If Only the City Cries

By Adut loi Akok

PROLOGUE

I would be very dishonest if I lie that I knew the terms " Poetry, poem or poet" before I lost my mother.
I wrote my first poem on her remembrance day a few years back. However, I didn't know that when a heartfelt quote is long enough, it becomes a poem. All my primary exercises books were full of lengthy quotes I could now relate to poems. I honestly didn't know I would think of another poem on another day for any other purpose rather than my mother. My experiences of agony and the resilience inherited from a parent, would make me reflect on my life in a few phrases " I am my mother's Wildest dream. ", " A decade of Decay " And " A rose that grew from concrete." in honour of Nyajuok Tongyik, my friend MK Kuol, and Tupac Shakur books titles.
There is a child under a flooded Rakuba right there in the city; hungry, cold, forlorn and broken with everything to write, but fears his/her life. His/her life remains a body language of sad poems unveiled like a portrait on a billboard for every passing person to read. I love writing about them, too. I have passed the phase of being a poet of myself, now I'm their poet laureate, and each poem is a letter to whom it may concern. This book could be extraordinary with titles like " Sonder " or " The battle of darkness and my soul." but since the city that has seen hell involved us all, the book eventually entitled itself.

All in all, I will be available for your feedback. Please don't forget to assist a child that wants to read himself raising a voice from the pages of this collection. We are all meant to heal each other's wounds on a dark day.
Have a blessed reading

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9914773044
• ISBN13: 9789914773040
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: 978-9914-773-04-0
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"