The book – Letters To Myself
The cover blurb …
These sketches of urban life are raw, physical and full of the juicy rhymes of rap English. They come from a nightclub bouncer turned philosophiser, whose towering frame is now slightly stooped as he leans on his gold-topped cane and reflects on scenes in Soho, the Old Kent Road and Brixton.
Clublife (Nostalgia and Pugilist) and early training – learning the Boston Crab from his cousin Lance give way to romantic and other spicy interludes, like Is Tania on Today? ("Hello John, what do you fancy?"). Doubts about race and identity (They Said ... and Chocolate Cockney) are offset by a mellower, more upbeat tone in Charged, Ointment and Music Leader, and the heartfelt affection voiced in Cuba and Africa.
Ha, Spirit's weapons of choice are no longer the left hook and big hand in your face; they're, like he says, a packet of biros, a working journal and a computer terminal. Sure, his words will make you smile, but this "Writing as cathartic remedy" (Dr Pen) has quite a few barbs in the balm: "just remember, my choice of expletives can psychologically dismember". So read on, and watch yourself.. ..
Letters To My Self – A book of poetry and short stories
Ha, Spirit's "Letters to "Myself', is a literary publication of highly original creative writing, which is, both unique and expressive, and touches the intellect and psyche of the reader in a variety of ways, thought provocation being just one of them.
He possesses an ability to arouse your feelings and at times shock your sensibilities with the palpability of his words, as he tells it like it is, and dilutes nothing, all his powerful emotions are laid bare on every page, it is simply strong stuff, think you can handle it?
Review of Letters to Myself by Ha, Spirit
"Some books you like to have within easy reach, they’re economical, well written and to the point. They're compact, concise and thought provoking. They serve you. You can consult them, as you would an insightful adviser because they’re reliable, capable of dispensing (in the right measure) the wit and wisdom you’ll find yourself in search of. They are full of life, a distillation of experience over time. They are helpful, not in the way of “how to’s”, more in the way of “how you’s”, somehow assisting by placing the every day hills and valleys into perspective.
Letters to Myself, is one of these books.
It comprises a series of short (one pager) poems, essays and stories that together form a loose knit memoir that has through the sum of its parts the clarity, tenderness, pronounced force, and imaginative energy to inform, entertain and move emotionally.
There’s something eternally familiar in these pieces of work. Fire opens with the line ‘I’m not afraid to live and I’m not afraid to die, so if you’re thinking of killing me, go ahead and try'.
The author (alias Ha, Spirit) describes himself as a forty-something-year-old Londoner of Caribbean descent but there’s more than four decades of weight behind these texts. ‘I call it a 'group soul mentality', emanating from the evolutionary beginnings of my ancestral family…’, a line from DNA.
The authority of these words, at times, is substantial, speaking in a voice that might once have been carved in tablets of stone. It isn’t reverential or reserved, confounding with depth of prose either, there’s a contemporary ‘liteness’ that sounds the past and resounds today.
In short, there’s no second guessing. No stereo-typing. This is a genuine original. Of course, it has some shade (some works are almost too short to register) as well as light. Still, I’d recommend it, for anyone seeking a concise literary life companion, to assist them in making sense of their own life and times." – The Editor, www.unheardwords.com |
