Angle of Angels

By Felix Bongjoh

Having been pushed to a cliff where thousands have fatally fallen under the bullets of BIR soldiers in particular and having been trapped in a genocide calculated to wipe them off like rats, in the words of a dictator, a subjugated people get back on their feet, determined, more than ever, not to yield to the servitude imposed by a neighboring country of equal status. Against the backdrop of agony over departed loved ones who have fought a good fight of resistance and those who must continue to do so for posterity, some of the poems also muse about familiar human struggles and other aspects of human nature and life in general.

Consistent with the author’s previous books of poetry, Angle of Angels by Felix Bongjoh has tried to pay attention to both form and substance, always giving preference across his poems to criteria of literary merit, including metaphor and symmetry. The poems, most of which are written in free verse, are both accessible and absorbing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: May 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781490795355

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.

Book preview

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.

Print information available on the last page.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9534-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9535-5 (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 Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Trafford rev. 05/16/2019

33164.png www.trafford.com

North America & international

toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

fax: [phone]

Contents

PROLOGUE

ANGLE OF ANGELS

FROM A CLIFF’S FOOT

NIGHT FLOWER

BLAZING TOAST ON MERMAIDS

PRAYER’S CLIMB TO A MOUNTAIN PEAK

CLOUDS AND SMOKE

LIVELIEST MORNING SEA BEAST

IN AN EMPTY BOTTLE

A GOURD’S SANCTUARY

SAILING CASTLE

WHITE PATCH OF LOVE

A BARE BED FOR TWELVE

THE PROTRACTED SEARCH

INVITING A FRIEND TO A FIREPLACE

THE ETERNAL TRAVELER’S SONG

THE CUNNING TACITURN PARROT

SUN AND STORM IN MY LIVING ROOM

THE IMMORTAL STONE

THE PEOPLE’S SONG

CHIRPING STONE

ROUND

THE WILD TRAP

EIGHTEENTH HOUR

RETREATING TO YOURSELF

THE DESCENDING ROCK

DOWN THE VALLEY

WHERE ANGELS STAY

SPLAYED SKY

CAVE IN A CHASM

SNEAKING OUT

MORE THAN EIGHTY METERS HIGH

THE MARTYR

INVADED

CATHETER

A STORM’S LEAF OF STONE

A BIRTHDAY PRESENT

LOOK BACK ONLY ONCE

WATER LILY’S INEXTINGUISHABLE WICK

LOCOMOTIVE TURNED GHOST TOWN

SEED OF A YOUNG MAN

THE NIGHT-COVERED REPORT

THE WOUNDED EAGLE

BONE AND STONE

A FEAST OF MATCHSTICK-BEAKED BIRDS

FLYING CHILDREN

GREEN CASTLE BALCONY DANCE

THE WALL

PRINCESS COSTUS

A BODY OF NIGHT

This book is dedicated to Agnes Josiane Bongjoh, my beloved departed daughter

Prologue

Angle of angels

GettyImages-963438300_B%26W.jpg

(song of the invincible)

The clouds and waves have all

Gone red, rivers, these red waters

Channeled to a reservoir,

Never getting full, until the people

Hanging on slopes, lying

By the mouths of red cascades

Find safety on rock perched

Well above a deluge; on

Stone trees growing, where

Bridges have collapsed; on roots

Flung over to let a drowning

Person cling, rafters floated

Over by fishermen from

Canoes of a propelling spirit.

(ii)

And from high waves in the flooded

Rivers and seas, walls rise to

Join paddles never breaking, never

Stuck in stone-laden waters

On which arms of stone paddle

Also hurricanes and typhoons,

And weave debris into nets,

With which straits and wide passages

Are cleared, the expedition

Just beginning, where waves have

Raised new walls and we’ve

Broken them with birdsong,

The canary singing the ultimate

Sword-lipped song to defy

A bullet that brushes off, ricocheting

To hit the enemies, as mere

Tree leaves camouflage sword-lipped

Birds sent by angels to penetrate

The darkest night, beginning

A climb with no end in sight,

As valleys sink and mountains

Rise and rise to the skies, a glass

Ceiling, no barrier to our next match,

As angels from trees have

Sprinkled leaves, with which boots

Garlanded by angels sign

A bond with a victorious spine, our

Baobab roots always sinking

Deep to hurl us back to light in the storm.

From A Cliff’s Foot

GettyImages-963438300_B%26W.jpg

(i)

We rise from collapsed

Mounds

And hills, whose deep-rooted feet

Always grow back

From stumps like those of trees

That never rot,

Nor lack hands, on which to lean

And rise back.

Under thickening skies brewing

Unpredictable storms

Reigns the eternal sun that raises us

Back on our feet –

Not just to stand up

And revel in the rainbow hue

Of our flowering plants,

But to grow taller than them,

As we launch drones

To fly higher than falcons.

(ii)

From heights as high

As aircraft and other vessels,

In which we fly,

We sometimes drop and scale down

To depths

In littered pieces

And pulverized dust

Of our eternal selves, but we bounce

Back and stand again.

(iii)

Muddy and bloody,

There’s always

Water to clean, as springs

And rivers flow

Into an expanding reservoir

With built-in

Filters of love bound

By no sluicegates.

Bruised and wounded,

Let sky-rising, star-bound buds spring

And shoot themselves back

Into nebula within our reach.

O let ever-growing trees of hope

Bear palm lines on

Leaves of love - pinnate or