By Nana Gyesi

Just as a town on a hill cannot be hidden in an Akan proverb, though the young poet I am about to chronicle his journey into the literary world was naturally gifted with the art of poetry, he never discovered this great innate resource until he came into contact with a female friend whose attention was caged under the spell of his poetic lines in Kumasi one day.

The lady whose name the poet declined to mention bought him a book and a pen as a start- up capital of introducing the unnamed poet into the craft of stitching words to form thoughts just as a farmer will give his son a cutlass and a land to start farming.

As the poet himself rightly put it, “A change only comes to the prepared mind when we die to be born again, when we rise above all odds and become our own gods then we can unlock tomorrow’s mysterious doors”. His whole life changed when he started weaving words to communicate his thought on the social media platforms such facebook, blogspot, wordpress, twitter and many others. The emerging voice in the contemporary Ghanaian poetry who is known popularly in the literary fraternity as Kojo poet but named as Kingsley Kojo Antwi by his parents was born in Abuakwa on July 23, 1990 and hails from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Kojo started his elementary education at Datus Complex School in Bubiashie, a suburb of Accra and went on to undertake a science course at the Koforidua Senior High School for his second cycle education. Preferably, Kojo would have opted for General Arts but his father changed his General Arts destiny within some few seconds due to the enviable grades he made during the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Having completed his second cycle education, things were quite tough for the upcoming poet to organise himself quickly for the next level of his academic journey. He stayed in the house for a year and even tried to commit suicide when friends were asking him questions on his educational objectives. It was during that turbulent time that Kojo committed himself fully to poetry writing.

To date, Kojo had written more than hundred poems, made four video poem recitals, and penned five movie scripts and performed poetry on important platforms such as festivals, social gatherings, and on radios stations like Yfm, Kaptical Fm and Nkwa Fm to demonstrate his poetry skills.

However, he had also worked for Double D Movies International and hopes to establish his own production house. Reacting to a question I posed to him as where he wants to take poetry to, an excited Kojo Poet said “I am a philosophical poet and I want to export poetry as a high commodity to the world. I want to be a young poet who took poetry to the next level by helping his generation to see the essence of the art and eventually getting published”. Recognised by the National Museum of Philippines as one of the significant voices in Africa pushing the boundaries of contemporary African literature and his immerse contribution to the development of literary art in Ghana, Kojo Poet was awarded this year’s “Inspirational Poet Award”, a highly competed for award organised annually by Philippines to honour the father of visual poetry, Dr. Penpen B. Takipslim. Kojo is a member of a number of Internet-based literary circles such as poetry soup and poetry hunter, an online assemblage of poets. Some of the author’s poems have been published on the internet for larger audience and reviews, and also published in an international anthology. He has participated in several writers and poets workshops. His poetry has over the years been widely introduced to readers, especially on the Internet. Kojo’s themes of poetry cut across all section of life; from love, religion, academic, imaginative and culture. He has served as the Coordinator for radio show poetry performance in Kumasi, a youth-focused and social transformation initiative where young poets are given the platform to show their dexterity in poetry on the airwaves. He is also the initiator of Poets and Friends show, an online medium where he has interviewed most of the upcoming poets. The young Information Technology student’s works have been shaped by great poets such as Adjei Adjei Baah and Nana Agyeman all of Poetry Foundation

Ghana fame.