Grief Is

Catherine O’Connor tells the story of grief in poetic form.

A moving and honest reflection of the desolation, isolation, and emotional consequences of loss and grief.

It brings light and hope to the heart.

Glass and Keys

Glass and Keys is the first book published by Samuel Rankin. It features the very first poems he ever wrote as well as the latest. To read this book is to travel through the evolution of Sam’s poetic journey from writing behind a till on the back of receipts to his most recent and most developed material. This, above all, is an insight into the mind of a young writer who does not shy away from talking about his miseries, fears and views on the modern world. Whether you like fast-paced rhymes, laid-back first-person commentary or thought-provoking literature… Glass and Keys has it all.

Giant Footsteps

Bill Milton’s poetry is a tour de force and is never far away from the experience of every day life and treads a fine line between the sublime and humourous. Most readers will be able to identify with many of the subjects covered, as Milton’s poetry manages to vividly paint a picture of daily life in postwar Britain.

Many of the poems have hidden depths intended to invoke a smile with some clever wordplay. This is Milton’s second collection in his trilogy of light-hearted poetry.

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.

Frozen

You are not alone in your grief and anger. You are not alone in your despair, waiting for an honest call to action. You are not alone in your need to be empowered and emboldened. May you find the companionship you seek as you read the poems of Frozen.
And together, we will thaw.

From the Mountain to the Waterfall

Come one, come all

Lace up your boots

It’s time for the hike

Side by side

Or single file, if you like

Pack your bag

With new & the old

The familiar, yet unfamiliar

Dress for the cold

Off on the journey, sticks in the ground

The guide leads the way

No map to be found

One foot in front of the other

The sun up ahead

The path unfamiliar

Companions, friends, lovers

Waiting to be led

From Inside The Beast

'The wild waters
Spoke in frenzied sounds
The thunder about a mile away
Barrel staves from the bayside
Broke through the Beach
Finally free
When the water and the wind
Swept the sand away...'

This is a collection of 100 poems and appropriations of the many hundreds Salander wrote while serving time in the New York State Department of Corrections.

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?

Fox Spirit

In his third book of poetry, Wilson relates stories and dilemmas that grow out of the hidden tracks of everyday life, as they take us in time and outside of time.

In Fox Spirit, words are at play and hopefully even in the hardest poems we will still find happiness. From darkness they follow a light towards new understandings and discoveries.

Foraging

She can be found anywhere – sitting in a café, walking along a rocky beach, cramped in coach class, or bored at her desk. Heartbroken and lonely, she seeks solace, another chance, and redemption in snippets of words, phrases, and puzzling rhymes. These missives to others capture her passions, grief, and bubbly glee. Her mind fades in and out at these moments, almost drunkenly grabbing any napkin to jot down cryptic notes in pencil or pen before folding it haphazardly and shoving it into her wallet.

Years later, she retrieves these tattered memos and in the quiet of early morning coffee or late evening wine, she writes, drafts, edits, and trims, perfecting the feelings, capturing the place, time, and emotions that were almost lost.

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.

Follow The Wild Sky

Divided into six categories, the poems in Follow the Wild Sky reflect the author’s priorities, with his family coming first.
After poems about the family, the time and place poems react to events, including climate change and pandemics.
The island narrative poems probe some of the historical background to the shifting identities in Ireland and England. They dip down into pre-history and up again to the present day.
The commentary poems range from the serious to the frivolous.  The author hopes they are not too lecturing!
The poems of possibility attempt to wrap some metaphysics around the real world.
The science-fiction poems have been written as forerunners, in the style of treatments for a possible film script.
One of the reasons for the author’s writing is to exercise demons.