Cigarette Break and Bright Faces

My cigarette breaks are sacred.

In them I reflect. I organize, and I plan.

You see, I do not think it is the need for nicotine that drives me, but the need to escape.

In the rush of the day and the multitudes of people, you hardly have the time to be on your own, let alone think ahead.

So I run to my cigarette and dive into my own thoughts.

I am pulled back to the surface by a comment on the weather by a familiar voice.

I turn and watch the depressed face of a colleague whose cigarette is another form of escape.

10 Favourite Books of 2015

10- The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell

As you might have previously seen, Cloud Atlas has topped my Top Books of 2013 list and for good reason.

Although I did not find that The Bone Clocks lived up to Atlas, I find it quite a good read.

It’s as mind-twisting as you would expect a Mitchell novel to be; it’s smart and fairly eloquent; and as opposed to Atlas, it’s quite easy to follow. Also, it has a beautiful and ambitious idea.

At first I was hooked on the book, barely able to breathe at what a marvel I was getting myself into.

However–

In Times Gone By

The explosion of an ancient rock

gives the birth to a whole new world.

A fleeting motion of a distant star, as it swirls in vacant space,

sprints along kingdoms in their rise and fall.

The little tilting of a sun unknown, bringing the death of a planet wide,

delivers the earth from collision course with the flocks of light.

Starmaker

Upon the peak of Mountain Star he lived. His back was bent of old age and habit, for he had spent nights and days that eventually turned into a lifetime of labour meticulously searching through sands of the world, to find that occasional grain, that one dust in the wastes that he would keep, carry all the way to his home, nurture, love and then release.

10 Favourite Books of 2014

The time for my favourite clichés about new dawns and chapters has come, and the time for rewinds along with it. My book journey this year has been one of thrill, tears and musing upon the experiences that I found in books. The following ten are the crème-de-la-crème; they are the books that I will carry with me whether for thee excitement they gave me, the emotions they imposed upon me, or the insight they provided.

The Hunger

Wolf of prey

Within this cascade of light and dust,
a death of proportion divine
beams a path of a birth malign.

Choirs and Sunsets

Choirs and sunsets:

Reasons for life to flow.

But like every note,

and every colour,

each second seems to drain

existence behind some far horizon.

 

10 Favourite Books of 2013

It’s that time of year again when good-byes are said, and lists of the best moments of the passing year are relived. My way of reliving my year is through books, because every book I read leaves memories with it: Of where I had read it, my emotional state when reading, the images it had painted, and the way it has changed me. So without further ado, here is a list of my favourite books of 2013.

Please note that not all these books were published in 2013, they are simply the best 10 I had read during the year.

10. Azazeel- Youssef Ziedan

Like a whimsical poem, this book gave so much insight about cultures I had never been familiar with. Poetic in language, slow paced and everything a romantic could hope for.

Sonnet 5

Caress the fleeting wound until it bleeds,
For joy is but a prize that’s borne of pains.
Indulge with tears that grow the bounty seeds
Of beauty pure beneath the scalding flames.

Sonnet 4

Do drink the cup of my bitterest rhymes.

Indulge your sense with their stale sweetly tastes.

Abhor the verse befouled the well of times:

Poisoned pungency of nascent distaste.