By Tijjani Muhammad Musa
Poetic Wednesday Initiatives (PW) was started by a group of poets of Arewa extract, but global in netizenry that have their muses tied confidently and securely to their minds.
Young, talented, prolific and spontaneous males and females, they write poetry with a passion that can surpass the fieriness of the sun as well as the soft and gentle subtleness of a sprouting flower.
As a poet myself, I have had close contact with the founding pillars of the movement and have interacted poetically with their brilliant works at individual level on various literary platforms on and offline.
And when they, Salim Yunusa, Nasiba Babale, Abdulbasit Abubakar Adamu and a few others decided to unite as one, pulling their writing prowess and resources together and initiate PW, I knew something big was in the offing.
What I find very fascinating about the whole Poetic Wednesday Initiatives thing is the innovation and strategy with which the youthful minds developed the idea into a viable literary concept that has turned out to be a force reckon with.
Soon, it became the in-thing to have a poet’s piece published on their platform or else it’s not worth reading. Everybody eventually started talking about the beautiful works coming from different bards that were hitherto unknown, all thanks to their featuring on Poetic Wednesday.
Budding poets on this side of the divide as well as those across the Niger found it a challenge to up their writings in order to meet the unofficial standards set by the PW team. And on social media, “Poetic Wednesday!” echo was all over the place.
*#PoeticWednesday@6ix*
…by Poetic Tee “Here, take a sip.”
Permit me tell a lil’
Of their parable
They never toddle
Nor wobble
Neither do they grapple
Nor struggle
As they mount the saddle
To settle
Very easily what’s trouble
Though simple
Yet, make that double
For those who fumble
When they try to scribble
A word or two on marble.
©2022 Tijjani M. M.
All Rights Reserved
To encourage further participation by shy and under developed poets, PW started offering poetic lessons and coaching to young and not so young struggling poets to develop their skills. They even started a state by state tour in which they taught many the basics of writing good poetry.
Many that have benefitted from such an initiative have developed not just their words craftsmanship, but the confidence to share their poetry on various social media poetry sites, and many were the collections that had earlier never seen the light of the day.
There is no doubt that the initiative within the first six (6) years of its existence has become quite successful in awakening the inert poets residing in many of us. The question now on many people’s mind is; how do PW consolidate on its success and achievements so far?
Well for a start, PW is no more a mere platform for poetic talents both budding, seasoned or veterans to come and showcase their creative stuffs and then walk away. The PW guys have turned the set up into a fully incorporated business entity. Way to go!
Poetic Wednesday Initiatives having been upgraded into a registered business outfit is hoped to set out not only to promote creative literary works, but in collaboration with other stakeholders make it its affair to promote, sponsor and publish writings from writers and poets thereby making them published authors among other things.
As part of their future strives, PW should also look into the potential of organizing literary workshops, seminars, webinars, shows etc that will give opportunities to talents in the literary circle to be taught how to measure up in meeting requirements for entering and winning competitions and contests at local, national and international levels.
It will also be a great achievement on PW’s part if it can organize sponsored literary competitions and contests for primary, secondary and even tertiary institution students towards discovering hidden literary talents in society, then connecting them with corporate sponsors to publish their books and anthologies.
Personally, I would not mind seeing PW start an institution of learning where poetry, poets and writers in other genre of literature from across the world can find a safe haven to come and exchange ideas and technical knowhow towards furthering the development of writing skills in various languages such as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe, Kanuri among others via the art of writing.
Congratulations to the PW team for achieving such a monumental milestone. It has been six (6) excitements and value adding years to society. This is definitely worth going to the moon for. Thus we are pleased to associate with you and your success and do believe that if careful planning, focus and dedication in execution would hold sway, more successes are assuredly guaranteed.
(c) Tijjani Muhammad Musa – Poetic Tee
Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Kano Chapter
4th May, 2022.
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