(Above photo courtesy of BLIKK, NORWAY.)
1) Read Bhuwan Thapaliya’s review of my poetry at: A multilingual genius from Norway.
2) 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.
3) 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.
Spanish review by María Cristina Azcona, Argentina
4) 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.)
Review by Dr. Santosh Kumar, India
5) 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”.
Albert Russo’s preface to “Rapture: endings of space and time.”
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.
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
Comments on “2014”, by Dr. Santosh Kumar
7) 2014: the life and adventures of an incarnated angel by Adam Donaldson Powell, reveals Powell’s creative power at its highest. It is full of a depth of philosophy and sublime vibrations of conscience, the irresistible desire for ‘Eternal cities of Universal light’. Like the wind purifying the woods, Powell in this extraordinary book persistently writes with spiritual and mystical gusto. Powell is a very great literary genius directed towards reviving our soul state.
— Santosh Kumar
REVIEWS OF GAYTUDE:
GAYTUDE IS THE 2009 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER FOR THE CATEGORY GAY/LESBIAN NONFICTION!
GAYTUDE: Critical Analysis by Dr. Santosh Kumar, India.
A review of “GAYTUDE: a poetic journey around the world / Tour du monde poétique”,
bilingual poetry by Albert Russo and Adam Donaldson Powell – Xlibris 2009, 335 pages.
Book orders – 888.795.4274 -Orders@xlibris.com
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4363-6395-2 – $22.99
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4363-6396-9 – $32.99
Library of Congress Number: 2008907964
Albert Russo and Adam Donaldson Powell’s Gaytude, a poetic journey around the world, makes it evident that the gay poems always have a distinctive voice, because a gay poet suffers from a sense of ostracism, of being excluded by others due to difference. The tradition of celebrating Platonic friendship with a boy has always been there in world poetry. Gay poetry from Sappho to Michelangelo has always idealized the homoerotic world. Catullus (ca. 84-54) loved sex with young men.
Shakespeare’s sonnets have been described as gay sonnets by several critics. It is well known that Derek Jarman’s film The Angelic Conversation (1985) shows gay elements in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Lord Alfred Douglas’s gay poems appeared in 1896 in English and French translations. In the twentieth century two great poets: W..H. Auden and Ginsberg wrote gay poems. The publication of The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse (1983) reveals its popularity and marketing needs. It is difficult to agree with the critics who condemn Whitman’s gay poetry. The Boston Intelligencer declared that Whitman deserved no better reward than the lash for vulgarity and violation of decency. “Both Whitman’s Leaves and Emerson’s laudation had a common origin in temporary insanity” (Bucke 201). “Walt Whitman is as unacquainted with art as a hog with mathematics” (Canby 327). One should never forget that according to several biographers Whitman did not engage in sexual relations with men.
It is true that a poet’s gay identity does not quite fit into the traditional morality of the world. This is the main reason behind vituperative hostility towards homoeroticism and gay-themed poems. But one may remember Nietzsche’s assertion that sexuality extends up to the very pinnacle of the soul. The queerness of Russo and Powell both to stand at a different angle to the universe, their desire for an outsider image, and a subversive quality enticing them to overthrow conventions makes Gaytude a classic. Taboo creates its own power and energy in a creative work like Gaytude. This is also true about other gay writers such as Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop and James Merrill. Russo is a great poet with a passionate impulse, and he expresses it with a natural intensity devoid of any kind of laborious artistry:
I shall spoil you as no lover
Ever has or will
(SURPRISE PARTY, 35).
As we made love
Our bodies were on fire
You were insatiable
I was submissive
(ONE-NIGHT STAND, 102)
Russo does not hanker after limited joy but rather for the illimitable in the loveliness of the human body. Due to his ardor, he bursts with joy:
Our bodies commingle
In a Pacific splash of ecstasy
(UNDERCURRENTS, 42).
Russo tries to forget the stern realities of life, and his idealized love seems to be the only permanent reality for him on the altar of passion, he has chosen to “fall off the cliff” although there are several obstructions:
There’s his age, you see
And there’s my career, too
Then there’s that awesome responsibility
Towards my class
Towards society
And I am highly respected by my peers
Yet, my attraction to him is gravitational
One of these days,
I shall fall off the cliff
NO TRESPASSING, 51
The above lines are a testimony to the fact that Russo arrives at the complexity by accumulating a number of concrete images interfering with his fantasy, and this fantasy is intensified in the last line revealing the utmost limits of passion, not obliterated by the terrestrial impediments. Russo’s poems in Gaytude are marked by a tremendous burst of creativity.
Adam Donaldson Powell’s poems reveal that the poet’s mind and imagination are fused with the white heat of ardor. He is obsessed with “two moths / Playing with fire” (BLADE, 24). In his poem IDENTITY, Powell expresses his desire “to be loved, and looked up to”. He seems to be in the quest for the sumum bonum of life, that immortal instant and great moment which will unravel his identity. With quiet determination, Powell declares:
I want a real lover …
Like Arthur Rimbaud…or Jean Genet
And I want him now
PUNK, 61
Powell shows such a deep and lofty feeling as to be “in love with love” (STILL HORNY, 153). This is the state of the lover as Powell depicts it. Apart from love, nothing else in life is significant. Such is the consecrated passion of the poet that he is able to write with such ecstatic outbursts:
Creamy overcast skies,
Thick as yoghurt,
Remind me of
You…and me …
CREAMY OVERCAST SKIES 154
Setting the ‘real’ world at nought, Powell decides to thrive on the diet of surrealism by
the technique of ‘transference’:
‘Real’ briefly becomes surreal,
Through transference
INSTANT RECALL 88
In another poem, Powell expresses his inner heart in reacting against monstrous mechanization. The present climate is not in favour of rich heritage. “Individual isolation in an / Out-of-control jungle” (149) is the sordid gift of modern heritage marked by “Wars, / Lies, /Plastic reality-show idols, Virus, / Global warming, /Uncertainty, /And all too easy access to drugs” (HERITAGE? RIGHT! 149).
The poems by Russo and Powell are marked by outsiderhood, the sense of being different from a fashionable or ‘straight’ mode of writing. Walter Pater aptly comments that in the poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti the dream-land with its phantoms of the body, deftly coming and going on love’s service, is to him, in no mere fancy or figure of speech, a real country, a veritable expansion or addition to our waking life (Pater 223). This comment is fully applicable to the poems in Gaytude by Russo and Powell. Gaytude, bilingual poetry at its best, written, translated and adapted by Russo and Powell, also includes wonderful photographs by Russo. Several poems of Russo included in Gaytude were first published in the poet’s own French version in the collection Tour du monde de la poesie gay (2005). The poems in English, Italian and Spanish have been translated and adapted into French by Russo. The poems in French have been translated and adapted by both Russo and Powell.
Works Cited
Russo, Albert & Adam Donaldson Powell, Gaytude. Xlibris Corporation, 2009.
Pater, Walter. Appreciations. London: Macmillan, 1931.
Bucke, R. M. Walt Whitman, Philadelphia, McRay,1883.
Canby, H. S. Walt Whitman, N. Y. Literary Classics, 1943.
GAYTUDE: Review by Rainbow Reviews, 2009.
Rainbow Reviews (USA) has reviewed “GAYTUDE” on their website. Quotes from that review and a link to the review in its entirety follow:
QUOTES:
The authors are two very accomplished writers who tackle a wide variety of subjects and themes that affect gay men with surprising depth and meaning. These topics will hit home especially for like-minded individuals but anyone with compassion will understand the beauty and heartache these issues bring to mind.
Russo’s creativity is unquestionable as he spans numerous taboo subjects and makes no apologies for his desires or sensuality.
Blending well is Powell’s poetry, which has elegance to the words and gives weight to each one, seeming as if nothing is wasted. Not a thought, an idea or a desire is anything more than necessary as he speaks of a love he yearns for.
from: Rainbow Reviews, 2009.
Gaytude, a poetic journey around the world / Tour du monde poétique
a bilingual book by Albert Russo & Adam Donaldson Powell
Xlibris, 2009 – 334 pages
order website: Gaytude orders
Trade Paperback $19.54
Trade Hardback $ 29.69
ISBN: 1-4363-6395-0 (Trade Paperback 6×9)
ISBN13: 978-1-4363-6395-2 (Trade Paperback 6×9)
ISBN: 1-4363-6396-9 (Trade Hardback 6×9)
ISBN13: 978-1-4363-6396-9 (Trade Hardback 6×9)
WORLDWIDE REVIEWS OF “THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME”.
The tunnel at the end of time, an extreme science fiction novel by Adam Donaldson Powell (Norway) and Rick Davis (USA), and with a poetic foreward by Azsacra Zarathustra and Adam Donaldson Powell, has been released by Cyberwit.net
Order your copy now from: CYBERWIT.NET!
You can also order the book from: Amazon.com
See Cyberwit’s main website page and TAJ MAHAL REVIEW for other exciting publications.
Both “The tunnel at the end of time” and “2014: the life and adventures of an incarnated angel” may be downloaded as Amazon ebooks as well.
Here are some of the international reviews of the book:
Review (in French) by Eric Tessier, France:
The Tunnel at the end of time. Adam D. Powell, Rick Davis, Azsacra Zarathustra.
La chose est étonnante : voici un roman de science fiction qui raconte l’affrontement entre deux conceptions du monde dont certains des protagonistes principaux sont des anges. Oui, des anges, des vrais avec des ailes – et même si ceux-là sont sexués, cela n’influe en rien sur leur condition. Bien sûr, ils sont du côté du Bien mais, bâtis sur le modèle de l’archange Saint-Michel terrassant le dragon, ce sont des guerriers, qui n’hésitent pas à recourir à la violence quand elle est nécessaire.
Rappelons que l’archange Saint-Michel est le prince des anges, chef de la milice céleste, défenseur de la foi. Le dragon, ici, s’appelle Niall, dit The One, qui cherche à rétablir la domination du Nouvel Ordre Mondial que la Fédération Intergalactique a neutralisé – un Nouvel Ordre Mondial fondé sur la cupidité, la confiscation des richesses au profit de quelques-uns, le contrôle des masses par tous les moyens possibles et dans chacun des aspects de leur vie quotidienne. Un ordre mondial qui ressemble furieusement à notre présent. Je n’en dévoilerai pas plus de l’histoire pour ne pas écorner le plaisir qu’il y a à lire ce livre où les rebondissements abondent.
L’une des réussites de ce roman tient à ce que, de bout en bout, on y croit. C’est un élément important en matière de littérature. La crédibilité est primordiale et n’a rien à voir avec le réalisme. C’est un équilibre délicat qui fait qu’un HP Lovecraft parvient à nous faire dresser les cheveux sur la tête de terreur, alors qu’on nage en plein onirisme. Au contraire de certains romans noirs qui, bien que censés décrire la banalité de tous les jours, ne nous font pas même lever un sourcil et nous semblent artificiels. Cet équilibre est ici présent et ce qui, chez le premier tâcheron venu, apparaîtrait comme farfelu, voire ridicule, fonctionne à merveille. Les anges sont des personnages dont l’existence n’a rien d’extraordinaire dans le monde où ils se meuvent. Pourquoi donc douter d’eux ? D’entrée de jeu, ils sont là, à la fois héroïques, dotés de pouvoirs extra humains (ils volent), et proches de nous (ils ont des sentiments, de l’humour et font l’amour).
Le style est incisif, rapide, prenant. On est happé par l’histoire qui ne vous lâche plus. On notera une très belle introduction (un rêve de Ga, le personnage principal), d’une grande force poétique. Et puis, ce qui ne gâche rien, l’humour est aussi présent tout au long du texte, par petites touches d’une grande finesse. Sans compter les clins d’oeil, comme celui aux Trois mousquetaires d’Alexandre Dumas : Un pour tous, tous pour un.
En résumé, un beau roman de SF et d’aventure très fortement recommandé.
Eric Tessier
(an English translation by Adam Donaldson Powell):
The Tunnel at the End of Time. Adam D. Powell, Rick Davis, AZsacra Zarathustra.
The amazing thing is: this is a science fiction novel that tells the confrontation between two world views of some key players are angels. Yes, angels, real ones with wings – even if these are gendered, this does not affect their condition. Of course they are on the side of good, but built on the model of the archangel St. Michael slaying the dragon, they are warriors, who do not hesitate to resort to violence when it is needed. Recall that the archangel St. Michael is the prince of angels, head of the heavenly host, defender of the faith.
The dragon here is called Niall says The One, which seeks to restore the dominance of the New World Order that the Intergalactic Federation offset – a new world order based on greed, the confiscation of wealth for the benefit of some , control the masses by all possible means and in every aspect of their daily lives. A world order that closely resembles our present. I did not unveil more of the story not to dent the pleasure it is to read this book where surprises abound.
One of the achievements of this novel is that, from beginning to end, they believe. This is important in literature. Credibility is paramount and has nothing to do with realism. It’s a delicate balance that makes a HP Lovecraft makes us draw the hair on the heads of terror, then we swam in the very dreamlike. Unlike some thrillers which, although intended to describe the banality of everyday, we do not even raise an eyebrow and we seem artificial. This balance is here and what in the first hack came, would appear far-fetched, even ridiculous, works perfectly. Angels are characters whose existence is nothing extraordinary in the world where they move. Why doubt them? From the outset, they are there, both heroic, with extra powers of humans (they fly), and close to us (they have feelings, humor and make love).
The style is incisive, fast taking. One is struck by the story that you let go. Note a very nice introduction (a dream of Ga, the main character), a great poetic force. And that does not spoil anything, the humor is also present throughout the text, with small touches of finesse. Besides the winks, like the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: One for all and all for one.
In summary, a good SF novel of adventure and highly recommended.
Eric Tessier
Comments by Dr. Santosh Kumar regarding the poetic introduction to «The tunnel at the end of time».
These comments are excerpted from Dr. Santosh Kumar’s book:
Adam Donaldson Powell: the Making of a Poet,
Cyberwit.net, 2010
Powell’s great interest in spiritual alchemy and extra-sensory world inspired him to write THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME (Feb. 2010) in collaboration with Rick Davis, the follow-up novella to “2014: the life and adventures of an incarnated angel”. The foreward, TRANSFORMA UND VREBATIMA is an epic poem, written by Azsacra Zarathustra (Russia) and Adam Donaldson Powell (Norway), primarily in English and Russian.
It explores tensions between the USA and Russia from a post-Apocalyptic perspective. Powell’s individuality is emphasized by the following lines.
Powell is right in pointing out that The End of Times or “The Armageddon” was inevitable. The moral earnestness of Powell and Azsacra is evident in pointing out the diseases of the society. Powell asks the Terrans “What have you done?” Perhaps the most extraordinary lines are the following:
Lost in meditations upon finances
and power, you lost sight of the
greatest wealth you owned.
And you crowded only a few
humanoids onto your hastily-built
arks when the floods and dis-ease
ravaged so mercilessly.
Some called it the work of
the antichrist, but the antichrist
was humanity itself: which
had been too long on the rampage
of greed and apathy and imbalance.
You raped and you raped;
and defiled both humanity and
nature.
(4-5)
This is no childish complaint; it is a balanced analysis, and a very important clue to what is wrong with the Terrans. I suppose it is true to say that the dominant idea of Powell and Azsacra Zarathustra is Man is a predator out-of-control; / a soul-virus and a threat .”After this line, image after image is evoked by Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra to reveal moments of amazed vision: death of The Fair Eagle of Severe Spirituality, new vision rising from the ashes,as the Phoenix, The Mystery of Creatures waking even God up, Buddha’s ejaculation into His own Skull!, yearning for bringing back the Age of the Guru and the Prophets, the elixir of Nothingness and meaning in the Nothingness, our personal gods like money, power, greed and the threat of missiles and sex, finding new enemies in outer space. What is the solution to this horrible phase of disintegration? Powell and Azsacra Zarathustra have reflected deeply
on this question. The answer to unparalleled contemporary brutality is not “divine intervention”. The key lies in the following most powerful poetry by Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra:
Stop waiting for Divine Intervention.
Become the Divine Intervention.
Let it be your zazen.
(32)
In other words, we ourself will have to be an instrument for Divine intervention. The unfailing conviction of Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra is that both Christ and anti-Christ are inside us:
I no longer believe in the messiah …
or in the antichrist.
I see both in my own reflection
in the mirror of darkness
(ibid)
As the poem moves into the prophetic arena, we find the superpowers deceiving the ignorant Earth:
distracting the masses from the real danger:
the sweet-sounding lies that soothe and abet.
No doubt, Transforma and Verbatima is a meditation on an utopia with rich and timeless. treasures. Both Powell and Azsacra with their transcendental vision show their aspiration to move from spiritual barrenness to hope for human salvation, inspired by Dante’s Purgatorio.
“There is no doubt that Powell, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, and Delmore Schwartz are the most talented American poets of the modern age.” — Dr. Santosh Kumar, Allahabad University, 2010, from his upcoming book entitled: Adam Donaldson Powell: the making of a poet.
REVIEW BY DR. ISAGANI R. CRUZ, THE PHILIPPINES:
The Tunnel at the End of Time is a masterful symphony of languages, religions, cultures, and literary techniques, all journeying to one inevitable destination: the individual wrestling with self. Covering our most human to our most divine urges and activities, the poetic, science fictional, experimental, even cinematic book leads us through words to what is beyond or behind words: the inscrutable mystery of our own being or, more precisely since the book revels in Emptiness, our non-being. In the process of stripping away the several skins that we use to protect our inner selves and to keep us from exercising our freedom to live a full life, the book also comments on writing itself, turning itself inside out, so to speak, so that we are forced as readers to become the writers themselves, merging our selves with theirs without meaning to and without remembering the meaning that we wanted to find, finding ourselves apparently in the future but actually in the present, or even more precisely, in the past, as time stops for us. In the end, the future humans, aliens, and angels turn out to be really us today, as we find ourselves aliens within ourselves, alienated not from the world as lesser writers would have put it, but from ourselves, as only the truly alive realize, perhaps as only angels really know. For those less inclined towards philosophy, the book offers gripping suspense, continuous action, and provocative scenes; the narrative scaffolding, however, is there only to lead readers to deeper levels of reading. I recommend this book to everyone honest enough to admit that we do not know ourselves or that we are not just nothing, but perhaps even Nothingness itself. Have fun, but be warned!
– Isagani R. Cruz, Professor Emeritus, De La Salle University, Manila
VADIM FILATOV’S RUSSIAN REVIEW OF “THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME”, reprinted from his blog
Воскрешение из живых
“Вырубите лес, а не только одно дерево. Из леса рождается страх. Вырубив лес, станете свободными.”
(“Дхаммапада”)
«Это – день, который я готовил в течение всей своей жизни. К полуночи сегодня вечером я буду управлять планетой», – тщеславно заявляет отрицательный герой романа «Туннель в Конце Времени». Однако мировые войны, землетрясения, массовые наводнения, пожары, цунами, падения астероидов, глобальные температурные изменения, энергетические кризисы, экономические крахи, власть над всей планетой и прочие страшилки – всё это всего лишь колыхание волосков на шелудивом хвосте у сфинкса «существования». Победа над страхом означает дерзость взглянуть сфинксу прямо в лицо и осознать, что человечеству нужна не тупиковая и бессмысленная борьба за «существование», а борьба за несуществование! В этой связи абсолютно бессмысленное стремление к безопасности, которое выражается в виде термина «разрядка напряжённости», раскрываает своё истинное значение: ведь разрядка — это эякуляция, ведущая либо к бесполезному расходованию энергии, либо, ещё хуже, к возникновению дополнительного «существования». “Избыточная осознанность мешает всякому делу (в том числе жизни). Слишком длинные рассуждения о сексуальности убивают её. Эротизм – этот бич разлагающихся обществ – есть посягательство на инстинкт, организованная импотенция. Оргазм никогда не был событием философским”, – писал в этой связи Эмиль Чоран. Единственная по настоящему необходимая и мощная разрядка ознаменует последнее содрогание стиснутого небытием человечества. Мистика пустоты – это воинственная метаэротика непрестанного наступления, всегда агрессивная сверхлюбовь и надненависть к пустоте.
Адам Дональдсон Пауэлл (Норвегия) — автор критических статей по литературе и художественной фотографии. Пишет на английском, испанском, французском и норвежском языках. Он издал множество книг (включая сборники поэзии, рассказов, новелл, эссе и критики) в США, Норвегии и Индии, участвовал в различных международных литературных альманахах, которые издаются на нескольких континентах. Кроме того, Пауэлл является драматургом, чьи пьесы много раз ставились на театральных сценах. Адам Дональдсон Пауэлл многократно читал свои стихотворения на литературных встречах, которые проходили в Нью-Йорке(США), Осло (Норвегия), Буэнос-Айресе (Аргентина) и в Катманду (Непал).
Недавно в индийском издательстве «Cyberwit» выщла в свет самая парадоксальная пророческая книга, предназначенная для новой эпохи мышления, свободного от страха. Само название книги “The Tunnel At The End Of Time” (“Туннель в Конце Времени”) указывает на грядущее вторжение некой ещё неизвестной Мощи Духа к Разрыву, которая неизбежно сокрушит все “виды человеческого правления”. Одним из авторов данного проекта-предсказания и является Адам Дональдсон Пауэлл (второй автор — Рик Дэвис, США).
Книга стала продолжением романа «2014: Жизнь и риск воплощённого ангела», возвестившего новую духовную войну и возможную гибель мира в 2014 году. В этом романе Адам Дональдсон Пауэлл продемонстрировал читателям всю мощь своих творческих возможностей. Произведение наполнено глубокими философскими размышлениями, мистической духовностью, а также непреодолимым стремлением выйти за пределы повседневности и проанализировать иллюзию мира в состоянии её разрыва. Это суровое пророчество провоцирует вдумчивого читателя на размышления о невозможном, которое одновременно является единственно – возможным. Захватывание невозможного происходит путём уничтожения возможного. Уничтожение побеждает любую печаль. Условием начала движения в направлении пустоты становится отказ от иллюзии наличия и разделённости: единое есть всё и ничто.
Роман-продолжение «Туннель» открывается обширным философско – поэтическим вступлением. Оно представляет собой спор правой и левой рук Бога. Соответственно, левая раука Бога — философ и поэт-мистик из России Азсакра Заратустра (Vrebatima), правая рука Бога – Адам Дональдсон Поуэлл (Transforma). В споре используются различные языки: Адам пишет по-английски и по-русски, Азсакра — по-английски, по-немецки и на латыни. Всё это – философия реинкaрнаций и проекция Небесных Ангелов для Окончательной Битвы. Война без “проигравших” и “победивших”.
Как и предыдущий роман «2014», роман-предвидение «Туннель» создан в жанре экстремальной фантастики, объединяющим элементы информативности и развлекательности. Он близок по содержанию к антиутопии. Cюжетная линия выстроена мастерски и заставляет читателя не отрываясь следить за приключениями героев и их взаимоотношениями в контексте предстоящей глобальной катастрофы. Характеры основных персонажей глубоко и достоверно отражаются в их поступках и диалогах. Философский смысл романа «Туннель» заключается в столкновении «Божественных интервентов» (Небесных Ангелов, местами вызывающих ассоциации с воинами путстоты) и всецело погружённых в материальное “человеческих форм жизни”, основанных на обожествлении денег, страхе перед любыми формами опасности и мягкогниении в трусливом гедонизме. «Недолго это тело проживёт на земле, отверженное, бесчувственное, бесполезное как чурбан», – предупреждал Будда. Животное, которое корчится на брачной кровати, заканчивает тем, что корчится на кровати больничной. Как следствие — перспектива неизбежной гибели такого финансово-физиологического мира.
В одной из глав романа авторы рассматривают технические аспекты архитектуры аэропорта Денвера (США), и как он, посредством определённых действий, может быть использован в качестве обширного концентрационного лагеря. Авторы-футурологи обсуждают многочисленные подуровни фундамента для построения, которые явно необычны для простого аэропорта. Геометрические формы строения аэропорта Денвера очень точно совпадают с изображением Свастики, что, по мнению авторов, совсем не случайно. “Может ли быть оптимистичным прогноз, в основу которого уже заранее заложено изображение свастики?” – задаёт вопрос Рик Девис. И действительно, свастика – это древнеиндийский знак плодородия. А плодородие подразумевает размножение, приумножение иллюзии «существования» и, следовательно, свастика должна быть безусловно уничтожена.
Человечество давно интересовали вопросы о том, есть ли у времени конец, является ли оно реальным или мнимым, способно ли образовать туннель в неизвестность (в никуда)? На самом деле время представляет собой ловушку, привязывающую несуществующих к иллюзии «существования». То, что когда-нибудь станет пустотой, уже сейчас является пустотой, но, благодаря иллюзии времени, «мы» этого не видим. Однако роман не столько об этом, сколько о социальных и нравственных аспектах предстоящего конца света. В этом плане большой интерес представляет философско-поэтическое вступление, в котором Transforma и Vrebatima раскрывают своё, во многом различное, видение причин, перспектив и последствий грядущего Армагедднона:
«Некоторые назвали это работой
антихриста, но антихристом
было само человечество.
Вы изнасиловали
и загрязнили человечество и
природу.
Бесплодная Земля вопит, но мы
не утешители, Vrebatima.
(поклон)
Мы – просто писцы
которые наблюдают и отмечают
преступления» (Обличает человечество Transforma)
«Только одна треть из ракет направлена
к Земле; остальные направлена
в космос.
Человек – неконтролируемый хищник;
вирус души и угроза
для целой вселенной». (Transforma)
Насколько реальны эти «угрозы» и являются ли они безусловным злом? Нужно сказать, что на Западе совершенно ложная идея «прогресса» сопровождается отождествлением высших ценностей человеческого «существования» с жизнью «как она есть», в её « текучей повседневности». Но в том-то и дело, что её («жизни») в метафизическом смысле нет. Поэтому понятно, почему мечта о жизненном благополучии заставляет человека метаться между иллюзией технического превосходства и культом чувственного наслаждения, порождая невроз и ощущения постоянной тревоги. Эта тревога прорывается в маниакальной заботе о безопасности — личной, государственной и даже глобальной. В действительности человечество нуждается именно в постоянной опасности, которая одна даёт ощутить всю полноту вкуса абсолютной пустоты. То есть, приобщиться к тому немногому, что пока ещё есть:
«Моя мать – Ничто, но ещё старее
и горестнее…
Мой отец – Никто, но ещё беспощаднее
и печальнее…
Смотри: моя дочь переходит из Пустоты
в Пустоту, чтобы убивать каждую слезу
до её рождения…
И теперь Отсутствие больше не плачет,
Пустота больше не тратит деньги
на похороны –
такова Истина Несуществования!» (Vrebatima)
С этим соглашается Transforma:
«Я скучаю по скользящим жутким подлецам
который когда-то поведали нам тайны
ночи. Они надолго ушли;
как белые медведи, киты,
крокодилы, пчелы и акулы.
Что Вы сделали, Земляне?
Что Вы надумали?
Потерянные в размышлениях о финансах
и власти, Вы потеряли из виду
самое большое богатство, которое Вам принадлежало» (Transforma).
В ответ свирепо и непримиримо обличает характерное для человечества мягкогниение в трусости Азсакра Заратустра:
«Пусть крысы
трахают их дочерей –
монетных кукол
от Доллара
рождённых –
на золоте отцов
в навозе
разъебённых –
пусть
крысы трахают
их дочерей!”
Власть!
Власть!
Власть одних цен –
Вознуленье ничтожного
мира:000000000000000!
Теперь ясно:
Бог не умер –
умерла
Воля!
Воля к Власти?
Nein! –
Ничто к Власти!
Пустота к Господству! » (Vrebatima).
Пустотные истины воистину ужасны. Надежда умирает первой
«…Где я, Vrebatima?
Я потерян в моем собственном преобразовании …
в зимнем моем собственном samadhi.
Разбудите меня от моих сновидений …
но позвольте мне держаться за мои иллюзии
и моё заблуждение.
Я нуждаюсь в спасении, я жажду препарат Майя
– героин для усталой души.
Я трахаюсь …
Я …
Я …
(всхлипывания)
Вы раздеваете моих богов бесстыдно,
Vrebatima!
Я жмусь и дрожу в тенях своей
собственной духовности.
Нет бога, но Бог…
и Я – Бог нагой
и незащищённый от своих собственных
и коллективных иллюзий и промахов.
Сообщите мне То, во что ещё можно верить…
покажите мне, как надо действовать.
Проведите меня назад –
в Тьму.
Темнота Вечной Матки…
эликсир Ничто» (Transforma)
Однако, суровый собеседник непримирим:
«Правая рука Бога должна
не только онанировать.
Хватит лить семя
и слёзы…
Будда сказал: не будет больше Бытия!
НИКОГДА БОЛЬШЕ НЕ БУДЕТ БЫТИЯ!!!!!!!
ex nihilo nihil fit.
Сатори?
Самадхи?
Шунья!» (Vrebatima)
Авторы романа «Туннель» подчёркивают, что грядущий Армагеддон будет всецело заслугой людей. Так это или нет, но уничтожение в любом случае неизбежно, несмотря на мнимую величину и протяжённость предназначенного к уничтожению: ибо едина лишь пустота, а состоящее из частей подлежит разрушению. Значение нового мирового порядка в том, что его утверждение означает выработанность всех интеллектуальных и, тем более, материальных ресурсов человечества, обеспечивавших эго-цепляние за несуществующее. Необходимо отбросить страх и перестать следовать фальшивым взглядам проповедующих безволие, трусость и мелочную жадность банкиров и политиков. Они ведут жалкую жизнь, поэтому и конец их будет жалким. Независимый интеллект радостно приветствует нигилистическую революцию, которая велит им: погибни!
Ежедневно просыпаясь, люди начинают готовиться к восприятию дневных галлюцинаций, составляющих наш мир. Но в одно прекрасное утро они с облегчением обнаружат, что туман рассеивается. Впечатляющую картину одного из вариантов крушения универсальной иллюзии нарисовал Сартр в своём философском романе “Тошнота”:
“Люди проснутся однажды утром и, открыв окна, удивятся какому-то жуткому смыслу, который внедрился в вещи и чего-то ждёт. Только и всего, но стоит этому хоть немного продлиться и люди сотнями начнут кончать с собой…И тогда я расхохочусь и крикну бегущим мимо: “Чего вы добились вашей наукой? Чего вы добились вашим гуманизмом? И где твоё достоинство, мыслящий тростник?”
Несомненно, авторское послание, обращённое к читателям романа — предвидения «Туннель» является крайне некомфортным, поскольку побуждает к непривычным для многих самостоятельным размышлениям. Кроме того, обыватель с трудом воспринимает слишком откровенные истины, чтобы убедиться в этом, достаточно вспомнить судьбу Кассандры. Массовый человек опасается выйти за пределы своего уютного мирка: именно поэтому он будет из него грубо выброшен. Еще не слишком поздно понять, что «наше» прошлое, настоящее и будущее, каждый момент времени, каждое произнесённое слово, каждая мысль, каждое действие или бездействие – словом, всё, что составляет основанную на мелком мыслетрусии человеческую культуру – всё это избыточно по отношению к гармонии абсолютного отсутствия.
И сказал Будда: “Вот моё последнее рождение, не будет больше бытия”.
THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME
Review of Tunnel at the end of Time – Amitabh Mitra Poet/Artist/Orthopaedic Surgeon, South Africa
I met Adam at Oslo. A big bear of a person with the gentlest nature and a lovable personality, he remains one of my closest friends.
Yet time and again I have tried to understand him, understand the mind that seems to work overtime, the art of reproducing the images on canvas and words remains a perennial obsession. I have read his other poetry books and marvelled at this superlative mind.
To me, it always seems that he has been able to grasp the aura and time, a steady stream of images that is unstoppable, sometimes virulent yet simple in afterthoughts.
The Armageddon was inevitable…
We needed it, and so we created it.
But it is only illusion…
But what happens next
The Tunnel at the End of Time is a collection of “poems”, prose poems and story like poems by Adam Donaldson Powell and Richard Davis. The Foreword is jointly written by Adam and Azsacra Zarathustra. Azsacra is a well known Russian Mystic Poet and has been widely published.
Where am I, Vrebatima?
I am lost in my own transformation …
in the winter of my own samadhi.
Wake me up from my dreams …
but let me hold onto my illusions
and my delusions.
The eventual clash of illusions and delusions are inevitable, it with and within us at all times and strange enough nobody gives the thought of liberating it. The book starts with such ultimate sense of fulfilment but then the poetry and the eventual flow of plasmic willingness happens in multiple streams, multiple layers and multiple living thoughts.
The book reminded me of the movie, Matrix directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski which mentioned for the first time, a simulated reality. The DVD sold three million copies in the US in 1999.
The reader is caught in an iron clasp grasp and taken in strange speeds that seem to stay along with the mind. There are simulations of words and images in a three dimensional effect, sometimes even in reverse moving strata at the same moment when we are going ahead.
So what really is Tunnel at the end of Time, where does it start and where should it end? I as a medical doctor and a poet have often encountered such simulations which aptly brief, seemed to jolt me out of consciousness and that is where the eternal mystery lies. What seems as poetry and the poet a conjurer of words may not be so, they are mere pathways to reach collusion levels in an unsettled time.
I beg to differ from other reviewers who have compared Adam’s poetry to British Romantic Age Poetry and others who have tried to unveil his poems using crutches from modern literature. Contemporary Poetry has broken the realm of sensibilities, a huge dam that has finally enveloped aesthetic congruency in a highly developed notion of sheer flexible imagery.
Adam’s poetry remains unclassified, as it is a class in its own. I would portray him and his friends in cult dimensions in Europe, their poetry would be read and reread in times to come.
Book review by Irene Brodsky (USA):
“The Tunnel At The End of Time” written in English/Russian by Adam Donaldson Powell and Rick Davis, with foreward by Adam Donaldson Powell and Azsacra Zarathustra.
It is an honor to review this most eye-opening, very well written and beautifully expressed book of poetry & drama that was written in two languages; and also includes a 14 Act Play! The book appears to be a serious look into one’s self, soul, being, spirit, surroundings, thoughts, reactions, and can be seen as philosophical, religious, mystical, spiritual, anger, reaching out for an answer, telling it like it is, no holds barred. I recommend this outstanding book for adults, age 18 & over because there is some strong language to express one’s deep feelings.
This book would be an excellent addition to the libraries and I am giving my own personal copy of this book to the landmark Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza Central Branch. It is my recommendation that the library catalog this book, and place it on their shelf where it can be shared by many readers. In this way, Mr. Powell’s magnificent book will be automatically added to The World Catalog of Books which is the greatest honor a writer can ever have.
It was my pleasure to review Mr. Powell’s book and recommend it very highly.
Sincerely
Irene Brodsky, Faculty Member Brooklyn College City University of New York,
Teacher of Philosophy – adult education program
author of Poetry Unplugged
and The Adventures of Silly Kitty, Princess Jasmine and First Puppy
(Photo by Arne Walderhaug)
SOME OF MY OTHER BOOKS:
Oso Para Vos 
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