Gags, Quirks and Facts
This is an unusual little book. In a South Africa in economic trouble with daily power outages and a 60% youth unemployment rate, we might think there’s not much to smile about. Don’t you believe it!
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This is an unusual little book. In a South Africa in economic trouble with daily power outages and a 60% youth unemployment rate, we might think there’s not much to smile about. Don’t you believe it!
Covid-19 amplified the seismic rumblings of South Africa’s divided society. Out of the limelight and away from corruption scandals, a vast network of civil society organisations mobilised as the pandemic approached. They harnessed the thunder, directing attention to people who are usually not seen or heard – compelling the nation to take a long, hard look at itself.
Civil Society’s Care and Creativity in South Africa’s Covid storm
Heap of Stones is a selection of forty poems from two decades of AE Ballakisten’s poetry, many written while in his twenties. The book opens with a pledge by the poet; that his poetry will always reflect his “true word”. Indeed, the poems have a bold honesty; they are a powerful reflection of the human experience and range in emotions from anger and heartbreak to hope and contentment.
That was how it had been with her marriage.
Say ‘yes’ and the road would take you. Say ‘yes’, say ‘yes’. The road had taken him right through to the end of his life and she had completed the circle with him.
It had been rugged in places and the tyres had worn thin. But in the end it had been a complete journey. A lifetime.
A shared incarnation. She had said ‘yes’ and travelled with him to the last breath. There is a last. She had been with him. And then her incarnation continued without him.
AE Ballakisten returns with his new anthology of Poems, Talking to a Tree. His debut anthology Heap of Stones garnered plenty of critical praise and public appreciation and Talking to a Tree is already showing signs of following in that tradition.
Talking to a Tree asks the crucial question of mankind through the poems that make up its contents: “Is this really how we want to live?” In a range of voices and poems, the book surveys the state of humanity revealing the themes of conflict and decay. In his words we can clearly see the fear of the poet that we are rapidly eroding our humanity and threatening our already fragile world.
Tilly didn't think about what happened when she dropped her plastic lollipop stick on the ground - not until she saw the turtle at the beach. This delightfully illustrated cautionary tale describes Tilly's carefree life on a lovely summer day. After school she goes snorkeling with a friend. On the way to the beach they buy lollipops and Tilly throws her stick carelessly on the ground. But later on the beach they stand and watch some older boys trying to remove a plastic spoon that had somehow got stuck in the turtles nose. Tilly is not slow to make the connection between the spoon and her lollipop stick. From that moment on, she becomes a fervent conservationist, regularly helping to pick up the mountains of litter that beachgoers always seem to leave so thoughtlessly on the sand.
This book provides perspectives that bring home the reality that amidst the gamut of challenges that we may be going through, someone else is also going through the same, if not worse. When we are overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life, what
tends to plunge us into an abyss of hopelessness is a feeling of solitude, a feeling that we are all by ourselves and no one can relate.
The book rekindles hope and equips the reader to discover a different meaning to life and start seeing life, things and events through the eye of meaningful purpose, while their faith is being restored through the healing nuggets shared in this book.
Growing up in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s the emphasis on the way of life was completely different to the present day some nearly 70 years later.
He writes of his reminiscences of his school days and especially his involvement in sport which was compulsory. Many of life’s lessons were learnt young on the rugby or cricket fields.
In this book, Sbu takes you on a journey of spiritual, psychological and emotional catharsis. One that begins with getting into your shoes and mapping out a universe of life’s ordeals that has left you broken and shattered.
He rekindles hope by walking you through a series of perspective-altering antidotes. The book takes you from the valley of tears to a place of refreshing springs.