Sunset Silhouettes

By Linda Adede Ongola

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

round up its warmth and retracts the lights to feed another

in degrees it recedes, slipping in, out, and about

the flaming orangey clouds half-dipped in the horizon

a dazzling hopelessness courts the night

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

but can it account for the slumped lone silhouette

faceless beauty that hovers in its foreground

matching its sadness with the splendid sunset

a dazzling hopelessness encamps the soul

the final charm of a dying day.

Sunset Silhouettes is Linda Adede Ongola’s debut poetry anthology which features a hundred poems written mostly in free verse and of the confessional genre. It covers themes of mental health, theodicy, love, betrayal, and corruption among other social concerns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886938074

Linda Adede Ongola

Nationality: Kenyan Date/Place of Birth: 7th June 1976 – Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Education: B. Ed (Arts) from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. As a sixth-born among eight siblings, raised in a quiet part of Mombasa, life geared Linda Ongola towards solitary activities such as reading; and later, as introversion held stronger, writing. Until recently, all her writings would eventually grace waste-paper baskets. This changed when a close friend persistently suggested she take it seriously, and against her better judgment, Linda actually did. Better judgment can be a prejudiced impediment to creativity, so it mustn’t always win. A wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a trailing spouse who was once a career woman – a myriad of life’s facets compelled her to write. But above all, as one who has struggled with faith, failure, the human condition and depression, she just wanted to pen down quietened thoughts that many might share. Linda’s family was, without fail, the light in her; their unconditional love had literally kept her alive. They continuously honoured her morbid sense of humour, a cloak without which she wouldn’t endure.

Book preview

About the Author

Nationality: Kenyan

Date/Place of Birth: 7th June 1976 – Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Education: B. Ed (Arts) from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.

As a sixth-born among eight siblings, raised in a quiet part of Mombasa, life geared Linda Ongola towards solitary activities such as reading; and later, as introversion held stronger, writing. Until recently, all her writings would eventually grace waste-paper baskets. This changed when a close friend persistently suggested she take it seriously, and against her better judgment, Linda actually did. Better judgment can be a prejudiced impediment to creativity, so it mustn’t always win.

A wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a trailing spouse who was once a career woman – a myriad of life’s facets compelled her to write. But above all, as one who has struggled with faith, failure, the human condition and depression, she just wanted to pen down quietened thoughts that many might share.

Linda’s family was, without fail, the light in her; their unconditional love had literally kept her alive. They continuously honoured her morbid sense of humour, a cloak without which she wouldn’t endure.

Copyright Information ©

Linda Adede Ongola 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloguing-in-Publication data

Ongola, Linda Adede

Sunset Silhouettes

ISBN 9798886938050 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798886938067 (Hardback)

ISBN 9798886938074 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910344

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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1. We Are Not Our Own

I am not my own

I once was an Edenic canvas

My nakedness, beautiful and pure

But hands have painted all over me

Deceit and cunning framed me

I bear the strokes of all I met

Mea culpa, I should have dodged

Are you gorgonized by my tapestry?

I see you at your gossip wells

Drawing pails of colorful aspersions

My repugnant sinews are collective art

Years of unsynchronized craft

I remember your hand among the many

We are not our own.

2. In the Wee Hours

In the wee hours he came to the foot of my bed

Laid lucidly bare what roads lay ahead

And it was I to choose what would come to be

Two ways only, he revealed to me

A crippling sadness that gnawed the soul

Or spiraling madness with no control

But I knew a third, so I got off the track.

In the wee hours I left, afraid to look back.

3. May Your Ice Be Thawed

You viciously paint her a despicable picture

One of low birth and unbridled liberties

One on a distrustful damning generational path

But we see it’s a projection