Poetry

In 60 Aces of Haiku, Gabriel Awuah Mainoo does the job of an ace sport photographer. However, Mainoo does not need a camera to create the beautiful images offered in the anthology, he conjures his images from the tip of his pen onto paper using words and makes them come alive in our mind eyes! Each poem in the anthology captures specific moments in court tennis game using a merger of tennis lexicon and images called up from nature.

The sweet thing about these poems is that one may not need to rack one’s brain working out the mathematical equation of meaning in the poems, as the tennis lexicon that may pose a barrier to meaning are explained off in footnotes; these make the conceits become easily discernible, and they allow the reader enjoy the anthology as he is able to run through the poems with ease. The conceits conjured up in the poems are amazing and amusing at the same time; even when they capture moments of loss in the tennis game.

— Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy, Memorilla Review, Somaliland

Chicken Wings at the Altar, seasoned with French translation, is a potpourri of well-seasoned verses recreating events in the now moment with vivid images. It underscores the festiveness in the eerie air of excitement of the Christmas season and beyond, viz New Year. You’ll find before you replay every single happenstances of Christmas including those beautiful sceneries you never thought could be attended to, all well captured in the pristine haiku and senryū forms. — Taofeek Ayeyemi, Editor, Idanre Haiku Review, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

At times playful, at times painfully poignant, Chicken Wings at the Altar takes familiar images and themes of Christmas and subverts and represents them in ways that both startle and satisfy. The collection captures the contrasting moods and melancholia of the festive period, in sensitively observed, acutely expressed scenes. — Paul Chambers, Editor, Wales Haiku Journal, Newport, Wales