Interview with Poet Rolly Lambert Fogoum

In this exclusive interview, Rolly Lambert Fogoum shares his insights on the importance of resilience, compassion and spirituality in our lives. He also emphasizes how nurturing dreams can create hope for a brighter future. Through his inspiring poems featured in his book For Orphans, Lost Children, Youth, and Whom It May Concern, he seeks to uplift, motivate and empower his readers.

Fogoum explains that through resilience we have the strength to face difficult times with courage. Compassion allows us to extend understanding and kindness even towards those who may not deserve it. Lastly, spirituality is the foundation from which all these qualities are derived – an inner source of guidance and strength that will never fail us no matter what life brings our way.

The poems in For Orphans, Lost Children, Youth and Whom It May Concern are an ode to the power of hope. Through interviews and a narrative that appeals to our compassion, Rolly Lambert Fogoum brings us on a journey through empathy as he speaks directly to those who have been left behind or ignored.

Interview with Rolly Lambert Fogoum

What is your schedule like when you’re writing a book?  I don’t have a set schedule when I write a book . Im spontaneous. I listen to my heart . Whenever I have an idea , I can stop what I’m doing for a few seconds to either record it or write it down . Later on , when I have a free time I examine the idea and develop it or just delete it if it’s not productive.

Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? No pseudonym could ever be as beautiful as my original name , which remind me of my roots and my life journey.

Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I have to honest by answering YES ! I have got lost endless time amidst my own pages let alone those of another author. Generally, a single word or a sentence can take me travel a thousand miles to the middle or nowhere. In that state I might either wander aimlessly or reconquer myself there with a mind-blowing flow of beautiful ideas to be used later.

Does your family support your career as a writer? To avoid vain praise and acclaim that will flatter my ego , I have not gotten my family or friends involved in my writing path.

Except those who find out over the internet.

How many hours a day do you write? On the one hand , Sometimes I would sit down with a single idea and end with a tremendous flow that could keep me writing a whole day about all and everything. In those moments, I feel inspired by heaven. And In a single week I write a lot of good stuffs .

On the other hand, multiple times for days weeks or months, I go through a bizarre mental/intellectual drought where I feel dumb and unable to form a verse. It’s currently the case as I’m answering this interview.

If you could invite any three people for dinner, whom would you invite? I would invite an orphan, a widow/widower and a homeless/needy.

Would you share something about yourself that your readers don’t know (yet)? That I myself am an orphan, and I prefer not to show it or talk about it in order to avoid sympathy.

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want? My writings are original and based on my personal experience and feelings. I don’t write to make sales or being known. I write firstly for myself, and those that I address.

How do you celebrate when you finish your book? The back-and-forth process of book editing till its publication is never easy.

And once the book is done. I say, “thank you lord for this one . May is inspire something nice in the heart of the reader”.

From there, I announce it on my social media and move on.

If you could be mentored by a famous author, who would it be? I love all the stoics. I believe that they have inspired me in many ways . Confucius, LOA TZU Saul of tarsus who became Saint Paul, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Aristotle and his master Plato , student of the illustrious Socrates etc… the list is long and I just can’t stick with one author alone .

Poetry

Publisher: Kuumba Books

Uplifting, motivational, and empowering, the poems in For Orphans, Lost Children, Youth, and Whom It May Concern celebrate resilience, compassion, spirituality and, above all, the power of dreams to spawn hope for the future.

Rolly Lambert Fogoum’s second poetry collection clusters heartfelt and passionate poems speaking to orphans, the deliberately silenced, and the ignored. By turns lyrical, introspective, and epistolary, the collection’s force builds as the poems appeal to our compassion. Often directly addressing the forsaken, this collection takes us on a journey through empathy, chronicling painful times, but also heralding hope for better times to come.