Aerodrome reviews WINGS OF SMOKE

Some people have little care for words. Some learn a few that stick to them like bubblegum to orange hair, they end up using the same words over and over on television or Twitter. Surprisingly, one such person apparently managed to convince millions, mesmerised by his words, to vote him into power.

I don’t pretend to know more words than the average writer, but I try to care for the words that I let go, the words I allow to land on a page. In a world that seems to be increasingly overtaken by the loud and forceful, rather than those who seek truth and a common humanity, one has to be thankful for being read at all.

I previously posted links to the first review of WINGS OF SMOKE. I am delighted and deeply humbled by another review that has just been published at Aerodrome. Endless thanks to South African poet Christine Coates for her very kind words toward my latest paper child.

-o-

ABOUT THE BOOK

Wings of Smoke (The Onslaught Press, UK, 2017) is Agustin’s latest poetry collection, launched in the UK and worldwide in February 2017. The book may be ordered via the publisher’s website – www.onslaughtpress.com – and Amazon. It will be made available in South Africa from March 2017 mainly through the author who will be reading and launching the book at various venues: at the Writing for Liberty Conference at the Centre for the Book on 28 March, at Off the Wall (A Touch of Madness Restaurant) in Observatory on 30 March and at Kalk Bay Books on 4 April. More readings are to follow during the year.

The first review of WINGS OF SMOKE

Huge things are happening in my country of birth. A retired policeman has corroborated the testimony of one of the hired killers of the dreaded Davao Death Squad, saying the former mayor, now elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, created and conducted the vigilante-style group. During Duterte’s term as mayor of Davao City thousands were claimed to have been murdered or made to disappear by the DDS. Will this revelation change the course of my country of birth? One hopes for the better, as worse scenarios have been floated by various critics such as self-initiated revolution in order to force a change to federalism or even dictatorship (as Duterte’s hero, former dictator Ferdinand Marcos did in the 70s).

But the title of this post said something else! Yes, it did. My apologies. Here goes.

It is one thing an author wishes for his/her paper child – to be read. So I always thank readers who can find time to delve deeper into my work and come up with their own ideas about it.

Thank you to Marius Carlos, Jr for this review with two versions. One appears on his Medium.com page. The other version appears on The FilAm.

-o-

Wings of Smoke may be ordered via my publisher’s website – www.onslaughtpress.com – and Amazon. It will be made available in South Africa in March 2017 mainly through the author who will be reading and launching the book at various venues: at the Writing for Liberty Conference at the Centre for the Book on 28 March, at Off the Wall (A Touch of Madness Restaurant) in Observatory on 30 March and at Kalk Bay Books on 4 April. More to follow during the year.

From fellow poet also published by The Onslaught Press

Check out @OnslaughtPress’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/OnslaughtPress/status/831855197131513856?s=09

“Open Air Cinema in the Rain” on Soundcloud.com

original artwork from Synaesthesia Magazine

“Open Air Cinema in the Rain” was first published by Synaesthesia Magazine (pages 40-41).
It now finds a home in my new collection, WINGS OF SMOKE.

I posted a reading on Soundcloud.com

Should I say HAPPY VALENTINE? 🙂

More Wig than Human – a draft

Images from Inquirer.net and Wikipedia

 

More Wig than Human

“The criminals, the drug lords, drug pushers, they are not humanity. They are not humanity. In other words, how can that be when your war is only against those drug lords, drug addicts, drug pushers. You consider them humanity? I do not.”
                                                                    – Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II

A certain creature first sucked
nourishment from nipples.
Natural or man-made, like his wig
now, does it really matter?

He’s so comfortable, he feels nothing
can budge him from his
temperature-controlled leather
seat. You can hear him snoring

through the thick door
that bears the title:
Secretary of Justice.
Far from where he lords,

ants are milling around
an injured fellow ant
as if they were trying
to help it get back

on its broken legs,
dragging it with great effort
to a place of shade, away
from further harm.

-o-

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/867331/criminals-are-not-human-aguirre

 

some readers don’t like the title. any suggestions? I also welcome all feedback. thank you in advance.

Another State of the Nation Address (SONA) from Zuma will need some imagination

photo from the Twitter account of ENCA

So, another year, another chance for Zuma to hypnotize us into submission. This year is likely to be the same as the past few years. With a few slightly different details such as the presence of 441 members (odd number, that) of the South African National Defense Force being deployed at Parliament in Cape Town, along with the restrictions on press movement (they get their own pen – perhaps without a pig, hopefully with ink) while covering the expected pomp (include all the negative things that word might conjure) and… yawning.

We poor citizens will have to use our rich imagination to entertain ourselves while being tortured and shown the prospect for another grim year under this man who has nearly 800 counts of corruption charges the National Prosecuting Authority should file but just won’t.

Here’s a suggestion. That photo. That hand behind Zuma. Imagine those fingers folding two while holding the middle one straight. Raise that hand. Aim at Zuma’s bald head. Then make him turn his head to that middle finger.

Feel a little better? Now aside from this exercise, get to work. Prove to him this country can be better without him sitting and laughing at us as if we were all fools.

It’s alive! It’s alive!

 

My UK publisher, The Onslaught Press, posted this photo on Twitter of my new book alongside two other new titles. So my paper child is real. Alive. 🙂

Some inside pages were also posted.

A paper child is born

1 February 2017. Or nearly. As I start writing this it is 23:33 in Cape Town. It is already dawn where I was born. I wonder what it’s like in the UK where my new paper child, Wings of Smoke, has just been born.
A few years ago two books of mine came out at the same time, Alien to Any Skin and Baha-bahagdang Karupukan. I’m still very fond of those books. They broke the more than 10 years of publication silence I underwent. I was terrified what would happen to them, as if they were flesh and blood of mine. So I wrote a poem where I gave them names, Karu and Skin. That poem later appeared in another book, Sound Before Water.
I can’t remember if I’ve posted it here before, but it seems appropriate to share it as Wings of Smoke is born.
May you all find loving homes and eager readers, my paper children, sooner rather than later.

How to Sell a Child Door to Door
for Karu and Skin, my paper children

tell them this child has no parent
and can only bring joy
to its new home
bring light and promise
into the room
as it silently sits
in their hands

even as the world burns
outside the window

tell them everything
they want to hear
that might make them smile

anything just to get
this child’s little foot
in the door

do not bat an eyelid
should the child
gasp at fragments
of moth wings

by the kettle
no one invites sorrow
into their lives

-o-