Growing Flames Fury and Lavender
Emmanuel Kane
ISBN:9781941611-2 e-book
Price $14.95
Pages: 99
About The Book
Award-winning North Carolina Poet Shares Unique Insight into What War Does to the Human Psyche
By Rachel M. Anderson, Contributing Writer
(Charlotte, N.C.) - Growing Flames: Fury & Lavender, scheduled for release in May 2017 by P.R.A. Publishing, is a collection of poems about war that author Emmanuel Kane hopes will inspire conversations about where this country has been and its future.
Kane has never been a soldier, but he has great respect for those who have served and sacrificed for the freedom we hold so dear. “I have a good friend who served in the second World War. My son’s godfather was a General in the U.S. Army. Some of my brothers in the Knights of Columbus served in Vietnam, and I have many friends and students who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the years, I have been touched by the stories they have told me about their military experiences. Stories about the horrible things they had to do, how they came to terms with those things, and their longing for home,” he says.
Kane’s friends’ stories, as well as his personal beliefs about the wars and what they represent to mankind, have served as the inspirations for his latest book. So have his experiences traveling around the world lecturing and working for United Nations agencies as a consultant.
“The main reasons I wrote this particular volume were to include my own voice in this ongoing conversation about world politics; to offer a picture of how people view America’s place in the world; and to share the voices of people who have shared with me what it’s like to be a defender of the free world,” says Kane, who adds the tone in his poetry comes from his personal positions about war, and his ideas about the American soldier.
Kane says the majority of the 78 poems in this volume were inspired mainly by the unfortunate events of 9/11 and the resulting wars. However, war isn’t all he writes about in Growing Flames. Kane also writes about the current events he has followed in the news media. Stories making their way through the news cycle are of particular interest to the former Director of International Programs and head of the Department of Language, Literature and Communication at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, N.C.
“When I observe things, then I feel for the people who are affected by it, and then I write,” he said. Sometimes the ideas for poems come to him late at night. Other times while he’s traveling, or in a quiet place.
“I have little pieces of paper all around the house. I have even written poems on the palm of my hand and on the vomit bags in the seat pockets of airplanes while traveling,” he says. “Whenever I have a quiet moment, a meditative moment, and I am touched by an experience I write.”
About the Author
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