Ann-Christine Tabaka's Blog: Words Spill Out, page 71
April 25, 2019
Just Breathe
From my book "Just Breathe" available on Cyberwit and on Amazon:
https://www.cyberwit.net/publications...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/938...
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https://www.cyberwit.net/publications...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/938...
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April 23, 2019
Links to my pages
Please check out some of my many online presences at these sites. I always have some new posts there as well as on Facebook. Thank you so much for your support!
Book Review
My Book review for "No More Hallelujahs" available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/179...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/179...
Book review
My Book review for "No More Hallelujahs" available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/179...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/179...
April 21, 2019
GloMag April 2019 issue
Thank you Glory Sasikala, editor of GloMag for publishing my poem "Words Spill Out" (page 68-69)
https://view.joomag.com/mag/038554500...
https://view.joomag.com/mag/038554500...
March 31, 2019
Award
I am deeply honored! Thank you Shiju H. Pallithazheth and the team at Motivational Strips!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/25215...
"As per the nomination filed by MSARC member Brenda Mohammed, followed by my verification and approval of her bio, it gives Motivational Strips happiness in conferring Platinum Star honour to
Ann Christine Tabaka
Country: USA 🇺🇸
The recipient mentioned above has been consistently active producing vibrant and great poetry in literature. She is encouraging and a role model to global crowd of literary talent bearers. The forum appreciates this gesture as well her personal literary contributions to world literature. We look forward to writers being inspired by Ann Christine’s selfless support to the global literary front."
https://www.facebook.com/groups/25215...
"As per the nomination filed by MSARC member Brenda Mohammed, followed by my verification and approval of her bio, it gives Motivational Strips happiness in conferring Platinum Star honour to
Ann Christine Tabaka
Country: USA 🇺🇸
The recipient mentioned above has been consistently active producing vibrant and great poetry in literature. She is encouraging and a role model to global crowd of literary talent bearers. The forum appreciates this gesture as well her personal literary contributions to world literature. We look forward to writers being inspired by Ann Christine’s selfless support to the global literary front."
March 21, 2019
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Book Review for "No More Hallelujahs"
DAVID THANE CORNELL
3/20/19
ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA rekindles my love for poetry chapbooks (slim volumes of poetry, usually 25 poems, a few more, a few less).
This chapbook, the author's ninth volume of poetry, offers an overview of her work that is quite startling; an Emersonian vision rules supreme here as Tabaka transforms the ordinariness of language into elevated flights of poetics, based upon personal experience.
Don't be fooled by the title, No More Hallelujahs, as undercurrents of optimism triumph over what first comes across as disconsolate pessimism:
A river flowed this way once
but now it is all sand.
Nothing stays forever,
forever is not a choice...
(Missing Moments)
Quite a few of these poems are epiphanic in nature, inspiring self-discoveries:
A dead past lies to itself,
desiring redemption...
(Nothing Left To Save)
There is a splendid pedestrian fervor to many of these poems, which makes them so accessible to readers, something for everyone here; an eloquent tribute to the poet's mother, an elegy for a cat, and the companion photos to many of these poems are stirringly warm.
Tabaka may have run out of Hallelujahs, but her highly individualized grace fused with her diverse subject matter just leaves this critic to say, hosannahs in the highest.
DAVID THANE CORNELL
3/20/19
3/20/19
ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA rekindles my love for poetry chapbooks (slim volumes of poetry, usually 25 poems, a few more, a few less).
This chapbook, the author's ninth volume of poetry, offers an overview of her work that is quite startling; an Emersonian vision rules supreme here as Tabaka transforms the ordinariness of language into elevated flights of poetics, based upon personal experience.
Don't be fooled by the title, No More Hallelujahs, as undercurrents of optimism triumph over what first comes across as disconsolate pessimism:
A river flowed this way once
but now it is all sand.
Nothing stays forever,
forever is not a choice...
(Missing Moments)
Quite a few of these poems are epiphanic in nature, inspiring self-discoveries:
A dead past lies to itself,
desiring redemption...
(Nothing Left To Save)
There is a splendid pedestrian fervor to many of these poems, which makes them so accessible to readers, something for everyone here; an eloquent tribute to the poet's mother, an elegy for a cat, and the companion photos to many of these poems are stirringly warm.
Tabaka may have run out of Hallelujahs, but her highly individualized grace fused with her diverse subject matter just leaves this critic to say, hosannahs in the highest.
DAVID THANE CORNELL
3/20/19
Book Review for "No More Hallelujahs"
No More Hallelujahs
By Mark Kodama
No More Hallelujahs is a beautiful and ruminative work of memory and emotion and of lost chances and hopes by poet Ann Christine Tabaka. It is her tenth book of poetry.
Although at times melancholy, the twenty-one poems of the chapbook seem to me to be an honest and truthful look in the rearview mirror of journey we call life. They are great stories that speak to our deepest selves. The unexamined life truly is not a meaningless life worth living.
One of my favorite works was “Be Who You Are,” which takes the standard cliché on being authentic and standing it on its head into a wonderful paean on aspiring to be something greater than oneself.
“Be who you are” they say.
But who I am
is not who I
want to be . . .
dream to be . . .
need to be . . .
I desire to be so much more.
I also enjoyed the haunting rhythmic sadness of “Beyond the Pale.”
Truth that tells beyond the telling,
A past that fades beyond the past
Turning away from myself,
I hide within my skin.
Here is “I Remember Her” about the author’s mother. I love the wonderful details.
She held no malice,
spoke no hate.
though tortured was her lot.
She faded from existence
just as she arrived,
alone and unnoticed
by all but me.
I remember her
standing there
with outstretched arms.
Perhaps that should be all of our epitaphs in these days of celebrity worship and narcissistic self-gratification. We all can aspire to making this a better world in more modest ways and it would be an additional bonus to be at the same time truly appreciated by at least one person.
Here is another piece called “Forgotten Man” that I found particularly moving. The use of metaphors and the imagery was absolutely magical:
Dust motes dance on sunlight
streaming through a dingy window.
Rusty mailbox, empty, always empty.
Cadaverous cobwebs mocking
back at him from a peeling wall.
He sits alone in his room, sifting
through dim memories of a once
vibrant life. His wife is gone, adult
children too busy to visit, friends
moved far away. Yet in his hands
proof that his life was once
real . . . .”
If you love poetry I think you will love this chapbook. I close with “Lessons Learned:”
I live my life in lonely solitude,
Remembering what could have
been, if only I knew then . . .
never let go of what you love.
The chapbook is published by Allen Buddha Press and available through Amazon.
By Mark Kodama
No More Hallelujahs is a beautiful and ruminative work of memory and emotion and of lost chances and hopes by poet Ann Christine Tabaka. It is her tenth book of poetry.
Although at times melancholy, the twenty-one poems of the chapbook seem to me to be an honest and truthful look in the rearview mirror of journey we call life. They are great stories that speak to our deepest selves. The unexamined life truly is not a meaningless life worth living.
One of my favorite works was “Be Who You Are,” which takes the standard cliché on being authentic and standing it on its head into a wonderful paean on aspiring to be something greater than oneself.
“Be who you are” they say.
But who I am
is not who I
want to be . . .
dream to be . . .
need to be . . .
I desire to be so much more.
I also enjoyed the haunting rhythmic sadness of “Beyond the Pale.”
Truth that tells beyond the telling,
A past that fades beyond the past
Turning away from myself,
I hide within my skin.
Here is “I Remember Her” about the author’s mother. I love the wonderful details.
She held no malice,
spoke no hate.
though tortured was her lot.
She faded from existence
just as she arrived,
alone and unnoticed
by all but me.
I remember her
standing there
with outstretched arms.
Perhaps that should be all of our epitaphs in these days of celebrity worship and narcissistic self-gratification. We all can aspire to making this a better world in more modest ways and it would be an additional bonus to be at the same time truly appreciated by at least one person.
Here is another piece called “Forgotten Man” that I found particularly moving. The use of metaphors and the imagery was absolutely magical:
Dust motes dance on sunlight
streaming through a dingy window.
Rusty mailbox, empty, always empty.
Cadaverous cobwebs mocking
back at him from a peeling wall.
He sits alone in his room, sifting
through dim memories of a once
vibrant life. His wife is gone, adult
children too busy to visit, friends
moved far away. Yet in his hands
proof that his life was once
real . . . .”
If you love poetry I think you will love this chapbook. I close with “Lessons Learned:”
I live my life in lonely solitude,
Remembering what could have
been, if only I knew then . . .
never let go of what you love.
The chapbook is published by Allen Buddha Press and available through Amazon.
Words Spill Out
Poetry, rhymes, and musings by Ann Christine Tabaka
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