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Review by Dr. Santosh Kumar, Allahabad, India (reprinted from Taj Mahal Review, June 2007 issue): "Rapture: endings of space and time" by Adam Donaldson Powell, Cyberwit.net, India, 2007, pp. 86 $ 15 Paperback, ISBN: 978-81-8253-082-9.
The publication of Adam Donaldson Powell’s Rapture: endings of space and time is remarkable for revealing his varied talents: poems, photography and literary criticism. Powell’s celestial inspiration concentrates itself on transmuting “physicality / into crystalline light” (“Ascension”), his passionate quest for “Great Compassion” will be accomplished only when the whole world experiences “vibration” and listens to the words of the poet. Powell is quite aware of the bitter reality of the contemporary world:
have sadly learned to expect
the relentless ravages of
war and emotional famine
brought on by the
rider on the red horse,
and the pestilence in the
saddlebags of the black steed.
(“The Fourth Horseman”, p. 18)
The globalisation of
indiscriminate violence
is multiplied to
the power of the sixes,
and the Antichrist
smiles broadly at
the cancerous spreading
of fear and perdition –
rationalized by armies of
self-proclaimed truth.
(“The Tribulation”, p. 19)
The modern turbulence and murderous frenzy will surely result in wild agony, if
“messengers / of love and compassion / no longer dare to / speak out”.
In his poems about Nepal, Powell’s mystical energies or wavebands are inspired by the Buddhist Mantra: “OM VAJRAPAANI HUUM .. OM VAJRAPAANI HUUM ..”. Powell actualizes the transformed soul of goodness faithfully:
"And finally we give birth to the God within ..
without reservation; and in generous libation."
(“At the Buddhist Temple”, p. 31)
Powell knows very well like Blake that “the ruins of time build mansions in eternity.” His search of utopia takes him to Nepal for mystical exercises of oriental sects.
Such poems transport us as well as the poet to a dreamworld of “vision and hallucination”. They exercise a secret magnetism on our innermost soul extracting from Buddhism its most harmonious and subtle Mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum”. “Buddha Trance” is a vivid comment on the Life in Nepal where the poet finds “The exoticism of spirituality /
Blended with indigenous capitalism”.
Powell’s Rapture: endings of space and time also includes most lively, vivid photographs from Nepal, and critical essays on the poetry of Jan Oskar Hansen, Albert Russo and Fernando Rodríguez. Rapture: endings of space and time makes it apparent that Powell has been and is a major writer of this age.
- Reviewed by Santosh Kumar.
ENGLISH REVIEW BY MARÍA CRISTINA AZCONA, ARGENTINA:
Powell is a multifaceted creator whose poems are enriched not only by his capability in literary meanings, but also by his deep sensibility towards human problems, nowadays society illness, joined to his bright talent for visual arts. He has the privileged neuron that allows him to play with his own sense of aesthetics, as it was a child's game. While reading his amusing poetry, we find ourselves observing reality from his point of view. These poems, from his book “Collected Poems and Stories”, which he is presenting to Argentine public for the first time, may be separated into two kinds or groups, to be analyzed and commented. The First group is conformed by poems that are similar to a modern, abstract painting, like he does in “Green” where a mystery hides under multiple images, colors and concepts. This mystery is revealed in the final verse. The second group, which includes among others, The Devil, Before the death of my love, Imagine and The Prudent Cognoscente, presents us, at first sight, with techniques coming from the Short Story like the abrupt and unexpected ending full of an omnipresent irony. In the second reading, both groups always present a philosophical content and customary social criticism whose depth leads us to philosophical thoughts about the meaning of existence. Powell’s work contains ironic humor, sharp criticism, the clear idea and at the same time the divertimento of a short story. The poetry manages, in its mischief, to capture the grotesque of this era, giving to our poetic palate a delicacy more than a simple aesthetic pleasure. The truth in an envelope of surprising originality: art, beauty that is nothing other than authentic poetry. It reminds me of Ezra Pound’s realistic style and, from Spain, Francisco de Quevedo´s conceptual poetry. The most beautiful piece, in my understanding, is “The Devil” in which the poet speaks to us, the readers: he orders us, he calls our attention, he presents us with the devil that exists, that is so dangerous and terrifying. The poet frightens us with the Devil playing “To hide and to find” games, petrifying us with its threatening and unknown presence. Powell creates a climate of fear normally found in a tale of horror. In a magisterial synthesis, he makes an impressive ending when he finally finds that devil in ourselves, shocking us and forcing us to recognize the wickedness that lives and hides in our human hearts. Here the poet creates a personage, the Devil, that no longer is the famous one but is a real, present phantom, humanized, possible and burning, like the fire of malice in daily life. Originality is a constant in Powell’s poems, a surprising and multifaceted artist who amazes us with his music, his paintings, his poems, his humor .. and always with his genius. He communicates of himself in so many ways and he revives in us thousands of kaleidoscopic images, then finally he gives himself the final luxury of creating a perfect and synthetic pearl of terror, humor, beauty, social criticism, universality and creativity in a pure state as he does magisterially in the DEVIL.
María Cristina Azcona has recently published a new collection of poems entitled Window to Heaven.
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Comentario de los poemas de Adam Powell que se presentaban en la sede de CADDAN, Buenos Aires, el 14 de Setiembre de 2005: Powell es un creador multifacético cuyos poemas son enriquecidos, no sólo por su brillante habilidad para elaborar significados literarios, sino también por su sensibilidad profunda hacia los problemas humanos y enfermedades de la sociedad actual, unido a su acabado talento en torno a las artes visuales. Él tiene la neurona privilegiada que le permite jugar con su propio sentido estético, como si fuera un niño. Al leer su entretenida poesía, nos encontramos a nosotros mismos observando la realidad desde su particular punto de vista. Estos poemas, de su libro “Colección de Poemas y Cuentos”, que él presenta al público argentino por vez primera, se pueden separar en dos clases o grupos, para ser analizados y para ser comentados. El Primer grupo está conformado por los poemas que son semejantes a una pintura abstracta, moderna, como él hace en “Verde” donde un misterio se esconde bajo imágenes múltiples, colores y conceptos. Este misterio se revela en el verso final. El segundo grupo, que incluye por ejemplo a El Diablo, Tal vez, Antes de la muerte de mi amor, Imagina, Mujer Araña y La Prudente Cognoscente, nos presenta en la primera lectura, un formato en base a técnicas propias del cuento breve, como el final brusco e inesperado no carente de ironía. En la segunda lectura, ambos grupos presentan siempre un contenido filosófico y de crítica social de costumbres a la luz de un humanismo idealista y casi utópico. La poesía de Powell es poesía social y, como tal, nos muestra la vida actual en toda su fea realidad, desde el humor irónico, la crítica aguda, la idea clara y el devenir de un cuento ameno. La astucia del poema logra englobar el hecho y capturar su imagen caricaturesca dándole a nuestro paladar poético un manjar que nos otorga ya no un puro placer estético sino la verdad en el mejor de los estuches: el arte, la belleza que no es otra cosa que auténtica poesía. El poema, a mi entender, más logrado es “El Diablo” en el cual el poeta nos habla a nosotros, los lectores, nos ordena, nos advierte, nos llama la atención, nos previene de ese demonio que existe, que es peligroso. El poeta nos asusta con el Diablo jugando a las escondidas, aterrorizándonos con su presencia ignota y amenazante. Crea el clima de terror de un cuento breve de ese género. En una síntesis magistral, da un final impresionante al detectar ese demonio en nosotros mismos, obligándonos a reconocer la maldad que se agita y se esconde en nuestro corazón humano. Aquí el poeta crea un personaje que ya no es el famoso demonio sino que es un diablo actual, real, humanizado, posible y candente, como el fuego de su maldad hecha realidad cotidiana. La originalidad es la constante en la poesía de Powell, un artista versátil y sorprendente capaz de maravillarnos hoy con su música, mañana con sus cuadros, ora con sus poemas, de pronto con su humor y siempre con su genialidad viva, que se comunica de mil formas y revive en miles de imágenes caleidoscópicas ... Para darse el lujo final de crear una perla sintética y perfecta de terror, humor, belleza, fondo social, universalidad de valores y creatividad en estado puro como Diablo. (Por María Cristina Azcona, Buenos Aires.)
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Adam Donaldson Powell’s Collected Poems and Stories contains a number of outstanding poems having “exquisite variety and varied exquisiteness”. In this collection, Powell reveals an incomparable craftsmanship proved by his classifying the poems into four different cycles: Poetry Cycle 1 where the poet discovers the Magical Tarot through verse, Poetry Cycle 2 is an admirable and genuine effort of composing short stories through verse, Poetry Cycle 3 is emphatically about the Cretan myths, and in the final Cycle 4 though subtitled “Notes of a Madman”, we find no trace of any kind of sensationalism. Powell’s poem “Adjustment” is very thoughtful and penetrative. The poet is well aware of “The impartial Lords of Karma”, and the path of virtue is not a bed of roses: Over the heads of the righteous Hovers the pendulous blade of The Daughter of the Flaming Sword (p. 17) “The Hanged Man” is characterized by a spiritual quest: But he who sublimates Himself to the Divine Plan Recycles the elements to the Accompaniment of Spirit. (p. 21) This yearning leads the poet to invoke “Energy of the Divine”, and the source of this energy is present only in “the gaseous, primal roots of \ The flaming triangle” (“Suit of Wands”). Powell calls “the wise journeyman” “to heed celestial warnings” (“Suit of Disks”). The poet is in quest of “divine light beamed from \ The eternal flames of the sun” (“The Sun”), “spiritual rebirth”, “the eternal vibrations of the Source” (“The Aeon”). He is aspiring “toward that which \ Must be accepted on faith alone” (Notes of a Madman”). The most notable element in Powell’s poetry is his passion and hunger for eternity. Even in those poems where he is reconstructing the Cretan myths, we find “the yearning of \ The soul for individual expression” (“Prologue1”). The poet emphasizes that “Treasures of Self-discovery” will be revealed only to the “passionate” souls. Powell’s “pursuit of divine retribution” is based on “faith alone” (“Notes of a Madman” ). The “glimpse of the Unknown” is made possible only by “discovery of self” (“Mirror of Darkness”). There is in Powell the keenest sense of uniting “the Serpent” “with the Regenerative Spirit” (“The Eye of the Triangle”). Powell’s poetry has a marvelous quality of submitting itself persistently and unflinchingly to the “Valley of Soul making”. Powell’s Collected Poems and Stories also includes two wonderful stories of horror-“Useless Occupation” and “What Jonny dug up”. The book is dedicated to the memory of Tor Vågli (1949-2004) and the countless Asian tsunami victims of 2004. (Review by Santosh Kumar. Dr. Santosh Kumar (b. 1946) is a poet, short-story writer and an editor from UP India; Head of the English Department in A.D. College, Allahabad; D.Phil in English; several awards; poems published in many anthologies; awarded for writing an epic The Fire and The Garden: An Exploration of Beauty in three volumes; Chief Editor of an international literary journal Taj Mahal Review. He has also edited twelve World Poetry Anthologies, and three books of World’s Great Short Stories. He is also the author of two new collections of poems entitled "Helicon" and "New Utopia".)
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RAPTURE: endings of space and time.
Poetry, photography and literary criticism by Adam Donaldson Powell. 86 pages. Published by Cyberwit, India, 2007. ISBN 978-81-8253-083-6.
PREFACE: by Albert Russo, France.
(regarding "Rapture: endings of space and time.")
In this book, you will be able to appreciate three of Adam Donaldson Powell’s many talents: that of the poet, the photographer and the essayist. Not only does Powell write beautifully in three languages, English, Spanish and Norwegian (this, I have been told, but here, I cannot judge, since I do not speak the language), but he is also an accomplished painter and a musician. As I have written before, elsewhere, I admire Powell the Renaissance man, Powell the Peace artist, the poet whose verse has a classical beauty which can never be out of fashion, inasmuch as it reflects our harsh and unstable world in which the clash of civilizations has become a terrifying reality, and yet in spite of the dangers, he continues to reach out and absorbs the riches and the variety he discovers in other cultures. In the present case he takes us to the heart of Nepal.
I would invite you to whisper these lines facing yourself in a looking glass:
There is nothing more beautiful
And yet so sorrowful as
A man’s tears over humiliation
And loss, cradled in the bosom
Of a woman.
Uncontrollable sobbing --
A torrential rainfall
Recalling a wilderness
Landscape unashamedly seeking
Refuge from gushing winds
And rapids, thunder and lightning
Against a purple, grey and orange
Sky – in betrayal of a lifetime of
Emotional constipation and
Affections of masculinity.
(this is from: PAVANE: un poème pour la fin des temps.)
then, read this, somewhat louder, in a chanting manner:
The words of the poet savant are forever imprinted
upon my palms, forehead and heart – as clearly as the
unmistakable image of the great bodhisattva Kuan Yin.
The secret of the veil behind the veil is encoded
in the diamond; for while there are many ways to
enlightenment the highest wisdom is attained through
the Great Compassion, and self-realization is the only
homecoming recognized by the disciples of Vajrayana.
(this is from the poem: AT THE BUDDHIST TEMPLE.)
Powell is a magnificent guide of the human soul. The voyage you embark on with him can be likened, metaphorically, that is, to Jules Verne's 'Voyage to the centre of the earth', only here, it is to the centre of one's being, that he brings us to.
His photos portray the Buddha and the temples dedicated to him in the most vivid and joyous colours. There are also breathtaking landscapes that remind us of how fragile we earth dwellers are and how humble and respectful we ought to be of our environment, instead of waging wars against our brethren and depleting our natural resources so shamelessly.
As for Powell's essays - I'd be presumptuous to discuss his review of one of my books - they could adorn the literary pages of The New York Times.
'Rapture: endings of space and time' is a jewel of a book, which I invite you to savour in the quiet of your bedroom, or in front of the hearth, when everyone has gone to sleep. You will want to come back to it again and again.
- Albert Russo
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