There they blow! Whales that will take you to the other side of words!

MERTON, U.K. - June 28, 2017 - PRLog -- These whales are an integral part of our life. They are not disconnected entities, but much swimming in our culture and psyche, living with us, questioning us with child's curiosity or connecting us with our consciousness. As Zata Banks points out, their dive to the depth of meanings allows us to connect all three physical curves without the boundaries of sea, land and sky. This is the journey that starts with the first poem, Yoga in the Kelp Forest, and with all the violence of migration, hunt and rejections in between ends still with Buddha and the translucent whales. ''Come, come, swim with me/ Swim the lithe language", the whale beckons….This is the whale that wants to sing its story as an epic journey of exploration.

Our endangered world is celebrated by Patel in poems that hop, skip and transform the mundane into a magical adventure. No subject is too distant for Patel's keen eye and leviathan powers.

Daljit Nagra

Yogesh Patel is Jonah, Ishmael, Queequeg and Moby Dick himself.

His whales are enormous symbols swimming all the seas of the world and defining us as they go.

Michael Schmidt OBE FRSL, General Editor: PN Review

All profits from the book will be channelled to the whale preservation and other literary charities. For a special offer and order please visit us at http://www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/bookshop.html

'One of the biggest stories of our time is the migration akin to the Mara Crossing, mostly brutal and cruel with the homelessness but a constant and a swim for one's survival. Whale in this collection carries the burden to understand the turmoil as a born-migrant by walking with us on land punctuated by the past, the present and the future,' explains Yogesh Patel, a born-migrant himself!

With marvelous twists and turns of language and breath, Yogesh Patel's book length meditation draws us into the life and death of the young whale lost in the Thames river, a poignant icon for the migrant self. The voice moves through wit and sparks of joy, through bitterness and loss, rising into a fine balance -- the metamorphic life of the speaker pitched to the rhythmic harmonies of poetic language .'Come swim with me/ swim the lithe language ' the poet tells us and we follow him across the dark yet clarified borders of the past, through the difficult present, into the fluid zone of the imagination. Swimming with the Whales is relevant to our lives in a world of nationalisms gone awry, where our common humanity is so often ignored.

Meena Alexander, Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry, author of Birthplace with Buried Stones

A whale is not territorial, and therefore, it knows no nationalism, yet its home is carved up in national seas.

'This panoramic opus assures Patel a permanent place in the front rank of Asian origin poets in the West,' says Reginald Massey, a legendary poet and journalist. This is the book not only for all poetry lovers but for whale and animal lover, and everyone concerned with what is going on around us in this world losing its humanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcPlAvssavg



BOILER PLATE

About the poet:

As a co-editor of Skylark, Yogesh Patel has published international contemporary poetry since the seventies. Currently, he runs Skylark Publications UK and the Word Masala project to promote writers and poets of the South Asian Diaspora. He also edits eSkylark. Additionally, Yogesh is a founder of the literary charity, Gujarati Literary Academy, and has served as its president. He was a Fellow of the International Poetry Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London and, as a trilingual poet, has four LP records, two films, radio programmes, children's book, fiction and non-fiction books, including poetry collections to his credit.

Apart from being a recipient of the IWWP award, the International Scottish Diploma for the excellence in poetry, and a Hon. Diploma from the Italian University of Arts, he has won the Co-Op Award for the poetry on the environment.

By profession, Yogesh is a qualified optometrist and an accountant.

A short list of his work and achievements is listed at www.patelyogesh.co.uk

(Yogesh has been published by Under the Radar, IOTA, Envoi, Understanding, Fire, Orbis, IPSE, BBC, Muse India, Confluence, Asian Voice, Skylark, and others. He is also anthologised in MacMillan, Redbeck and other anthologies. He has read at many prestigious venues, including the House of Lords and the National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre.)

Word Masala Foundation

The foundation promotes South-Asian Diaspora poets and writers by awarding them for their excellence in poetry.

Instead of a monetary prize, it helps by working as a non-commercial agent for them, helping with the reviews, highlighting their work through its publications and magazines, organising readings and programmes, and placing articles and interviews where possible.

The foundation is a non-commercial thrust and believes very strongly in working with our Western counterparts. It recognises all good work they do as struggling small and large presses. For that, it awards them with a recognition plaque highlighting their efforts in diversity. We work to help them for the books by South-Asian Diaspora poets and writers.

You can also help by joining our growing list of subscribers and by buying books by our award-winning poets and writers.

Director

Yogesh Patel

Consultant Editor

Dr Debjani Chatterjee MBE

Patrons

Lord Parekh

Lord Dholakia