As I Rhymember It!

This little volume of poems and short stories is an absolute gem. It is the first time these writers have cooperated on a work published in the UK; they are already both published in Europe.

The mix of verse and stories makes it easy for the reader to pause and reflect, when required. The theme is “relationships” remembered and “Rhymembered” with plenty of poetic licence. Relationships in all their forms, noble, spiritual, sensual, and sexual. The wanting, the chasing, the capture, the high-octane climaxes, and all that follows. Sadly, sometimes abject failure and painful defeat.

All human emotion is here, raw, and unexpurgated. The twist is the way the authors decide to treat their subject. Doom and gloom play no part in this work. It’s light, wry, and lively throughout. As I Rhymember It! uses wit to smooth and sooth the many emotional extremes.

But this is no bedroom expose. The “action” takes place in a variety of settings as diverse as, a golf club AGM, a travelling Victorian circus big top, a suburban restaurant, and a European shopping Mall.

For an ever-changing backdrop, to the ever-changing world of human relationships, look no further than, As I Rhymember It! by Finbar Hanaghan, from the original ideas of Barry Thomas Harris.

Anthology Volume V At the Merest Whisper of Your Gentle Voice, I Find Myself With Child...

The Broken-hearted

How much love can one take with a broken heart?
How much love can one give with a broken heart?
How much love can one give to those we love with a broken heart?
How much love can be given by those that love us with a broken heart?
How much love can be taken and not returned with a broken heart?
How much love can be given and not returned with a broken heart?
What price a broken heart?
Where will the pain and the loneliness of the broken-hearted end?
But, all hope is not lost, for love a broken heart can mend,
For love is to the broken heart, the first, foremost and finest friend.

Another Day's Journey

We all go through journeys in our lives and often feel that we are on this journey alone. It is nice to know that the everyday ups and downs are the experiences that can make us or break us.
When we walk in someone else’s shoes for a bit we can sympathize, laugh, cry, agree or disagree and at that point know that we are not alone in this life’s journey. We keep going, we keep living, and we keep experiencing the journeys in our lives that make us who we aspire to be, who we want to be and who we are.
Look at your life and the journeys you are going through and think of all the roads to come, then realize that your past experiences are the things that motivate your future journeys. Love, peace, joy, and happiness are journeys that we should have every day. But we do not!
Walk with me through a couple of journeys in my life.

And Then I Met You

Eventually, we find someone Or maybe they find us… Who has no desire to change us For they love us exactly as we are Who has no desire to control us For they know that love is freedom Who has no desire to belittle us For they yearn to see us grow Somebody who communicates Only through the vibration of love Somebody who creates a safe space For us to knock down our walls And somebody whose only desire for us Is that we follow our bliss In this sanctuary of love… There is no drama No criticism No jealousy No manipulation No attack No neediness Only love Acceptance And freedom When we find this somebody… Or maybe they find us We finally understand… Why we had to go through all the pain.

An Enquiry into the Delight of Existence and the Sublime

In his debut collection of poetry, H. K. G. Lowery explores a journey incorporating all the natural anxieties and pains of living, leading to an understanding of real forgiveness and redemption.

From the first poem of the collection, An Ode to Father John Misty, he sets the scene touching on societal issues such as racism, homophobia, religion, addiction and consumerism. The darkness of such issues, as well as other emotional issues, are given light gradually when he journeys into the positive attributes of forgiveness, hope in the God, the wonderment of nature, self-acceptance and salvation. The collection begins to rotate towards the Sublime with A Requiem for St. Francis which holds a strong personal resonance from the time he visited Assisi in Italy.

Each poem commences with an epigraph which summarises each individual poem. The final poem sees all twelve epigraphs combine into a conclusion of the collection which results in a cathartic outpouring where the delight of existence is realised.

An Enquiry into the Delight of Existence and the Sublime is a personal journey, a rise from darkness to light, from despair to hope.

All in Good Time

‘I sit and write poems for minutes not hours, whether sitting in traffic or hiding from showers’ typifies the urge to express my poetry and verse, inspired by feeling, thoughts and everyday life. Words from the heart to those that just have me laughing through each and every line, I trust in sharing an anthology that you will read over and over again, to share with those around you, from young to old alike. Poetry both emotional and entertaining, romantic and in tribute, are words and thoughts that readers will resonate with and most of all enjoy.

After the Applause

'Blurb'

Contained within, Poetic words, some grim, of my recent experiences, during these times mysterious, of love and loyalty, and life’s’ great frailties, words of understanding, and observations on society, I share all this with you, humor, tears, happiness, fears, nakedly I bear my soul, for you to read, because we all need to forgive ourselves in times like these. 

A Year of Words

The year is 2007 and my mind is full of poems and a need to write. These poems I wrote are a diary of emotions reflecting the day that they were written. They are an eclectic journey through my year. They reflect an emotional journey whose intent is to diarise in rhyme the moment they were written.

Oft the poems are whimsical, sometimes philosophical, and other times musing. The poems were written without edits, the poems in this compendium are of the moment, no revisions were ever considered. These poems are my conversation with you, they are your insight into a very mercurial mind, full of emotion.

I have written poems all my life, and now at 74 some of them have found a page and an audience, please enjoy.

A World of Stone

From Mireille Saba Redford, author of A City Across the Night, The Waltz of Dust and The Wounded Virtue, and translator and editor of The Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, here is a new collection of English poems that will take you to a forgotten land where nothing seems to matter anymore.
A World of Stone adopts the voice of a woman who finds her life turned upside down when faced with the harsh realities of the modern world and clings to her childhood memories, when the land of legends was a truly mysterious and captivating place.
It highlights her love that could not overcome her pride, her loneliness caused by the many losses she has encountered, and her sorrows amidst the fast and sad changes in the world, such as humanitarian crises, drug abuse, violence, alienation, inequality, power in the hands of the few and abuse of human rights.
Throughout the poems, you will hear and feel all the torments, disappointments and cries which somehow have the power to change the way some perceive the world. However, there is a clear message that despite losing its ‘gentility’, the world can still have a ‘Margin of Peace’ that would guarantee its security and sustainability.
This book of love and anger, of the living and the dead, displays the values that once formed the very pillars of our society, and sends a call to restructure what is left and to stop the decline in civil liberties. Its vivid descriptions shed light on the poet’s own experiences, while stressing the need both to save a world on the brink and to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable by a return to the humanitarian principles of equality and justice.

A Word of Hope

Each of us are on the journey of mortality. A journey in which no one is spared a handful of heartaches, a time of trial, or a darkest hour. And though our time on Earth is a time for joy, love, and life– there will come a time, or many, of shadow when a simple word of hope is all that seems to part the darkness surrounding us. A time when it is only hope that is light enough to keep us moving on our path. Where this hope can be found is a question whose answer is too individually unique to capture in a simple phrase.

A Word of Hope is a collection of poetry that explores some sources of hope and the faith required to find them. Other poems in the collection paint a picture of the hardships of mortality as these are the times hope is most needed. These poems serve as reminders that no matter what may darken our lives, there is some light that will always shine. There is always hope to be had.

A Tale of Crystal Visions

There’ll be song and laughter, music and dance

This night is so young, dreamer of sweet dreams

There be playful romantic song per chance

Before the morning where the dawning gleams

Our souls are like diamonds

with facets cut by the masters

We are capable

We expect the unexpected

And we think the unthinkable

And each time we stay connected

Life becomes more incredible

We do undoable doing

And find the unfindable

And time in mindful thinking

We reach, grasp the unreachable

We stand amazed at new meaning

At new found realizations

At new found paths we are treading

And always there are new questions

We then learn the unlearnable

Question the unquestionable

We achieve the unachievable

And find that, we are capable

A Spoondrift of Pearls

This lyrical collection of poems is inspired by the tiny island of Eilean Bàn, lying off the Isle of Skye, the final home to Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water.
Lesley Kahney worked as a volunteer warden on the island for many months, observing the otters, seals and dolphins; absorbing the rhythms of the sea, clouds and nature.
Vivid and rich in description, the poems capture the detail in nature. We catch glimpses of a vanishing Scotland with bothies, otters and selkies. Using metaphor, symbolism, and mythology, her poems connect with the history and mystery of the island. Whether depicting seagulls, primroses or seals; the themes of life, death, hope, and impermanence linger at the heart of the poems.
With language that is both tender and raw, an emotional journey is taken through the ordinary and gilded with the microscope of the extraordinary. Here is an invitation to immerse yourself in the scent of sea mists and bluebells, and to give your attention in every moment to being part of nature. Whether a fan of Gavin Maxwell or not, these poems will speak to anyone who likes nature or to be by the sea.