerous stand point on this issue&comma; it varies from poets to poets&comma; what is your own stand point on this burning&comma; topical issue&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>It is true that poets are born but I have chosen to believe that better poets are made&period; The tireless efforts of the individual will bring him out from his peers and stand him out as a better poet&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>In your young career so far as a poet&comma; you’ve been able to clinch prizes and awards here and there&comma; what would you say is the secret to this considerable success&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I write&comma; show&comma; consult&comma; edit&comma; scrap&comma; edit&comma; re-edit and then send&period; I have won awards and competitions not because I am the best poet around but because my poems strike the readers directly&period; The secret is GRACE&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Where exactly do you picture yourself in the nearest and distant future in the world of poetry&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Somewhere in comfort&comma; sponsoring poetry and staging massive events&period; Pulling poetry crusades and working out royalties for poets while clinching international prizes to myself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>How would you advise a beginner poet to go about writing poetry&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hmm… find a poet that turns you on&comma; dissect his works like dead cadavers&comma; find expression in yourself and be the best of yourself you can be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p><strong>Contact&colon;<&sol;strong><br>&NewLine;<strong>Phone&colon;<&sol;strong> &plus;234 816 017 9151<br>&NewLine;<strong>Twitter&colon;<&sol;strong> &commat;poetic&lowbar;twainer<br>&NewLine;<strong>Email&colon;<&sol;strong> tohquality&commat;gmail&period;com<br>&NewLine;<strong>Facebook&colon;<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;facebook&period;com&sol;tquality">ADEDAYO ADEYEMI AGARAU<&sol;a><br>&NewLine;<strong>Blog&colon;<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;qualitypoets&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;">QualityPoets <&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;&NewLine; 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