Böcker av Felix Bongjoh

Light as poetically and realistically captured in its natural form from the sun, and as produced by man through electrical devices, has an impact on how individuals in society, as compared with groups, interact with each other and use it for their daily lives. Beyond light as physically manifested in transparent, plasmatic ions, there is light, an inspiration from within, that leads an individual or groups of individuals, each in their own isles of light, to plough through life''s intricacies and savor its pleasures, while avoiding life''s dark side. Virtually all the poems in this book deal with ordinary sceneries and experiences, each of which may be interpreted in the context of imagery extensively used from one poem to another. Whether in the office, at home behind the mountains and woods, in times of peace and war, in dreams and in expressive moods of joy and gloom, love and hate, life tends to permeate individuals and groups alike in their interactions with each other. Most of the poems have been crafted within this broad framework of light.

Based on the psychological trauma of death, especially through war and violence, and its meaning to the afflicted, the poems in this book dwell primarily on various perceptions of death and the way it affects man. So difficult is the phenomenon of death to comprehend, that the bereaved heal only partially, constantly relapsing into a mourning mood. The book is a reflection on how death drains man''s stamina to withstand agonizing adversity. Because of death''s long-lasting effects, the poet seizes the opportunity to explore the mind''s complexities, leading to its obscure character as it confronts new adverse experiences. Concluding that one can only explore the contours of the mind to penetrate the character of agony, the poet perceives the mind as an everlasting solid bowl, whose real core is never clearly understood. The title of the book directly derives from this perspective. Lastly, since death occurs in the context of ongoing life, including especially in the countryside and in urban settings, the book takes up other themes. The book explores various aspects of normal life, which may invariably shed light on the nature of man''s psychological stamina in the face of adversity.

Using Eris - the largest of the dwarf planets beyond Neptune - as a symbol of finality or goal, the ultimate, a lucid possibility, a brilliant clue, a way out of anything, and from a metaphysical perspective, what happens beyond imagination and what transcends life on earth, the poet explores ordinary facts of rural and urban life, encompassing the multiple themes of cultural and personal inter-relational values, including love, compassion, war, solitude, man's interaction with nature, etc. Accordingly, the poet draws his imagery from various down-to-earth experiences and universally familiar scenery to drive home specific ideas. For the most part, the local color consists of commonplace geographical sceneries and characters with recognizable traits with which the reader is able to associate.

Most of the poems reflect a diverse number of themes, a plethora of waves, as suggested by its title. The themes encompass, but are not limited to pain, love, grief, beauty, nature, man''s ordinary and extraordinary experiences, while others project man''s interaction with man and nature.

Most of the poems in the book touch on feathers and fur, which symbolically represents the strength of the lion or leopard as opposed to the less aggressive force of birds, especially the chicken. But under natural circumstances, an eagle (a bird) may overcome a lion. Thus the force paradigm is further corroborating the fact that man's fortitude rather than brute force is what matters in life. Other poems largely deal with nature, a good number reflecting man's ordinary and extraordinary experiences, while others project man's interaction with nature.

Having been pushed to a cliff, where thousands have fatally fallen under the bullets of BIR soldiers in particular, 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, Felix Bongjoh in Angle of Angels 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.

Cliff of Sirens is a set of poems about the plight of a people who, entitled and wishing to enjoy basic freedoms and rights in their own country, are assailed by a counterpart country of equal status. The belligerent has for long monopolized power, refusing to recognize the other party as a country of equal status, depriving it of fundamental rights including the cultural right to express itself in its own language in addition to legal and other rights. The situation is compounded by the fact that the victimized country has been subjected by its counterpart to a status whereby they have never enjoyed a genuine democracy, one man from the belligerent country having usurped power for almost forty years. The people of the assailed country, Southern Cameroon, who have been treated as second-class citizens so far and denied basic economic opportunities, see themselves as having been pushed through a tunnel to a cliff now collapsing dangerously, people of all ages ranging from babies and toddlers to adults being slaughtered with impunity on the basis of a totally unjustifiable genocidal war.

The poems in Beyond Dying Ripples cover a kaleidoscope of themes. Most of them are implicitly or explicitly intended to make the reader see what is hidden behind ripples, especially on a river, where they expand for a while and disappear. The poems in general oscillate around diverse circumstances in life, nature, man's condition in times of war; and facts of life, including love, happiness, beauty, melancholy and death.

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.

A people with the common identity of belonging to Southern Cameroon (Ambazonia) are at the brink of annihilation by the dictatorial regime of La Republique du Cameroun. This book of poetry primarily deals with the torture and death suffered by the Ambazonian people. With a prologue about the cliff at which the people now dangle and struggle and an epilogue about the people''s resolve to resist any subjugation, the book also offers, as usual, poems about life and death in general, but it focuses primarily on the intense torture and brutal murder suffered by Ambazonians in their struggle for independence from a neighboring country of equal status. Most of the poems dwell on the physical and psychological suffering of a people resisting subjugation.

With the exception of a few, the poems herein depict the agony of war and conflict and the plight suffered by people caught in the midst of their clouds. In spite of the gloom characterizing life in the context of stories conveyed by the poems, a resilient afflicted people still look forward to a bright future when the sun glitters again.

Most of the poems herein dwell on light and shade, on gleam and gloom, but are also, in general, inspirational, reflecting life in a hilly countryside, its main local color. The first part of book reflects life around the Lake Nyos area just before and after the Lake Nyos explosion in August 1986. One of the main themes running through most of the poems is that which infers the light and love which ultimately grow from gloom. Gloom's Sprout of Love, Felix Bongjoh's eighth book of poetry take up themes of passion and compassion he has also traditionally treated in his earlier seven works, namely: (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; and (vii) The Ineluctable Spin.

Consistent with his earlier 8 books of poetry, Felix Bongjoh in this ninth book, Spectrum of Zephyrs, takes up themes of mundane experiences spanning various aspects of life, including ordinary events of survival and coming to terms with society. Some individual poems showcase life in its various facets, including challenges which society and individual inclinations grapple with, choices typically made, and attitudes adopted in the face of a variety of circumstances. Balance is maintained throughout such that readers may identify with either hilarious or gloomy perspectives in accordance with their interpretations and understanding of life based on specific circumstances and factors at play.

This book takes up the author's familiar themes, which run through his earlier six volumes of poetry: (i) Chorus on a Bridge; (ii) Broken Gloss of Bliss; (iii) Nightfall at Dawn; (iv) When Dusk Hoots; (v) Weeds of Jewelry; and (vi) Season of Flowers. In The Ineluctable Spin, Afo-a-Kom speaks for the poet by expressing his (Afo-a-Kom's) feelings, first, when he is "abducted" by his own people and tossed into exile and, ultimately, his reckoning of his own "resuscitated" life after his return to his native land. Other poems reflect ordinary human experiences, while some speak to life in Afo-a-Kom's native land of Kom before, during and after his absence. Most of the poems though reflect man's interaction with man and nature. They are also driven especially by the philosophy of an ineluctable spin, which is a self-adjusting, self-compensating and back-to-the-same-point occurrence of events on a natural axis that inexorably governs diverse paths of life, including that of Afo-a-Kom, who returns to his roots after an involuntary, adventurous spell in the US.

The poet continues to draw his imagery from his familiar surroundings, from human behavior and interaction, from key elements in nature, including the skies and water and from flora and fauna alike. The bright side of life with hope as a dominant theme is reflected throughout the poems. No matter how complex, how conflicting, how intriguing or how hostile relations may sometimes appear to be-which underlie life's leitmotif-a strong undercurrent of love essentially drives the cadenced rhythm of the verse. The beauty of the poems derives from chiaroscuro, the literary technique of balancing shade and light, gloom and hope to achieve balance as the basis for the poems' natural flow from a hooting dusk to a bright dawn of eternal life and human aspirations.

The poems herein essentially deal with man's interaction with man, his immediate surroundings, and nature in general. They do not only reflect man's perception of his environment but also represent his attempt to communicate intimately with the objects and events of his experiences. The poems virtually share the same subtleties that tend to relegate the not-so-obvious to a peripheral status-otherwise metaphorically construed as weeds-which, in fact, underlies the very essence of their power and meaning.

Season of Flowers is the sixth book of poetry by the author, Felix Bongjoh. His five previous poetry collections are: (i ) Chorus on A Bridge; (ii) Broken Gloss of Bliss; (iii) When Dusk Hoots; (iv) Weeds of Jewelry; and (v) Nightfall at Dawn. His seventh book of poetry, The Ineluctable Spin will soon be published.In his sixth book, Season of Flowers, Bongjoh continues to focus on various aspects of the human experience across diverse circumstances, including from hypothetical reality. Interweaving art with style against a rich background of local color with flora and fauna often speaking for themselves, and through his own prism of human judgment and attitude, the poet makes ubiquitous use of flowers, especially in a metaphorical sense. His dramatic interplay of symbolism and wit enables him to invariably communicate gloomy and not-so-bright events and feelings in a positive, if not, optimistic light. His poems in this collection mirror life through a spectrum of social and psychological constructs, landmarks and ordinary incidents of a certain significance. In a lyricism reflective of the poets typical manner of expression, prototypical ideas are subtly but effectively communicated - quite often with a much needed sense of humor.

The collection of poetry is centered on a father's nostalgic feelings about a beloved departed daughter, whose death occurred in peculiar circumstances, primarily attributable to a psychosis to which she fell victim. After languishing for a very long time, she suddenly passed away while still in its throes. The expression of deep feelings of compassion and empathy enables the poet to bring into play imagery compatible with the paternal and filial love that characterizes an exceedingly warm father-daughter relationship. Although the young daughter's short-lived life is broken by the cruel hands of death, her "gloss," as reflected in her cheerful and blissful moods, prevails throughout with the strong sense of melancholy and eternal life aroused by the verse.

Based on a heavy dose of symbolism and metaphor, the poems reflect the ups and downs and the everyday experiences of life in general that make life worth living. Overall, they laud courage and perseverance and point to the trials and tribulations of life that must be overcome as if one were crossing from one bank of a difficult bridge to the other. The bridge is not necessarily a physical structure, although perceiving it as such enables the reader to interpret what the bridge could look like. The more important element, in a metaphorical sense, is what the reader may associate with the variety of experiences. Struggling to survive may lead to success or apparent failure, which spurs us to further effort either to devise better strategies or improve a preferred course of action. Whatever the result, it seems death is mans ultimate fate and should be experienced with the same equanimity as other setbacks and challenges of life.

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.