Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #76 Celestine, our "runner-up" of the "time"-kukai in the spotlight

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As the "runner-up" of the CDHK kukai you win a special Tokubetsudesu episode and this week that's the purpose of this post to 'celebrate' the "runner-up" of the "time"-kukai. Maybe you can remember that we had a draw in this "time"-kukai, not only Celestine was "runner-up", I too was a "runner-up", but of course it is not possible to create a post only about me and that's why I will place Celestine of "Reading Pleasure" in the spotlight today.

Celestine is a long term participant in Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and she is a very gifted haiku poetess and family member of our haiku-loving family CDHK. Celestine writes wonderful haiku as you all could have read in the "time"-kukai:

midair waltz
first snowflakes and the leaves
frozen in time

© Celestine

Recently Celestine published her first anthology "Haiku Rhapsodies" written under her pseudonym "Afua Peprah". I hope it will be a very successful antholgy.
In the weeks before publishing I had the opportunity to read her concept (and later the final print) and I was in awe. Celestine writes really wonderful. A few examples:

sound of bamboo flute
calming the savannah
rushing streams

cockcrow
the stirring of leaves
heralding a new day

© Celestine

She even asked me to write a review as her "mentor" at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I was honored, because I am just a guy who happens to have a haiku weblog to promote haiku as an art form. I will give you a highlight of my review:

[...] "With "Haiku Rhapsodies", Celestine has delivered a wonderful book full of gems. A few years ago I met Celestine online at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, my daily haiku meme. Than she was just a novice in haiku. During the years she improved her haiku writing skills and I have seen her grow ... and now ... with this haiku anthology she dives into the 'big world'.

With this anthology she has reached a milestone ... I am glad and a bit proud that she has made this anthology after several years of publishing and sharing her beautiful haiku at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

As I read "Haiku Rhapsodies" I was overwhelmed by the beauty of her haiku and I love to bring a few haiku in the spotlight:

empty calabash
reflecting the fading sun
a beggar sits in gloom

This haiku describes a scene, which is seen very often, but it's not the fading sun here but the beggar who has the lead. It's a haiku in which I easily can recognize the spirit of Basho (one of the four greatest haiku poets ever) ..." [...]

Celestine Nudanu (a.k.a. Afua Peprah)

Let me tell you a little bit more about Celestine or maybe ... this is what she says about herself at her weblog:

I am a Ghanaian living in West Africa who loves books and reading, so much that I would rather buy books than clothes.

I read mostly fiction, both contemporary and classic. I do love non-fiction too, if I lay hands on any.  I enjoy world literature as well.  I’m partial to women writers and their works, especially African women writers.

I also read English and Theaters Arts at the University and majored in Playwriting. I have a Masters in International Affairs, all from the University of Ghana, Legon. I am a Senior Assistant Registrar, with the Institute of Professional Studies. I am married with three boys.

I love to write and read and not necessarily in that order.  My home is choked with books of all sizes, both adult literature and children stuff as well.

I also have a passion for thrillers, mystery and any good suspense novel from the West. I have read almost all of Sydney Sheldon, Dan Brown, Robert Ludlum, Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham, Martina Cole and a few of David Baldacci. I do love historical novels and romance. So, it goes without saying that I have read Danielle Steel, Judith Gould and Judith Krantz.

I am also fascinated with any novel that is based on the Jews and the Holocaust. So, I’ve read almost all of Leon Uris.

So this is me, a woman of diverse reading taste and talents.

cover Haiku Rhapsodies by Celestine Nudanu

As Celestine says above ... she is a woman with talents and this first published book "Haiku Rhapsodies" shows this very well.

To conclude this Tokubetsudesu episode about Celestine, a few other haiku written by her taken from her "Haiku Rhapsodies":

midday nap
a string of beads
her only cover

bursting through the mist
silver rays kiss the leaves
ah, the dew, the dew

© Celestine

Congratulations Celestine with this wonderful "mile-stone" your first book published ... chapeau!

As you all know Celestine lives in Ghana and maybe you can remember that we have had a while ago a few special episodes about Africa and that we were introduced to what Adjei Agyei Baah calls "afriku".

So that's the challenge for this week's episode of Tokubetsudesu: Try to write an "afriku" in the same spirit as the ones I gave here from Celestine, our "runner-up" of the "time"- kukai. Have fun! 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, the third CD-Special by our featured haiku poetess Sara McNulty, later on.