Poetry is absolutely difficult —Rhyme Sonny

It is always such a delight to watch spoken word artistes do their thing on stage effortlessly but renowned poet, Rhyme Sonny, has revealed the act of poetry is absolutely difficult.

 In a chat with Graphic Showbiz, Rhyme Sonny said: “It is just like any other art form, it involves a lot of work. If, for instance, you are writing about ‘World Bank at 70’, you need a lot of material on how long they have been in Ghana and it requires a lot of reading, a lot of thinking and a lot of research.

“There are times that I have called on a few friends to touch on some poems that I have worked on because everything cannot come from my head. So it involves a lot, it takes a few days to come up with a poem so it actually involves a lot,” he stated.

Rhyme Sonny, who has been in the poetry business for the past 12 years, added that he started charging for his shows in 2011 and had been at it since then.

We asked him what went into the preparation when he was, for instance, invited to a function, to which he responded that “First of all, you need to know who your audience is, once you know your audience, you ask yourself, what will be appropriate for them? Then you ask yourself, which piece you will be presenting for them?

“And then it depends on who you will be performing with, I have performed with dancers, a choir, magicians, etc. so there will be rehearsals in such instances, which I will do with those I will be performing with.

“A lot goes into each performance depending on who and who is involved. And then the budget comes to play, which also depends on each performance. So as I stated earlier, it involves a lot, and it doesn’t come easy at all,” he said.

According to Rhyme Sonny, the poetry industry was now booming, and it was commercially viable; they even had the Poetry Association of Ghana, which was positive to the growth of the sector.

The award-winning Rhyme Sonny has performed for President J.A.Kufuor, President John Evans Atta-Mills, President John Mahama and President Akufo-Addo, as well as the World Bank Climate Change, MTN @ 50, GCB @ 70 and National Security Ministry Launch, among others.

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