Date Published:
Hard-cover: December 2020
Paperback: January 2021
Kindle/e-book: January 2021
Audiobook: January 2021
Through its 211 interwoven poems, this double-tiered recursive crown of sonnets takes the reader on an epic journey to the heart of mankind’s would-be nemesis – herself – and back again. Does her destiny await in the unexplored depths of the cosmos, or in a toxic wasteland of her own making? Does she have the will to shape her own future, or is she a slave to her myopic wants and impulses?
Requiem takes the existential threats facing humanity – from the destruction of the environment to nuclear holocaust – as a lens through which to reflect on the fate of civilization, humanity and ultimately conscious life in the universe.
Excerpt:
XI.8
In perfect, ultimate modernity
The selfish cynic stands atop the hill
And scoffs at notions of equality
For greed is but a testament to skill
In all the world’s most grandiose live show
The masters of the higher caste can pour
Their scorn onto the masses down below
Who tamely lap it up and beg for more
Where solidarity is antiquated
There’s nothing but the power of the fist
Where trust and duty’s hopelessly outdated
The vacuum left yawns black in our midst
Go forth, oh loyal ones, go forth and strike
The traitors holding back; the serpentlike
XI.9
Now put the killjoy’s head up on a pike
Who wants to hear those tiring tales of doom?
We heard it all, we know their tedious like
But what we need is to dispel the gloom
A crime it is, to ruin folks’ high spirits
And if it isn’t one we’ll make it one
Who gives a darn ‘bout what their logic posits
Just trust your guts when all is said and done
What insolence, what cravenness to question
Our way of life; they’ll learn to hold their tongue
We’ll teach the eggheads all about discretion
Adangle, from the nearest lamppost hung
Now go! Give chase to craved normality
Down twilight pit of unreality
XI.10
Survival’s but an externality
To what is ours and what we always knew
To single absolute priority
To more, yet more, of all that gleams accrue
So find some other dolt to bear your guilt
You won’t see us give up the hard-earned gains
That which our dead and buried fathers built
The hopes infused in our children’s veins
We stood in line, we toiled, we fought so hard
We didn’t tow our hist’ry all this way
To find the passage to the kingdom barred
We’ll claim our right, what we deserve, today
Just like the hornet writhing on its spike
Deserved its fate, hung skewered by the shrike
About The Author
A software engineer by trade, Daniel Ståhl splits his time between software development, research, teaching, writing and being the father of two.
Daniel has previously published both fiction and non-fiction, with his latest forays as an author delving into strictly metered poetry. His latest book, Requiem, came into being in the intersection between the rhythmic cadence of sonnets and his despair at the sanguine apathy with which the human species approaches the prospect of its own extinction – with all of its implications for his children.
Daniel received his MSc degree from Linköping University, Sweden, and his PhD degree from the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
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