Rise and Fall of My Beloved by Utanu Maa

Please welcome Utanu Maa Rise and Fall of My Beloved

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Rise and Fall of My Beloved

by Utanu Maa

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Poetry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Rise and Fall of My Beloved is a collection of poetry and prose about resilience—about the experience of stigma and rejection, disease and suffering, love and care, loss and grief—and also a testimony of gratitude, forgiveness and togetherness. Each of its three parts is a journey through life’s struggles, pain and loss, all of which require an inner force to overcome, build, rebuild, succeed and heal: resilience. It expresses an undercurrent to an imposed destiny or stigma.

Based on the life experience of my late brother, Rise and Fall of My Beloved is a tribute to mankind’s resilience to overcome adversities. The book takes readers from his vulnerable childhood as a neglected orphan set to die, through a childhood in which he was bullied, to his rise as an accomplished engineer, and sadly to his fall as a dying patient of HIV/AIDS. Each poem depicts the essence of unconditional love and care, the dignity of dying of AIDS, forgiveness, and family bond. This book is a manifesto of my brother’s exceptional resilience, the best memory of him that will live forever. It is an invitation, an inspiration, a reflection that, when mankind encounters struggles, disease, pain, death, loss, grief, we have to grieve and heal, and rebuild.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

Truth and Fears

Susceptible to carrying a disease but avoiding the truth,

Foreseeing and fearing rejection, judgments, isolation,

Discrimination and mockeries, labels and names, shames,

Loss of prestige and respect, love, and self-esteem,

From friends and some family members, and of his work.

He recalled childhood experiences that he had overcome.

Amid achievements, education, family, and a great life,

But bolded by narcissism that success sometimes inflicts,

He lost direction, felt invincible somehow, and did not care.

He offended God Almighty many times.

Among his mistresses, a nun residing in a convent,

An anointed supposedly virgin: pure, chaste, and devoted,

A model to lead by example with morals and virtues,

A bride to God, not a seducer behind the veil as it appeared,

Yet she succumbed to pleasuring the flesh, to a French kiss.

He broke her chastity vows and fell into sin, over and over.

He led her into love madness, so they said, and she grew on

him.

Certainly, debauchery with an anointed offended God.

Fornications in a convent, a place of devotion turned into a

brothel,

Angered God, already disappointed and jealous.

Here had been his darkest secret: failure, sin, and guilt.

He was a man like many in his community or society:

Educated and aware of the risks but still foolish and defiant,

Men reluctant to wear protection for a safe sex encounter,

Driven by the pursuit of skin against skin sensations,

Men, who once infected, avoid the blood test and the

diagnostic,

Men who would continue to spread the virus and disease

around,

Men and women affected but still in denial of symptoms and

tests.

The signs were evident, the infection an inevitable fact,

But Zola was still undiagnosed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I am Utanu MAA. I live in Toronto and work as a public servant within the Ontario Court of Justice. Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, where I studied French Literature and Law before migrating to Canada in 1991, and thereafter studied Fashion Marketing, Paralegal and Law (1year) programs. In 2004, I was a recipient of a prize for the Poetry contest organized by Canada Heritage during the celebration of the Francophonie. “Couleur d’une langue” (The Color of a language), my unpublished poem about the diversity and different accents that give rhythm and power to a language to become an umbrella of one identity. “Rise and Fall of My Beloved” is also my own journey into unconditional love and care, and the resilience to deal with pain, loss, grief, to grieve, heal and continue with life after my brother’s death.

Connect with Utanu Maa:

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorUtanuMaa

Purchase Links:

AMAZON.COM

https://amazon.com/dp/0228836506

AMAZON.CA

https://amazon.ca/dp/0228836506

KINDLE

https://amazon.com/dp/B08M2DNJHP

BOOKSHOP

https://bookshop.org/books/rise-and-fall-of-my-beloved/9780228836506

INDIGO CHAPTERS

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/rise-and-fall-of-my/9780228836513-item.html

BARNES & NOBLE

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rise-and-fall-of-my-beloved-utanu-maa/1138021915

BOOK DEPOSITORY

https://www.bookdepository.com/Rise-and-Fall-of-My-Beloved-Utanu-Maa/9780228836506

RAKUTEN KOBO

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/rise-and-fall-of-my-beloved

SMASHWORDS

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1051884

APPLE BOOKS

https://books.apple.com/us/book/rise-and-fall-of-my-beloved/id1538242460

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3607