I'll Draw an Iris on my Heart and send it to You

The thing about poetry is, that
She has but the simplest of rules.
She does not have to rhyme,
Nor be written in clear lines.
She doesn’t even need true letters,
All she has to do, is move the spirit, break the heart and mend an injured soul.

Helene J. Storm

Heart ’n’ Mind

This poetry book is based on a journey of struggle and hurt. The hope is that the words in here take you through the life journey of Sammy and that the words help anyone who has been through similar times, if not the same. Her aim for this poetry book was to create awareness that no one is ever alone and that there is always someone out there who has suffered in the same way you have.

Yes, the poetry in here is based on loss and violence suffered and for Sammy, writing this book is her way of saying, ‘You don’t have to hurt and suffer in pain alone, write it down and turn it into help for others.’

Generation Care

Drawing on his experience of over 50 years of health care service the author has imagined how life would improve if mankind moved towards a more caring and loving society. While mankind has greatly benefited from the goods and services which have been delivered by capitalist societies, the excesses of capitalism and the selfishness which leads to inequity have ruined many lives. Love calls us to a caring capitalism in which competition delivers high standards while governance protects the poor. Everyone’s basic needs are met by this society. The model of inspection against governance standards has been used with great success by the Care Quality Commission to improve care and to protect vulnerable patients in the UK National Health Service. With the potential disasters of a viral pandemic followed by the environmental threat of global warming, capitalists are being called to work primarily for care and not primarily for money. It is interesting that this same message is contained in the teachings of Jesus who founded our culture.

From Heart to Mind to Words

Indulge in a poetic journey that unravels the essence of self and the enigmatic human conundrum, beckoning you to embark on a path of profound self-evaluation. These poems serve as mirrors, reflecting perspectives uniquely tailored to each reader’s individuality, fostering non-judgmental introspection on a deeply personal level.

The author draws from life’s observations, ingeniously crafting verses that encapsulate universal questions and fleeting glimpses of potential answers – questions that resonate with every soul who encounters them. With each verse, the reader is compelled to transcend the ordinary negativities that shroud their true selves, paving the way for unhindered and retrospective analysis of their actions and motives.

The fluidity of the writing beckons the reader to be wholly present, free of distractions, and beckons them to reflect with unfiltered honesty. Each piece becomes an invitation to explore profound inquiries: Is this me? Do I recognize myself in these lines? Should I take action? Or, at the very least, can I become better?

For The Love of Poetry

John Butler-Hopkins’ For the Love of Poetry opens, appropriately enough, with a sequence of poems about romantic love in all its aspects: the dizzying ecstasies of infatuation and first love, then the brutal lessons of rejection and betrayal, and finally the discovery of a soul mate and the development of a true, long-term relationship.

By contrast, the book’s second half is concerned with the tragedy of young men going to fight in the First World War. Within this, the section ‘The Lost Letters’ combines the subjects of love and war as a soldier and his lover share memories of happier times while they live through the horrors of their current situation.

If you love to read about deep and powerful human-centred emotions, this is a book for you.

Die! Not Likely

I like my poetry to cover Life that others will recognise and relate to.

I try to bring in emotions and humour to help others to think and see a different perspective.

I enjoyed writing this book which just seemed to happen between my second husband dying in 2014 and having my stroke in 2015.

Black Clouds to Sunshine

These poems are the author’s way of expressing her feelings and thoughts, and a way of coping with mental illness experienced by herself and her family. By putting her thoughts into poems, some sad and some funny, it gives her a sense of belief.

She hopes this experiment of hers will help others out there, knowing there is a way to relieve the pressure of anxiety by putting pen to paper and writing about those pent-up thoughts.

Beyond the Moon

Beyond the Moon is an intimate collection of poetry about enormous stigma, Otherness and marginality, detailing with my personal experiences as a young woman living on the cusp of two very different worlds. As a young girl growing up in the United Kingdom, I was continuously made aware of my ethnic differences. The conventional Western education made no allusion to the Mauritian Muslim; I found no commonplace, no companionship with another in this world, no one like me.

Even I deceived myself with the expectation to normalise and acclimatise to the Barbie doll model. I was taught that I was not beautiful because I did not resemble this traditional model. Thus, this collection of poetry materialises and communicates such experiences, exploring the ‘dark side of the moon’.

Becoming a Parent

Becoming a Parent is an exciting and diverse collection of short poems written to be relatable to anyone on this journey.
The time of becoming a parent is an exciting one: a time to learn a lot about yourselves and others. You’ll be faced with unforgettable moments and delightful decisions. This book hopes to give you a little insight to some of these moments and decisions. Some poems express joy, others sorrow; but most express the abundance of love you feel for your child.
Everyone is different in what they experience or what they may choose to do when becoming a parent, and that’s okay.
(The secret messages highlighted in each poem give you a little message as an extra.)

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 Few Years In The Life of a Protest Poet

'I began writing poetry/ditties shortly after moving down to Cornwall back in 1977. It's amazing how inspirational the lapping of the tidal waves can be. Whilst working on a building, I began writing poems about all the different workers on the toilet walls. These were humorous and inoffensive, and although I'd written about the gaffer, he must have liked them, as he never sacked me. 

'The pandemic caused me to put my thoughts down on paper, ranging from what we've done to this planet and its wildlife, to how the Government has dealt with each situation, good or bad.' 

Lori Crasnich