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What if I had told you that the mechanism of your brain is like plasticine and could be moulded to your own unique set of beliefs and hence abilities? Could you afford not to even try to step into a new reality? Would you dare?
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.
When poet, novelist & teacher Lionel Abrahams died in 2004, his wife, Jane Fox, wrote him a series of letters because she needed to go on talking to him. She found them in her computer 17 years later & was moved to show them to close friends. They suggested she share them with the wider public.
This book includes small 'snapshots' in words of their life together; a Jane's-eye view of Lionel as a man rather than as a writer. It shows how a human spirit can rise above physical difficulties (Lionel suffered from cerebral palsy) to become a mentor for others & a creative artist himself.
Letters to Lionel is a beguiling, unusual book. An inspiration to anyone who has lost a partner or loved one to make a healing connection back to them, & so find a source of courage to continue.
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.
The world is ending. People, animals, plants – there is a universal dying-off of the planet. Rumours persist of a reprieve but none appears. Two dogs and their human companions bond, as they trace a vivid circuit in a region not dissimilar to Cape Town; they encounter the violence and decay as they travel, struggling to survive. It’s a tough passage through societies of degradation and unsettled by a war beyond the mountains that encircle them.
