Teaser Tuesday - March 11

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Incidentally he gave me to understand that Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. 'There was the making of an immense success,' said the man, who was an organist, I believe, with lank gray hair flowing over a greasy coat-collar.

Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness - I've never read this before and wanted to after reading Anne Patchett's State of Wonder about a similar journey into the interior. I found it difficult to get into the Conrad, there's so much that's allusive and interior in it, I think I'll have to reread when I'm paying more attention!
That is a totally random choice of sentences but when I read them I was reminded of Albert Schweitzer another westerner and great musician (organist), theologian.. who lived in Africa for many years.

An African Elegy

We are the miracles that God made
To taste the bitter fruit of Time.
We are precious.
And one day our suffering
Will turn into the wonders of the earth.

There are things that burn me now
Which turn golden when I am happy.
Do you see the mystery of our pain?
That we bear the poverty
And are able to sing and dream sweet things.

And that we never curse the air when it is warm
Or the fruit when it tastes so good
Or the lights that bounce gently on the waters?
We bless the things even in our pain.
We bless them in silence.

That is why our music is so sweet.
It makes the air remember.
There are secret miracles at work
That only Time will bring forth.
I too have heard the dead singing.

And they tell me that
This life is good
They tell me to live it gently
With fire, and always with hope.
There is wonder here

And there is surprise
In everything the unseen moves.
The ocean is full of songs.
The sky is not an enemy.
Destiny is our friend.

Ben Okri

A clipped out copy of this poem has been around my work room for a few years, I found an electronic copy here together with other examples of his work.

Teaser Tuesday - 24 May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I did know that sex was bad. Sometimes in the evenings, when I tramped with Ma through the neighborhood searching for Mahad, listeniong to her never ending complaints about the foul odor of sukumawiki, we came across people making out in alleyways.

(sukumawiki - clearly the smells of cooking). A no-nonense teaser and a no-nonsense book - Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel my life growing up in a tradition Muslim environment in Somalia and all that happened afterwards - our book group book of the month.

A Space for Hope

Rowan Williams and particularly Patricia Sawo on World AIDS day.