Sculpted out of Sky

By Felix Bongjoh

Sculpted Out of Sky consists of poems about man interacting with, and is shaped by, his environment in such a way that his activities and events are quite often governed by natural forces around him, especially in the sky, among other factors. It is also a metaphorical image of how life is psychologically sculpted out of birds, the sun, the moon, and other natural elements that affect or even govern his life—sculpted, as if out of a slab of sky (comparable to wood or metal), on which all is poetically sculpted to eternalize man’s image, good or bad, in an evolving world, often with space for evil, including conflict and war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: May 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781490795515

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: 978-1-4907-9549-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9551-5 (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 Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Trafford rev. 05/31/2019

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This book is dedicated to Agnes Josiane

Bongjoh, my beloved departed daughter

CONTENTS

FISHERMAN’S CABIN WALLS

HEALING A DEEP WOUND

A RIDE OF ANNELIDS

LEAVES OF STONE

WEEPING WILLOW

NEOLITHIC FORT

LIGHT IN THE DESERT

STONE WITHOUT HEAD

FLAMES LEAVING NO EMBERS

AFRICAN SNOW

THE RAYS OF A HUNTER

UNFOLD THE RAFFIA BAG

SCULPTURES

PURE GRIN

THE FINCH AT THE WINDOW

THE NARROW MISS

THE NARROW CORNER

FIREWORKS OF SKELETONS

THE IRON-FISTED MAN

ON THE MOTHER OF A THREE-MONTH OLD

A GROWL OF FATE

A DREAM SAVES A RAVEN

MOUNTAINS ON HIS HEAD

THE CONSULTATION

A HIPPO MOUTH WOUND

WRIGGLING FILAMENT AND MR. CURVES

THE UNDERTAKER

A GURGLE’S MESSAGE

SUNFLOWER AND HIBISCUS VALLEY

THE AGILE SOLDIER

WALL ON SILENCE

IT TAKES ONLY A SPECK

THE RIVERSHORE OF MY BED

SKIPPING AND CRAWLING

CASTLE AND BOUGH

ON AN ISLAND

MR PECTEILIS RADIATA

SEARCHING UNDER THE MOON

SEARCH AT EARLY DAWN

A MARKET IN THE YARD

MAYBE HERE

MAYBE A FALCON

ALONG A TURACO’S PATH

FOLLOW THE WARBLER’S SONG

ETERNAL TIDE

LIKE A STALK-ATTACHED FLOWER

WHERE IN A TYPHOON

MORE THAN EAGLES AND HAWKS

THE LION-RIDDEN NIGHT

THE UNEXPECTED RAM

MAN TURNED VULTURE

EAGLE CLOTHED IN FLOWER

GODDESS NEPENTHES

SKIPS FOR DINNER

PRINCESS STYLIDIUM

MOUNTAINS ON MY WALLS

CIVILIZED HANDS OF A THUNDERSTORM

FISHERMAN’S CABIN WALLS

(i)

How clouds have tasted rivers,

Testing the fisherman filtering fish

Scales from where he picks flowers,

When he realizes his catch is not

Worth early cocks’ crows

And feathery sunsets, when home

Nurses seeds of days brighter

Than life’s garden on high seas

Offering only dull flowers

Of unruly waves, no match for

Curves on his bare wall he

Sees every day in waves of poverty

Breeding more cracks bleeding

With roaches and the fat-mouthed lie

That bare walls don’t talk, don’t

Bleed with their own thick gobs

Of blood oozing out, these gentle

Heads, thoraxes and abdomens

Flying louder than dry petals

In the wind and waves of worrying

(ii)

For the next day, when a home’s bare

Walls offer now what tomorrow’s

Crystal-framed pictures have failed

To trap, empty nets hanging on walls

More truthfully than glass and brass

With no mouths to shout in curves

Like the sun crashing behind a horizon

Sending to shores only scales of debris

No brighter than walls of opulence

In colors on walls overcrowded with rags,

And the large veins of cracks flowing

With blood always oozing out in roach gobs.

(iii)

On a day when suns fool skies, and set

Others hibernating in the cold warmth

Of their empty cabins, the fisherman harvests

A black nimbus of shipwreck he mistook

For a fat bass. As his cabin walls stand

Barer than the diamonds and flowers,

He revels in - his cracked veins on

Walls bleeding with jewelry of roach gobs.

HEALING A DEEP WOUND

(i)

Bandage deep seething wounds

With soft skies. Rinse spongy bruises

With hot tears of untainted history

Dosed with a stone of enduring orchid

Withering in heat only to melt into

Peridotite, where every other debris ends -

The densest rock, the slab of conscience

Never breaking at the landing

Strike of a doubled heavy-duty hammer.

Like that slab, a straightened spine

Buttresses the limbless rock

To roll on with wheels driven by strings

That bind us to an old enemy

In a rising tide, more storms to come.

(ii)

As rivers still pull away people