Sunday, June 28, 2020

PERFORATION

I watch a flickering screen
On a black and white television,
Where the channel features
Only repeat programs
That are scratchy re-runs
Of malignant memories,
Somehow rearranged
On a zany timeline
As flashes of inconsequence
And ferocious fabricators
Of everlasting shame
And ruinous guilt.
Even the ordinary tilt
Of everyday life
Comes tainted in weird ways
By stains invariably ascribed
To well-intentioned actions
Or innocent negligence,
Bringing an unceasing sense
Of culpability for hurts inflicted,
And ripping open a scar
Of forlorn humiliation.
At the end there is anxiety.
It is time to panic
When I realise that all I am
Is a victim of a theft
Of pride in endeavours.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

AND THE PIPER PLAYED THE TUNE

‘And the Piper Played the Tune’ can be purchased at Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, Smashwords, Booktopia, Fishpond and a range of other online retailers.  Paperback and eBook versions are available.

Two exiled princes, one a gifted musician and the other an invincible warrior, leave their hard-hearted father’s prosperous realm and travel to a world of wonder outside the conventional boundaries of time and place.  They encounter hermits with magical powers, a capricious sea ogress, an alluring mermaid, patriotic princesses, wily astrologers, scheming courtiers, brutal pirates, and remarkable animals.  Both princes are eventually presented with opportunities to become rulers of foreign lands threatened with invasion by warlike neighbouring principalities.

The central storyline of ‘And the Piper Played the Tune’ is not a new one.  It follows closely many aspects of Sunthorn Phu’s epic poem about the exploits of Phra Aphai Mani – a masterpiece that occupies a prominent place in the pantheon of Thai literature.  Sunthorn Phu’s poem blends realistic incidents and events driven by unnatural forces, frequently in the context of hazardous sea voyages.  Accordingly, the saga of Phra Aphai Mani has often been compared to Homer’s Odyssey.  ‘And the Piper Played the Tune’ is David Morisset’s respectful attempt to make Sunthorn Phu’s epic more widely known among English-speaking readers.