Featured profile entry; Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju

This week featured profile is a poet named, Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju, he was born in Ibadan, but he is an indigene of Osun State. He studied NCE in English and Yoruba languages at Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He also bagged B.A(ed) in English from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State.
As a poet, Ayoola is renown for his vibrant imagery and the poignant power his poetic pieces solely reeks. He has bagged some awards due to this his prowess.  His journey towards poetic freedom started way back in secondary school.
Then, he never thought he could write any poem, but back in the year 2002, when he was in JSS3; his coordinator, Kola Obadimu (Jnr) who runs a children organization, African­ Children Voices ( which he was part of), asked them to write a poem for the organization. He did write one and when he saw it, he loved it and encouraged him to write on. He was the first person to call him a poet and right there his passion for poetry was ignited

He afterwards had worked on his poetry and sought every means to get better. Along this progressive journey, Prof. Niyi Osundare had been instrumental to his inspirational drive, so had all the poets he had met on social media

As a poet, he doesn't have any favourite genre as he gets to write whatever inspiration and muse brought to his writing desk.
In his words he had said
''When I write a poem or in most of the poems I write, everything motivates me, that includes the environment, mood and every factor that may be involved. I believe for everything, there is a poetry to write''.

Some of his notable moments as regard poetry include: The day, his great friend, Sir Phunso Oris, gave him a treat for his poetry. There were other moments too which he claimed he would also consider his best, and that was the day his poem 'sound of a needle-drop' won the Peregrine Reads Patriot for Change Contest in 2015 plus the Brigitte Poirson Monthly Contests which is anchored by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson in which he made a four-time, top ten finalist.

Ayoola is yet a humble man, when I met him at the WRR festival 2015 he had truly played to the tune of humility without any sort of acting. In his words he had valued his friend's appreciation of his work over any of the poetry prizes he has ever won.
''I think if I am to name prizes, I would only say that they are the feelings which I get from my poetic expressions and the appreciation from great friends and fellow poets.''

Ayoola dreams to achieve an index of change with his poetry. He thinks, for virtually every poet and art in general the index of change acts as a vital driving force.

He also do prose and drama too, however it is not as regular as poetry. He also can draw a little and play some musical instruments too. However, it is prose he develops next to poetry among his other talents.

Now let's get personal.

Ayoola favourite quote is;
'do all that you do with all your heart'. He loves children a lot and dislike anything bad. His role model is his Mother.

His best meal is beans and fried plantain. His best friend is Abdul wahab Mariam, which he claims is his great friend in deeds indeed.

Watch out for some of Ayoola's wonderful poems on poets corner of this site. However for this week, Ayoola's ''Cacophonies'' is the featured masterpiece with the full poem and a brief review. Head to that section of the site, to read it up.

Note:
If you think you are creative enough to be our featured profile of the week,  kindly send an email to museguide@gmail.com so we can contact you back and get your details. Thank you very much for reading, remember, stay creative, all day, all year.
Abd-afeez Abd-hamid
For the museguide team.