Sonder Jou/Desolation

About the Book

Sonder Jou - Desolation comprises 164 poems; 120 in Afrikaans, two in Dutch, and 42 in English. Only one English poem is a translation of its Afrikaans equivalent. The volume is an ode to love; homage to loneliness; an intense expression of mourning. It can also be regarded as biographical bibliotherapy. The first section (Youth) consists of 12 short poems in Afrikaans conveying the loneliness the author experienced during his adolescent years. In 19 poems (8 in Afrikaans and 11 in English) of the second section (Seasons of our love) the happiness of finding love and the maturation of the relationship with his wife are conveyed, also the hiccups that occurred. What the loss of his wife meant is evident in the 133 poems (102 in Afrikaans; 31 English) of the main section, Without You - Desolation (Sonder Jou - Verlatenheid). This section is devoted to the poems written during the 20 months following the death of his wife. He now finds himself even more desolate than in his youth.

Several aspects of the volume are of interest. The ability of the author to be in touch with and to express the various facets of his grief in simple language, in a cultural context where the expression of such emotions by men is frowned upon, is noteworthy. The poems also highlight the therapeutic self-help value of bibliotherapy. The poems of loss celebrate the mundane and relatively insignificant daily events that he shared with his wife. In being in touch with his grief and in concretising the accompanying pain he attempts to find meaning in the paradox between consciousness, highly developed as it is in humankind, and death. An answer is not evident, except perhaps that humankind is destined by gravity to be absorbed by the sixth dimension of dark matter. The bilingual aspect of the volume provides an additional aspect of interest.

About the Author

Len Holdstock, PhD, has studied and worked in South Africa, the USA and the Netherlands. At the time of his retirement in 1999 he was professor of Clinical Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He has published widely within and outside the field of psychology; presented papers and conducted workshops in archetypal psychology and Person- Centred therapy in various parts of the world. In psychology his major publications have been in the areas of brain and sleep research, personality and psychotherapy theory, as well as critical theory and cultural psychology.<\p>

He has done extensive work with the indigenous healers of South Africa and endeavoured, not only to Africanise psychology in that country, but the educational system as well. Even in post-apartheid South Africa reconsideration and reshaping of existing curricula and teaching methodologies in terms of African values, are necessary. He believes that sub-Saharan Africa has a great deal to offer in establishing a humane new world order. His last book, Re-examining psychology: Critical perspectives and African insights, Routledge, 2000, addresses the role psychology needs to play in creating universal cultural awareness. Although he focuses primarily on the cultural unawareness in the Western world with respect to sub-Saharan Africa, recent conflicts have pointed out similar shortcomings in the West with respect to Islamic culture. Holdstock has also co-edited a book on Western and Buddhist psychology, Eburon, 1996.

In addition to his publications in psychology he has published on art and education: Transpersonal Art (1986) and Education for a new nation (1987). The present poetry volume is his first experiential publication. It can best be described as his bibliotherapy in which he processes his grief during the first 20 months following the death of his wife, his love of 50 years.