along comes a war – Ukraine 2022-2025

26 June 2025 by Leave a Comment

My new book, along comes a war – Ukraine 2022-2025, was published by Mad Bear Books on 24 June, to coincide with the NATO Summit in The Hague. I worked with Kyiv-based photographer Bohdana Bun to create a dialogue between poetry and photography and the book is already a #1 bestseller in the photojournalism category.

Blending perspectives from Kyiv with those watching in solidarity from afar, it explores all the emotions and passions and the themes of nationalism, resistance and complicity, while probing how (or whether) art can make a difference.

All profits will go to the Come Back Alive Foundation, supporting Ukrainians in their defence.

Inside, you’ll find:

Activist poetry featuring heroic Ukrainian writer-resisters including Victoria Amelina, Volodomyr Vakulenko and Kazimir Malevich, as well as the long, resonant tale of Snake Island, famous from the age of Helen of Troy and Achilles till the day its defenders said “russian warship, go f*ck yourself”;

Sonnets, villanelles, tanka and haiku with civilian perspectives on conflict, hope, and resilience (Ukrainian and global), including blackseafugue (a modern casting of Célan’s deathfugue) and our dreams are filled with drones;

Striking images capturing the surreality of life under attack, showing the great city of Kyiv in all its seasons, with its street-life and street-art, the mythic figure of Berehniya, the iconic Bridge of Glass, knocked out tanks and drones, seas of flags honouring the memory of loved ones, glimpses of Lviv and Odesa, galleries and parks.

You can order the print and ebook here.

We hope you’ll enjoy it!

 

Filed Under: activist poetry, freddie omm, freedom of speech, future of the book, haiku, Love poetry, love poem, poetry by freddie omm, solstice, sonnet, tanka by freddie omm, villanelle, winter solstice Tagged With: , ,

winter solstice—yule 2021

21 December 2021 by 3 Comments

the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night

and though the time is festive we can close the darkness out in sleep

until we rise again to greet the waking light

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last night’s cold moon is waning gibbous and the town shines bright

and while the spreading mist and frost grow thick and deep

the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night

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we walk this world we wish for warmth and all that’s pleasing to our sight

but nightmare deepfake monsters of perverted dreams disturb us in our sleep

until we rise again to greet the waking light

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O pity our poor planet filled with foolish deathly viral agents mired in their own shite

they rave and squall around our godforsaken earth and even as we weep

the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night

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but there’s a ruthless aimless tenderness in nature’s creatures and in you that rare delight

we find when we’re alert to each mere moment whose uniqueness we can keep

until we rise again and greet the waking light

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now in the southern hemisphere the sun shines at her height

but we are locked in dark and where the shadows creep

the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night

until we rise again and greet the lengthening light.

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freddie omm

Filed Under: freddie omm, nature unveiling herself to science, poetry by freddie omm, solstice, villanelle, winter poem Tagged With: , , , ,

when we make love a billion cells break free (villanelle)

13 December 2019 by 11 Comments

when we make love a billion cells break free

our bodies flowing fluid like disgendered

creatures of great beauty growing unbound gloriously

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although we’re only human too and so quite ordinary

we spiral into plasmic dust as spores sprinkling our eggshell world

while making love a billion cells break free

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in some identities we hardly see

among us – beside, within, beyond us – enraptured,

creatures of great beauty rising upward gloriously

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like stars that gleam and glow in space and transiency

like birds in deep still forest undergrowth unheard

love is made perpetually so billions of our cells break free

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our love in life is that which lets us be

ourselves in an intensity of moments scattered

creatures of great beauty growing unbound gloriously

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we find new freedoms freeform ecstasy

now top and out of mind and sight no need for thought nor any word

when we make love a billion cells break free

like creatures of great beauty growing unbound gloriously

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griffith park

LA

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Photo  of LA by Freddie Oomkens, taken from Griffith Observatory, September 2019

Filed Under: be..., cosmic cycles, creativity, love poem, Love poetry, love poem, meditations, by philippe de saint maurice, online poem, poem by freddie omm, poetry by freddie omm, villanelle Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

darkness fades: equinox (villanelle)

18 May 2011 by 2 Comments
saturn at equinox

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when darkness fades, and dawn lights up your eyes,
deep in the morning silence we make love –
melt in the dream of a day as night dies.

i come to life in your love, and realize
you’re the sun-cusped girl i’ve always dreamed of
when darkness fades, and dawn lights up your eyes.

you turn me on each waking hour, sunrise
to sunrise, all radiating love –
melt in the dream of a day as night dies,

as earth tilts, night and day merge, and we rise
at the equinox – emotion’s axes move
when darkness fades, and dawn lights up your eyes.

spectral in the shadows, dark matter flies
while we explore each arc of our subsolar love –
melt in the dream of a day as night dies.

we find ourselves – feverish fantasies,
bodies in ethereal motion, orbiting love
when darkness fades, and dawn lights up your eyes –
melt in the dream of a day as night dies.

                                                                         freddie

Filed Under: darkness fades, equinox, poem by f.k. freddie omm, villanelle