Ghana Poetry Project

Featured Poet: Spoken Word Poet Rhyme Sunny Reciting “Rose”

Watch Rhyme Sunny on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZrdcpyC4M

When I heard Rhyme Sunny recite his poem “Rose,” I was delighted by how he stepped into a long tradition of working the rose as a trope for love and relationships, but found something fresh and original in Rhyme Sunny’s poem. The poem reminded me of Guillaume Apollonaire’s famous poem “Rosemonde.” Since I don’t have printed copy of Rhyme Sunny’s poem, I thought I would share Appollonaire’s poem (without accents because they won’t translate on the website) and you can compare it to the video recording of Rhyme Sunny’s recitation. Enjoy.

Rosemonde

Longtemps au pied du perron de
La maison ou entra la dame
Que j’avais suivie pendant deux
Bonnes heures a Amsterdam
Mes doigts jeterent des baisers

Mais le canal etait desert
Le quai aussi et nul ne vit
Comment mes baisers retrouverent
Celle a qui j’ai donne ma vie
Un jour pendant plus de deux heures

Je la surnommai Rosemonde
Voulant pouvoir me rappeler
Sa bouche fleurie en Hollande
Puis lentement je m’en allai
Pour queter la Rose du Monde

The Ghana Poetry Project is a new effort to promote the poetry of Ghana and its poets in Ghana and around the world.

You can find previous postings of poets in the archives.

Selected Works

3. Poetry

Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.

Contemporary Poetry of New England
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’”

--from the Introduction

1. Nonfiction

DJ Kool Herc
The first picturebook biography of the founder of rap and hip hop, DJ Kool Herc!

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.”

--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC

2. Fiction

A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.

Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio

4. Middle Grade Series

Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.