Introducing, My New Book, A Poet Speaks of Empire...

Book cover on iPad screen

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that you enjoyed your celebrations. I am still celebrating because this new year will bring a new book for me--one which will be released as early as the spring. The book cover is an ever-evolving project. I wanted to share an initial sample with you. I hope that you like it!

This is the book that I have waited to write. This is the first in a series of works about the great diversity and new hope born on a continent so well-known for war and corruption. For years, I have worked, traveled, read and extensively researched life on the continent of Africa--all in an effort to better understand the rise and fall of empire--the tides of history. 

Africa may be the poorest continent today, but the future whispers of profound change and considerable development.This book captures a moment in the history of Africa, on the precipice of a new era. For details on the new book, click on the image below to check out the front and back covers of the new book!

Full Book Cover

For all of you die-hard fans out there, you may recognize the photo on the front cover. It is a photo that accompanied the last poem in my first book, called "Genghis." I chose this photo because it seemed very appropriate for the subject matter in this, my fourth book. It is a simple but powerful image. The shapes created by the silhouette seem to beckon things to come. This photo was the center piece for a photography project I completed for a class at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). There are photos which accompany this center piece which are also included in the book.

The title of the book, A Poet Speaks of Empire, originates from the title of a poem by one of my favorite poets, Langston Hughes. Among his most recognized poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was a tremendous inspiration for my forthcoming book, even beyond the title. In the poem, Hughes merges the Old World with the New, imagining himself as a part of history, closely wedding the geography of Africa and America. Here's the poem:

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
     flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln 
     went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy 
     bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

A Poet Speaks of Empire is a book that gently weds past with present, new with old. It is a book that plucks the tender nodes of the everyday and creates a splendid and complex impression of life on the continent. More to come...

You are receiving this weekly email because you have shown an interest in my books in the recent past. I want to keep you abreast of my new book as it develops.Stay tuned for details...! (Please forward this note on to others who may be interested.)