"In summary, this is a great read. Here is a fabulous investigation of words, bandied around throughout A Booktiful Love, displaying a unique approach to conveying heart felt feelings. "
Lou Pearson
Avid reader Lou Pearson has a stressful job, working and training high-level executives in the forces. She has recently discovered a release in poetry and one poet is fast becoming her favourite.
Tolu’ A. Akinyemi is the author of nine books—seven of them form a unique and vibrant poetry collection and two of them are short stories and essays collection. Well known for his debut book Dead Lions Don’t Roar, the Newcastle based Nigerian born writer also assists other writers and has been known to take to the stage to perform his stunning work.
Here, Lou reviews A Booktiful Love, which was released in May this year and has fast become a best seller.
“With my busy and pressurized job, I need some release and for all of my life I have had a romance with books—proper printed books, not ebooks.” There is something so relaxing about a book with real pages. The smell of the print on the paper and the feel of the weight in my hands is ultimately relaxing. I spend so long staring at screens, that the more traditional version just feels more special.
My copy of A Booktiful Love arrived on my hallway mat from Amazon, and as soon as I opened it, I know this would have a positive impact. Even the cover drew me in with its simplistic, beautiful rose, its stem made from resonating words!
The pre-amble claims that these are poems with purpose. Keen to discover, I headed to the bathroom, ran a bath and sunk in with my purchase.
“The poems deal with every aspect of life. Starting with Isolation, something that appeals to us all during times of this awful pandemic, I felt the author’s words in my heart. I wonder when he wrote it if he knew how long this would go on for and that his closing words of “We will dream again. Of a future without the pain of isolation” would become so true!
Another poem I truly connected with is It’s Okay Not To Feel Okay. I would urge everyone to read this. It’s not just about mental health, in my opinion. It’s about how we all feel from time to time. Just such an important key message to us all right now.
Reading through more beautiful written poems, that cover love, relationships, encouragement to other writers to write, and giving reasons why they should write, I came across Neophyte. This poem is like the antidote to It’s Okay To Not Be Okay. It lifted my determination to not wallow in not being okay! To find a way to be better…. Less that 70 words, this short poem totally changed my thinking- thank you Tolu!
“Other lifting poems came like A date With Hope, I belong To Nobody, and a Strange Dance of Chickens covering the behaviours of humans of all ages.”
Split into three sections, as I moved into the last part of the book, I felt a discerning shift to the subject of love. The title poem after three readings…. I had to keep going back and absorbing the passion. The rest of the poems covering break ups, grief, divorce, loss and beauty. There are some poems that feel like a certain idolization of women, and these are easy to read, filled with warmth or humour. I rattled through more beautifully written poems, including a solid reminder of today’s world with Lockdown.
In summary, this is a great read. Here is a fabulous investigation of words, bandied around throughout A Booktiful Love, displaying a unique approach to conveying heart felt feelings. Tolu has a booktiful love story with his writing, and this read was worth every penny to experience that.
“By now you can imagine, my bath water is cold. But one last job before I dry off, a quick visit to Amazon to order some more of Tolu’s outstanding collection.”
Tolu’ A. Akinyemi’s collection can be found on Amazon or through his website, Tolu' A. Akinyemi -Speaker & Author Extraordinaire (tolutoludo.com)
