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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Book Tour & Giveaway ~ Requiem - In Memory of All That Should Have Been by Daniel Stahl

 



Poetry

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Where trust and duty’s hopelessly outdated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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