Zahrah Tipagya Osman, Ghana's National Honour, August 2026
Zahrah Tipagya Osman wrote the highest-scoring poem from Ghana in the Writory International Poetry Contest, August 2026: A year with an amazing soul, scored 60 out of 100 by the blind judging panel across five published criteria. The poem was read in English.
A year with an amazing soul
A year ago, Allah wrote your name into the story of my life, and what a beautiful decree it was. You arrived like rain upon a weary earth, like dawn after a night that seemed too long to bear. You found me in pieces I did not know how to gather, and with patience in your hands and mercy in your heart, you taught me that broken things can still bloom. When my faith trembled, you reminded me where peace resides: in the remembrance of Allah, in the quiet surrender of a heart that trusts His plan. When my mind became a battlefield, you sat beside me through the war—not to silence the storm, but to become a shelter within it. Without even realizing, you taught me what love truly means. Not the kind that arrives loudly and leaves at the first sign of hardship, but the kind that remains. The kind that prays, gives, and stays—showing that love looks like listening, understanding, and making room for another soul without asking for anything in return. I know I have not always been easy. My worries have been many, my overthinking endless, and my heart sometimes difficult to carry. Yet through every chapter, every tear, and every moment I doubted myself, you remained. What greater proof of sincerity is there? So today, as one year of friendship passes between us, I raise a prayer to the One who brought us together: Ya Allah, reward her for every burden she helped me carry, for every wound she helped me mend, and for every reminder that brought me closer to You. Fill her life with light upon light, peace upon peace, and joy upon joy. And if it is written among Your most beautiful decrees, let this friendship be one that death cannot end. Let it live in this dunya, growing through every season, and let it meet again in the gardens of Jannah, where no goodbye will ever exist. You are one of the gentlest blessings Allah has placed in my hands. No words could ever fully measure the quiet gratitude I hold for your presence—for one year of friendship, for a lifetime of memories, and for a soul I love for the sake of Allah.
Every country's leading poet each month is named on the August 2026 National Honours. The contest is open to poets in Ghana and everywhere else: enter the current round, and every poem receives a score out of 100 and a certificate.