Pairing contemporary haiku by poets from around the world with classical Japanese haiku, The Awakened One offers us a poetic dialog on the nature of awareness across culture and time.\nModern haikuists from the UK, the US, Croatia, India, Nigeria and a dozen other countries converse via haiku with Japanese masters, like Basho, Issa and Buson, sharing moments of insight expressed in poetry of a single breath.\nheavenly mystery . . . 
autumn leaves 
descend on a stone buddha 
- Imaizumi Sogetsu-ni\nsudden wind 
the garden buddha’s head crowned 
with cherry blossoms 
- Olivier Schopfer (Switzerland)\nPRAISE FOR THE AWAKENED ONE\nThis is the first anthology I have seen that collects contemporary haiku from every continent, every nook and cranny of our planet. Pairing Japanese masters of the past with people writing haiku right now, The Awakened One is full of little zap insights. You feel that thrill, that quick wake-up to the ordinary, when the junky human stuff drops away and our world feels moist, tender, and real. Why has haiku been equated for so long with Buddhist insight? Pull this packet, compiled by Adjei Agyei-Baah and Gabriel Rosenstock, from your hip pocket. You might find your original self peeking from these little poems.\n- Andrew Schelling 
editor The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry

The Awakened One: Buddha-Themed Haiku from Around the World

Literature & Fiction

Rosenstock, Gabriel

Agyei-Baah, Adjei

Poetry

Poetry Chaikhana

A new voice in haiku, hailing from Ghana and a leader in the growing haiku movement of Afriku, Adjei Agyei-Baah enriches our world in demonstrating an accomplished sense of this brief poetic form. Often, animal, human and natural forms relate intimately in a fluid and organic sociality which belies the term “personification.” These works reveal a poet’s passion for his world and culture, without compromise — I highly recommend this book!” --Professor Richard Gilbert, Kumamoto University, Japan. Haiku composition has been slowly picking up steam in Africa, culminating in 2015 in the ejournal, The Mamba, edited by Adjei Agyei-Baah and Emmanuel Kalusian. They their latest issue, they make a case for Africa-centric version of haiku, using the genre to speak about the continent’s sight and sound instead of merely being imitative of the Japanese culture. The current volume, Afriku, by Adjei Agyei-Baah, successfully illustrate that ideal. The volume is full of many fine and well-executed haiku, many of them sketches, but Adjei has an eye for the interesting detail. In English and Twi. Deserted shore/the wind/sharpens its voice/over a conch—Modern Haiku Journal 48.1. It is such a pleasure to find high-quality haiku in this new collection, Afriku: Haiku &amp; Senryu from Ghana by Adjei Agyei-Baah, cofounder of Poetry Foundation Ghana and Africa Haiku Network. Published as a dual-language edition in Twi and English, most of the haiku are based on Adjei’s cultural perspectives from Ghana. For example, he writes, all that remain / of a lost tribe’s story —/scratches and scars. In another he writes, dawn rivalry —/ a muezzin / and a rooster. It is an exciting collection by one of the new leaders of contemporary haiku in Africa. I look forward to seeing the growth of haiku across Africa and this book is a preview of that anticipated growth.—Randy Brook for Frogpond, A Journal of Haiku Society of America. Adjei Agyei-Baah of Ghana has for some time been an active haiku practitioner who has now collected his best poems published in the leading haiku periodicals. He is a trailblazer trying to develop this genre on a new continent and a worthy ambassador of Africa in the haiku world—Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Editor of Shamrock Haiku Journal. A rising son of Africa, Adjei Agyei-Baah fills the centre stage! In one breath, each of his haiku reveals his inner self and gives a glimpse of the outside world of his country. A book worth lingering over.—Kala Ramesh Pune, India That moment a dragonfly pauses in the wind, and appears literally to pause the wind, is how haiku shares its power with the reader. Time stops, we glimpse eternity in a moment before it moves again. Adjei Agyei-Baah of Ghana pauses time in his simple yet provocative approach to haiku, and both reader and poet become timekeepers together.—Alan Summers, Author of Writing Poetry: The Haiku Way. Adjei’s Afriku collection is a snapshot of the African environment delivered in the haiku form. I heartily recommend it to every poetry-savvy person out there!"—Emmanuel J. Kalusian, Co-founder Africa Haiku Network. Adjei Agyei-Baah is one of the new generation of African writers committed to the pursuit and production of poetry. Haiku is his forte - a recognition that has steadily collected global stature. A winner of several awards, and a contributor to several anthologies, of this special genre of word art, Adjei is a musing maestro of sights and sounds par excellence. This new offering from the Ghanaian author and scholar, is a vibrant rivulet of powerful promise. It's overflowing emotions caught in a snap announce to the streams of Haiku production the world over, of a spring that heralds a season of new harvest. A nourishing spring. An African spring. A Haiku spring....An Afriku spring.—Wanjohi wa Makokha, Kenyan poet and critic and Author of "Nest of Stones (2010).

Afriku: Haiku & Senryu From Ghana

Literary

Red Moon Press

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Books by Agyei-Baah, Adjei