I AM BASTARD I AM WAR The Book

120 page book. Available to order and read from all good online booksellers in Paperback or eBook format. Reader reviews in full below. Note from Alan: I cannot explain why I wrote this piece but I can try using just a few words. After reading and seeing the endless horrors against humanity in Syria a few years ago I wrote a single poem called ‘Tears of a Mother’. As time moved forward these Wars seemed to progress to the state they are as I write today. The history of humanity and war never changes and neither does the outcome. As quickly as war arrives peace follows for a period of time once the nation and armies become tired, jaded and exhausted. The solider regrets his war if he survives only to be followed by a new angry generation that never saw what their fathers saw. War is BASTARD, BASTARD is war. Is there any excuse for WAR? My WAR piece attempts to look at WAR from the perspective of a Father a mother a son and a leader. They all come under the control of BASTARD and that BASTARD is WAR. NOTE: A stage play and performance of this piece is now complete and will be live in the future.

EXTRACT START FROM I AM BASTARD I AM WAR

War Talk: Father and Son The father with a son leaves the meeting knowing his boy, his 19-year old son will be one of those sent into war for a possible death. His heart is heavy and is filled with fear of losing his child. Blood lost is bad enough yet when the blood of your child is to be spilt, his world feels like its ending I walk away from the meeting with my master only to sit on the stairway to cry pain filled tears with thoughts of oncoming rivers of blood to be poured into the ground. My boy is a man yet is a boy to me 19 years of age and he is my child He is a man of youthful influence I know he will be going into the front line where victory is counted in the death of a man They kill 1000, we kill 2000, they kill 2000, we kill 5000, bombs, bullets guns and snipers It’s all a bloody sickening mess My son this is my note to you from my slowing heart This is father, your old father The moment, the second, the minute, the day you arrived into this world, I can see and hear and smell you in my arms right this moment as if it is happening all over again If I lose you to war I shall age a thousand years in a moment, I shall surrender my breath to death. I cannot sit and watch you go my son yet I might just have to do that. I beg you stay here, hide, flight, please don’t run to death for the glory of words that make no sense Why, why, why, should you die for the greed of a nation run by a man that is driven by not the lust for power and rightness, but the blood and the lust for more itself? My son, you will be persuaded, manipulated and fed the daily propaganda and lies of how this small nation so far away is to become our greatest ever threat to yours to our survival You’ll be told how they will try and destroy our liberties, our way of life yet the truth shall be they are either defenders whist under attack Am I a father that is to lie to his own son? My truth is my love for you; you are my baby, my boy, my son and today a man in his youth from the seed of my own life They lie the lies of old lies Son, you listen to me, listen to me, listen to me and stay away from the men of old. They lie and cheat and persuade but not for liberty or honor this is something they do for the glory of nothing that can never last the span of time They are men of the moment never of the future. They ignore history, it’s all been run before, and the end is always the same. There is no victory here for any man This is nothing new my son, no new thing comes from war and no glory can be found in a violent death. You are defending nothing and shall be persuaded to be an ethical invader into other worlds to stop the spread of evil This is a lie; this isn’t true yet my fear is you will be taken away with your youth and all the foolishness that travels in the life of a young man Son I adore every hair upon your head, please stay at home with us and save your life from certain death Father I read your letter Father I read the letter from my leader I heard you I heard him I love you I love my country I have to fight for my country and fight for the greater good. Surely our leaders know more than we do father? I don’t want to die, I don’t want to be injured, I don’t want my life to be a wasteful life yet for the glory and honor and for my faith I shall do as my country has asked me. My life is a glorious life yet my death can be an even more glorious death Son your words are short as your years are short. Youthful thoughts are a deception without experience. I beg of you this is a pathway to hell with an outcome of no good, will you drink tea with me and talk words of peace Father my mind is decided …

END OF EXTRACT FROM I AM BASTARD I AM WAR Deaths by War and Oppression during the 20th Century: 203 million REF: Matthew White, Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2010 The Year 2014 Countries involved in War 60 Groups involved in War 531 The Year 2014 As I write Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, Israel and Gaza burn themselves to the ground in hate, revenge and carnage. Tribe against tribe, nation against nation. It’s a bloody sickening mess. This is a World on the edge, it feels like a turning point, a tipping point. It feels like the end of something, I’m not sure what but it feels like an end.

Readers Write …

WAR is a modern commentary and poetic writing based on the war ridden times today.

WAR is tearful, painful, powerful and direct showing the carnage of WAR and the pain of those in war and close to war. See what some readers are saying. “Brilliant. Breakthrough literature! Alan Forrest Smith’s I AM BASTARD I AM WAR is waging heavy peace. Rarely has a master of commercial marketing spoken so truthfully of the systems thinking of demonizing words and the mechanism by which we justify the destruction of our own species, war. Smith appears to me as fighting for sanity, employing guerrilla poetry with lyrical language. I agree: War is a bloody insane disgrace against humanity. If you read this book, you’ll agree Zoomanity loves a war. While there is ugliness depicted, it is masterfully beautiful in it’s call to action to think peace. ” Ben Mack, author of Think Two Products Ahead & Poker Without Cards Enlightening & Thought Provoking This review is from: I Am Bastard I Am War (Kindle Edition)

If this book doesn’t make you think about war (and life) more deeply than you ever have before, you might want to check you have a pulse.

Written in an unusual style, the author says it started out as a poem and turned into much more. I’m glad it did.Author, Roy Carter The poetic approach reads like performance art April 13, 2015 By Declan Dunn

A wake-up call to a sleeping civilisation built on war, I am Bastard, I Am War journeys from the idea of war to its execution and what’s left behind.

Yet what is missing is what stands out so much, the children sent to war over and over again. The poetic approach reads like performance art, reminding me at times of Whitman’s Song of Myself, and at other times the power of Boots by Rudyard Kipling (in fact, the US military uses a recording of Kipling reading this poem in a violent rant as training to this day). When you wake up, you see the true trickle down of the war economy. This book is not only a wake-up call to a sleeping civilisation, it’s an antidote to Zoomanity. Its style is poetic and staccato, the disconnection of society trickling down to the challenge to communicate to a society entranced with the images and glory of early war media. This will make a fantastic performance piece, which is hinted in the end notes. If this book doesn’t make you think about war (and life) more deeply than you ever have before, you might want to check you have a pulse. Written in an unusual style, the author says it started out as a poem and turned into much more. I’m glad it did.

I Am Bastard, I Am War is a gritty, disturbing, yet ultimately enlightening look at the idea of war… from many angles

By Michael D. Morgan on April 17, 2015 Is it a weakness that ultimately causes war? It’s an interesting thought Alan brings up. And after reading his book, I find it plausible. Especially when you think we went to war over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. When leaders in their ivory towers want to wage war, they have nothing to lose. Yet death, destruction and sadness rain down in a blood coloured storm that takes our loved ones away who had nothing to do with the premise of war. They just do their job and we drape a flag over their coffin and label them heroes if they don’t make it. Or we receive them home to deal with the anguish of the horrors they witnessed with no support from those who sent them off. I Am Bastard, I Am War is a gritty, disturbing, yet ultimately enlightening look at the idea of war… from many angles. Whether it is the weak leader who chooses war over peaceful solutions… or the father explaining to the son the lie of war… you see and feel how wrong it all is. This book should be required reading for leaders who send our youth to battle. The style is different but interesting, and the words hit you square in the gut. Writer, Mike Morgan

“In a mediastream so rife with facile justifications for, and barbaric glorifications of, war – we need more voices like Alan Forrest Smith’s. War is as lyrical as it is poignant.” Author, Mark Joyner, Founder and CEO of Simpleology

I AM BASTARD I AM WAR is available from all good bookstores online and offline, paperback and digital.

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I AM BASTARD I AM WAR