“Clean Ponds” out NOW with Cactus Press!
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“This was just after the leaves fell, but long before the bombs dropped.“
Clean Ponds is A. Daniyal’s debut poetry chapbook – It is a lyrical journey that takes us from the carefree days of youth, full of wanderlust, wonder and stargazing, to our present reality of global war and chaos. Suddenly the memories of smoky student cafes of Eastern Europe become tainted with history and violence, and a fracture occurs in the world that cannot be mended.
“To think that in an era / where humanity can reach / into the hearts of distant nebulas, / folly rules sovereign on earth.”
How can so much terror exist amidst so much beauty? Why does war and evil exist? How did we get here, watching in disbelief this 21st century theatre of chaos? Will we ever find our humanity again?
Indeed, there is no going back to the past. We have to bear witness to the death fields of both past and present as well as to our love for one another, to both beauty and terror. Clean Ponds offers quiet gestures of consolation to fellow Millennials and wanderers, a flower on their morning paths. Good or bad, all times must end.
We have to reach out to each other, we have to remain human.
Published by Cactus Press in Montreal.
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WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT “CLEAN PONDS”:
“With a singular energy and remarkable intelligence, the sixteen poems in Clean Ponds expose the shards of our broken, lonely cosmos. Daniyal’s powerful poetics express the collision of sharp outrage with deep humanity, culminating in a call for mercy. From the neon lights of Montréal to the shores of the Black Sea, from the Clean Ponds of Moscow to the site of a massacre in Bucha, Ukraine, the poet’s restless gaze and tantalizing imagery subvert the temptations to surrender to evil or overlook the enduring beauty of existence.”
— Cora Siré, poet, novelist, and author of five books including “Fear the Mirror”
A. Daniyal 