Danny Alive In This Era

Eclectic reader..
Tsundokuist..
Bohemian book lover..
Word-alchemist..
Sense-seeker..
Meaning-maker..
An expression of existence..
An experience experiencing...

[Poetry Cafe Eastbourne @PoetryCafeEB]

Poetry's the thing! We have monthly open mics, guest poets, great audiences and an unquenchable thirst for your words!
Come join us 13th June @Dolphin_Pub and inspire us like @DannydeOliveir8 sharing 'It had always been you Papa'
#poetry #openmic

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

@jayishah

[Poetry Cafe Eastbourne @PoetryCafeEB]

'What cosmic fluke of fate'
Beautiful #poetry shared at April's open mic by @DannydeOliveir8

Join us in May... all free, all fab and all for you! Look out for new venue details on here, Facebook or our website.
#openmic #community #Eastbourne

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

Beliefs of what is real aren't always accurate & true. I'll drop the lie & the what-ifs & simply BE in the Reality of Life; agnostically Zen-Taoist towards whatever odds or gods there may be; secure in the serenity of a Buddha knowing I Am Here,Now, until I'm no longer & no more.

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

Last bookhaul of 2022? Maybe.Definitely the last one I'm posting on Twitter

Sassoon's THE WAR POEMS
Vittorini's CONVERSATION IN SICILY
Malamud's THE TENANTS
London's MARTIN EDEN
Cartwright's WHITE LIGHTNING
Kingsnorth's THE WAKE
Barnes' ARTHUR & GEORGE
Huxley's dystopian classic

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

A clear, sun-hidden,
winter morning
greets my awakening
eye —
a black bird
alights
on a chimney
top, then
another takes
its place.
A third
one
arrives
and I
am
suddenly
reminded
of the bigger
picture...
the larger Ego:
the Whole
my small,
petty
alienations
exile me
from.

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

On a cold, winter-heralding, early-December night, I find myself being bookishly transported to the warmer, sultry, West-African climes of "Greeneland".

#GrahamGreene
#TheHeartOfTheMatter
#JourneyWithoutMaps

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

CATCHING A DEATH AT ASTAPOVA

What a way to go,
Tolstoy,
old boy!
You gave up the ghost
after ghosting your wife.

You son of a gun,
if our life
is a journey,
you ended yours
about to take one.

In a freezing station,
all alone,
you never
guessed you'd be gone
forever.

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

"Those of us who have moved on many times... lack roots or corroboration of who we are, we must put our trust in memory to give continuity to our lives... it's as if my life has been but a series of illusions, of fleeting images"

Isabel Allende
MY INVENTED COUNTRY: A MEMOIR

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

I love it when a book I'm reading synchronises unexpectedly and unplanned with the time and month I'm in; especially when it's such a delightful and gorgeous book as Sarah Winman's STILL LIFE 😊

#synchronisedreading
#StillLife
#SarahWinman

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

It's the Hallowee(n)kend! 🎃 So let me match my reading with the sinister theme of the season with something different: a dark, disturbing & terrifying crime thriller set in a dying, trauma-&-guilt-haunted ghost town by the sea.

#Halloween22
#SixteenHorses
#GregBuchanan

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

My favorite Franz Kafka opening line comes from his short story INVESTIGATIONS OF A DOG: "How much my life has changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom!"

It was written in the autumn of 1922... 100 years ago ✍️💯

#FranzKafka
#InvestigationsOfaDog
#100yearsAgo

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

Sticking with my South Africa themed reading, up next on my TBR schedule: two Damon Galgut novels.

Since we're in Booker Prize Shortlist season, both of these were shortlisted; with THE PROMISE being last year's winner! So I'll be in good book company for the time being 👍

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

@GolightlySabina I grew up in post-Apartheid South Africa. This beautifully descriptive and richly written novel hits nostalgic notes from my 90s childhood and school days 😊

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

"Aye, but the hand that had murdered had once pressed the mother's breast into the thirsting mouth, had stolen into the father's hand when they went out into the dark... the murderer afraid of death had once been a child afraid of the night."

Alan Paton
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

Well that escalated quickly!

So I've only gone on and amassed a collection of Simon Scarrow's Eagles of the Empire books quite recently 📚

I've read Roman historical fiction before, but there's something about Macro and Cato that makes this series have an edge over the rest.

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

It's the start of Autumn! 🍁🍂🌧️ And what better way to welcome it than tweeting a poem by Kerry Hardie, from her collection CRY FOR THE HOT BELLY, which encapsulates the season's transitional approach.

#AutumnEquinox22

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

LIFE & DEATH: A METAPHOR

My strolling shadow
on a sun-lit wall
reminds me how

we're all
mere shadows
walking past,

until at last
we fade
into the shade.

[Danny Alive In This Era @DannydeOliveir8]

September holiday book haul! 📚

*Kazantzakis' REPORT TO GRECO
*G.G. Márques' early short stories in Spanish, OJOS DE PERRO AZUL
*Lispector's HOUR OF THE STAR
*Sharon Olds' ODES
*Patrick White's THE TREE OF MAN
*Natalie Goldberg's THE GREAT FAILURE: MY UNEXPECTED PATH TO TRUTH