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AE Ballakisten

AE Ballakisten is a South African poet and social philosopher. AE Ballakisten was born in an old converted police station in Cape Town in the winter of 1970 and grew up in a South Africa besieged by Apartheid at its most intense. He has been a talkshow host, engineer, bodyguard, professor, newspaper vendor, actor, entrepreneur, vacuum-cleaner salesman, business director and amateur baseball player. As he writes in the last line of the poem, A Consecration, “Light on man’s condition, man’s spirit, the purpose of my writing”, his writing focuses on the human condition and the human experience - its intensity, its sadness and its beauty. He is a Christian who sees merit in humanism, a capitalist who refuses to disregard socialism, a futurist grounded in history and an optimist with regular bouts of despair. He has worked and studied in the USA and the UK, and now lives in Johannesburg.

He has been writing poetry since the age of eighteen and has had a number of poems published in journals, anthologies and newspapers

AE Ballakisten published his first collection of poetry in 2009, titled HEAP OF STONES which is a selection of forty poems from two decades of his poetry, many written while in his twenties. The book opens with a pledge by the poet; that his poetry will always reflect his “true word.” Indeed the poems have a bold honesty; they are a powerful reflection of the human experience and range in emotions from anger and heartbreak to hope and contentment. HEAP OF STONES is a poetry-journal that depicts the intimate thoughts and emotions of a man who has overcome great socio-political odds and personal challenge, who here, as in his life, dedicates his talents and depth of insight to the human cause. The collection contains accessible and thought-provoking poems which show A E Ballakisten to be gifted storyteller and thoughtful commentator on modern society