Poetry
Fire Dreams
Fire Dreams is Thomas Radzienda’s third collection of poetry. The poems range from passionate criticism of global injustice to intimate affairs with the natural world.
This book reveals a deep love for art, nature and the human spirit in poems such as Artist on the Mekong and One Night in Bungoma. His travels around the world and long-term residence in South-East Asia bring him in touch with diverse imagery that augments the power of his insight.
Radzienda writes candidly and vividly about political and social issues in such poems as Blood of Desert Death and Visions of a Fascist World. With his other hand, he writes about absurd human conditions in poems such as The Shabby Beach Dog and A Pigeon Resolves Global Existential Crisis.
He demonstrates quirky freshness in his use of language to emulate the sounds and rhythms of nature in aurally delightful poems such as Eternal Drops of Reality and Tide of the Poem.
This book offers a fiery political stance while seeking spiritual reconciliation beyond the narrow concerns of oil, nation and war.
Fire dreams for you.
A Promise for Siam
Siam has become Thailand. Forests have become hotels. Islands have become movies. Cities have become factories. People have become things. That's the country as we know it today.
A Promise for Siam is a search for the genuine essence of Siam by walking peacefully through forests, embracing islands at dawn, seeking humanity in the cities and meeting the hearts of the people. Truly knowing Siam means hearing the voices of children and dreams of youth, learning the language, the customs, the contradictions and the confusion.
These poems paint portraits of the land through the eyes of a poet in love with Siam's tropical paradise. These poems gracefully accept the cacophony of Bangkok and what it tells us about the human condition. These poems are enchanted by ancient traditions, modern festivals and what each tells us about the changing face of Siam.
Reader's Review
“The purpose of this mail is to compliment you on these poems. I liked them very much. They touch on many of the less pleasant aspects of life but always remind the reader that this is not the end and that there is light and hope beyond the darkness. By their form they are open-ended, i.e. they deal with aspects of existence (from a falling leaf, to the poor farmer bewildered in BKK) in their context and not as isolated observations. Indeed, in essence I sometimes hear a haiku, and often the compassion that our Lord the Buddha teaches us to have. Much of what foreigners write about Thailand is just observation from the outside, celebration of superficial elegance and grace or beauty of nature. This poetry goes beyond that, into the contradiction, or the paradox, and indeed peace regained. Your poetry impresses me.”
Robert Egeter-van Kuyk
Head of the Regional Library at UNESCO Thailand
Leaves fall as Lightly
Leaves fall as lightly
As the tightest keys on the piano
Autumn lingers like a minor chord
In the sunset
Waiting for night to fall
In gentle leaves of death