Book of the Week – Forbidden Syllables by Alan Summers
Forbidden Syllables by Alan Summers is a testament to the power of brevity. Each line is a poem unto itself, each syllable chosen with precision and care. His work is a study in restraint—what is left unsaid often carries as much weight as what is spoken. Summers roots his work in the details of contemporary life: coffee, sparrows, glass, thrushes, and feathers. His world is not one of gods and legends but of humans and their fragile connections.
Below are selected poems and brief comments and please share your comments also:
a pot of coffee the sparrows zing by writing
The sparrows mimic the act of writing itself: kinetic and transient. Summers suggests that writing, like sparrows, is an act of flight, a refusal to be caged.
the female thrush keeping company by the clothes line of despair
Summers invokes the thrush, a creature of song, as both witness and participant in human sorrow. The “clothes line of despair” is a striking image—despair hangs heavy, yet the thrush persists, her presence a quiet act of defiance.
touching in public the couple take flight leaving one feather adrift
This line carries the weight of forbidden intimacy in the shadow of a pandemic. The image of a feather left behind is haunting—a trace of connection, fragile and fleeting.
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You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. Please share your favorite poem from the book with us.
Do you have a full or chapbook length book published in 2020 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by the THF Digital Librarian Dan Campbell and are used with permission.
Comments (12)
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This is the one I’m taken by, Alan
a rush of desires sibilance snakes through its attempted silence
I like the continuance of the ssssssssssibilance through your verse. I’m wondering what these desires are and the ‘attempted silence’ of ones desires. I can’t help but see a person trying to worm ones way into another’s affection, while trying to be as subtle as possible.
As always the verses you write have deeper meanings, way beyond my reasoning :) but I do enjoy reading your words.
Thanks Carol,
It’s from a tight period of time, those covid lockdowns, what myself and Karen experienced as a couple, and as individuals, and what many others experienced, and not just in the UK.
The lock down of any kind of desire, as we were not in a position of power, and neither wanted to be, or even risk the illegal rave parties that started up again! :-)
We prolonged our own lockdown for a month or more after, as it was still too dangerous.
I guess it could be about individual desires, even just walking down to the shops, a café even, now a dangerous place especially if the windows are steamed up, which meant any covid-19 virus would be trapped in with us. Oh, I miss the cosiness of cafés and bars at Christmas especially, all humid, doors and windows clamped shut, the windows steamed up, looking almost like frost.
The rush of desires for simple things denied, during covid, and of course denied to most people in many parts of the world as territory theft has only just started up again. We so want to copy the ancient empires of Greece, or Rome, or Britain, or Ottoman etc…
That was an intriguing take on my haikai verse!
Both Karen and myself, individually, in the past have had people pretend to desire us, to keep us. They are always lacking in charm, and commitment though. :-) And often scary as heck!
Alan
There were many everyday occasions denied during covid, sadly, some continued to behave without care for others. Having a flagrant disregard for the rules implemented.
I’ve never had any great desire to be around people, however, I hasten to add, I did enjoy the ginko sessions.
During covid I came into contact with more people due to people wandering about with their family and or dogs. It was a total nightmare, for me, and the stock. It got to the point I didn’t want to leave the house. Yes, I agree, things can become quite scary, but backing down has never been an option.
My only (deep) desire was for things to get back to normal, for me, and for everyone else.
Thanks for lovely reply, Alan.
Best wishes to you both.
Yes, a safer better real normal. I saw things in the old pre-covid normal that were terrible ideas carried forward a hundred years or so.
Science, if it’s not studied for weapons, is often far down the list to green lucre alas.
That must have been a nightmare for you, people turning up like that. I did miss the quietnesses of covid lockdown, taking me back to my childhood years of few people travelling nowhere in particular.
Yes, that was a grand day out, and I did love the Green Dragon gift. :-)
I wonder if you have any haibun out there, shuffling eagerly, as I’d love you to send something for the next Pan Haiku Review in May. :-)
Alan
Wow! Thankyou for the haibun invitation, I’ll get my skates on :)
Love and can relate to …. touching in public the couple take flight leaving one feather adrift
A flock of corellas have taken up residence in my village. Every morning when I walk, couples are are cuddling & grooming on the power lines – they so cute – very noisy but cute!
Loved catching a sighting of corellas now and then in Queensland! I guess they must have been Little Corellas, as I lived just outside Harrisville for a while, in farm country, and be up to feed the horses by 430am. Going out on a bicycle ride I’d witness thousands of birds, all different. :-)
Alan
My favourite is:
the murmur of people through failed glass
Thank you! :-)
Yes, failed in so many ways. And it’s still dangerous out there, to this day, with covid variants, supercolds, lethal flu, other viruses galore.
Alan
‘zing ‘ is the perfect word for sparrows!
Thanks, written as they were doing that! :-) I had pen and notebook ready with two kitchen windows and glass doors! :-)
Thank you Dan!
It was a very weird time, which was both highly policed, though not so for the ones in ‘control’.
These were all written in moreorless real time over a 2-3 day period, capturing myself and others during a Covid-19 Lockdown quarantine.
my warmest thanks,
Alan