A Season of Tenderness and Dread

by Abu Bakr Solomons

Solomons creates work of contemplation, critique and regret and does more than a little truth-telling in these poems, meditations and photographs. In and through different traditions of culture and poetry, he summons the spirit of the poet as thoughtful observer and social voice. As a practicing Moslem, he makes meaning out of his family history and contemplations of natural scenes at the same time speaking about memory, loss, and the way observation itself splinters the whole into parts. While intrinsically South African, it is also a collection that spans continents and different eras. Accompanied by well chosen photographs that have their own power, the book satisfies on many levels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abu Bakr Solomons worked as a teacher and principal for more than forty years in high schools and primary schools on the Cape Flats and continues to serve the educational community at various institutions on a part-time basis. He studied English language and literature at three different South African universities and abroad. His poems have been published in Tribute, Akal (the journal of the Congress of South African Writers), Poetry Institute of Africa, Botsotso poetry journals, Sol Plaatje European Union anthologies, Sections of Six (Botsotso), New Coin (poetry journal of Rhodes University, Grahamstown) and New Contrast. This debut collection of poetry received a commendation from the judges of the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize.