Whistles in the Wind

By Felix Bongjoh

Whistles in the Wind explores experiences of diverse forms that make up the essence of modern man’s life, lending voice to his main responses to both natural and man-made stimuli surrounding him in a longitudinal context of time as a malleable prism, through which man’s actions may be perceived. In rural and urban settings, in work and leisure contexts and in spheres of social interaction in times of peace and war, man is always confronted with choices, and how choices are made. The book is further concerned with an artistic form through which man’s behavior is best understood. In this regard, the ubiquitous use of imagery is intended to throw light on man’s interaction with nature in the context of both the static (physical features and forces) and changing dynamics beyond man’s control. Above all, it is also generally about how little winds of events, subtle warning whistles blowing in them, matter and lead to ultimate storms that may have been averted. From whatever angle life is viewed, man’s resilience is dealt with rather implicitly in terms of how he deals with death, the height of man’s gloom, and other tragic events, invariably evolving and transformed into man’s cycles of hilarious and victorious moods.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781490793931

Felix Bongjoh

Felix Bongjoh, currently living in Boston, Massachusetts, is an International Human Capital Development Consultant, who previously worked for an international organization for some 30 years. In addition to the present twenty-fifth book, Saddle On Thunder, Bongjoh has previously published 24 books of poetry, as follows: (i) Chorus on a Bridge; (ii) Broken Gloss of Bliss; (iii) Nightfall at Dawn; (iv) When Dusk Hoots; (v) Weeds of Jewelry; (vi) Season of Flowers; (vii) The Ineluctable Spin; (viii) Gloom’s Sprout of Love; (ix) Spectrum of Zephyrs; (x) Whistles in the Wind; (xi) The Sun Still Glitters; (xii) Cliff of Sirens; (xiii) Quiet Shadows Scream; (xiv) Angle of Angels; (xv) Sculpted Out of Sky; (xvi) Feathers of Fur; (xvii) Through Sundry Waves; (xviii) Beyond Dying Ripples; (xix) Doors to Eris; (xx) Outskirts of Inner Bowl; (xxi) Ebbing Out, Bouncing Back; (xxii) Tailored To The Stars; (xxiii) A Storm Wave’s Reach; and (xxiv) Isles Of Light.

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Copyright 2019 Felix Bongjoh.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9392-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9393-1 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Trafford rev. 02/25/2019

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This book is

dedicated to the memory of my beloved departed daughter, Agnes Josiane Bongjoh

Contents

Whistles in the wind

Croaking Pen-eye

Eye and Soul

Eternal life

Emergency

Filling up the tank

Wailing women

Perhaps

After the gathering

Too early a celebration

The New Algorithm

Mountains and Trenches

The sermon

Pit of Innocence

Screaming Wrinkles

Immobility

Hail Stones

Slippery Lanes

Me without me

Bung’s Bungalow

Puffy Morning

Wind and Housemaid

In Grief’s Garden

Farm in Wilderness

Pick the first fruit

Journey Just Begun

Mammoth Eagle Lands

Dromedary

Doubly Amputated

Feathers of my Eyes

Near Distant Fondles

Tall Mountains

Bustards

A Voracious Gale

More than a Storm

Goddess of Versatility

Bridled Silence

Digging through Trash

Lift up your boots

Oasis

Concurrent bubbles

The old eucalyptus tree

No voice, no tone

Ceiling of harvests

Mayhem

A hill in flames

Playing politics with cocks

Deep in a library’s heat

Verse and rodent

Discovering hilly history

Time and blind choices

Whistles in the wind

(i)

Stuttering voices digest in large

Gulps, life’s juices; pop out hastily

From exhaust pipes, thud through -

Through waves boiled, grilled

And unleashed along rails, choked trains:

Dying echoes rattle in turmoil.

Krakatoa’s deep voice eject wild fingers

And cutting tremors through earth’s

Nerves birds die, ears slashed, flying.

And heavy gunfire dilutes

Lion groan into cheetah chirrup

As dry leaf rattles in the wind

Chase away leopards, impatient

Cheetahs limping, stand up, a wind

Going haywire, as sighs thunder.

(ii)

Boreas and Notus in Unkulunkulu’s

Swamps drain cleaved lions

In the wind opening mouth wider

Neptune’s whale-sized arm lifted

Up in a wind is heard through swords

Flung into the air, breaking as they drop.

Into bulldozers rumbling with drummers

As tears are shed from gun mouths

And sun bashes moon out of shimmer

Dinners served in rock-bowls

In dancing leaves tilting to false kings

Usurping heavy lap space on monarchs

Three-eyed owls O wild bats playing

Ball with each other’s belly hanging

Loosely from burning iron branches –

Whistles in wind begin from whistling

Kettles, accost the broadbills hushing

Shy thrushes, the bassist’s ribs breaking.

Break, break and flip over into ditches

At a rivers mouth drinking the world,

As winds drift red plastic cups drenched

In squirrels’ torn mouths baring bearing

Their gait on trailing tails frightening

Vipers with the experience of short worms.

(iii)

The dog on hindlegs takes over his master’s

Drum, beats it so close to his ears they drop

Into the dog’s manger, spy and flip back

To the man’s empty face, peeled off

By clawed wind hands merely bidding

Goodbye to doors unlocked and banging

Like the collapsing walls of tall buildings

In the mall center where even skin

Is bought for leather sold for mere coins

And gutters run down angry throats

With sludge for a night-long dinner.

As tempers lash out one more bong.

Before the World Conference pitches

The Nile against the Congo River

And Zephyrus emerges from the Amazon

With a storm taking a wild dip in

The Mississippi, which along with the Atlantic,

Roll down streets in Johannesburg

And bathe angry kings along the Nile,

All rivers of the world are emptied into one

Giant ocean capsizing every ship, the Sahara

Too busy digging trenches for debris

For elephant carcasses, blue whale skeletons

Trumpeting the world with milder winds

As dung beetles play buzzing drums

With broken arms, wasps unleashed from

Elephant footfalls, from lion skins

Heard