Pretty Flowers In the Snow

Enter a world of dream and reality.  Where the afterlife and our world meet. Where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Where death, horror, the surreal, reality and pain meet. Gothic and surreal overtones are just some of the ideas that permeate this collection of poems.  
Pretty Flowers in the Snow is the second book of the ‘Poppy’ trilogy, revealing that the world Lilith entered is full of flowers, smothered by snow. The flowers are a reflection of her and the torment she is in.

Postcolonial Metaphysics

Postcolonial Metaphysics is a debut poetry collection with a difference. The poems in this collection deal with contemporary political issues like colonialism, classism, migration, racism and social justice. This poetry collection includes introspective reflections about the philosophy of mind and the mind-body problem which draw on the author’s rich inner life. Other poems address the nature of mental illness to shed light on experiences which are often subject to stigma and misunderstanding.

Each of the poems in this collection engages with its audience and encourages readers to challenge their cherished beliefs and open their minds to new ways of perceiving the world. Overall, this powerful and moving debut poetry collection hopes to spark real change in the hearts and minds of its readership. The powerful poems in this collection are written to inspire the imagination of the readers and provide unique insights into the globalized and hyperconnected world we live in.

Poems from Poems

These poems are a response to a wide range of well-known poems from across the ages. They are written in the same poetic form as the originals and offer a modern perspective on their central themes. The reader is invited to look up the original – perhaps to re-read a loved poem or to explore unfamiliar ones – and see how far attitudes have changed over time. The environment is a particularly poignant topic, as so many older poets were consoled by its seemingly enduring beauty in troubled times. Another theme is the belief in the afterlife, which was central to many of the earlier poets, and the contrast with our own largely sceptical age. There are also, of course, universal themes such as love, death, change and parting.

The tone aims to echo each original, with satire and humour mixed with more serious and reflective moods.

Poems from Paintings

These poems were inspired by works of art, chosen across place and time for their intrinsic power and the challenge they present to provoke thoughts and feelings in the viewer.

Ideally, readers should find a reproduction of the painting – easily available on the internet – to contemplate, before reading the poem. The hope is that readers might become aware of previously unnoticed aspects of the work and be interested in seeing how their own responses match or indeed conflict with those of the author.

Thus, the collection aims to offer an invitation to contribute to an ongoing dialogue between the artist, the poet and the reader. All art forms open a window into other lives and ways of seeing; this interplay between the genres provides an opportunity to reflect upon much that lies beyond one’s own immediate experience.

Phoenix Ablaze

My heart bled into these pages,

Soaking them up

With all the rainbows and rages

Of thought-filled nights

And ill-thought actions.

My heart bled

Into your hands.

So, hold it close,

With all the rainbows and rages.

Hold it dear for the entire ride.

Outside Looking In

“A characteristic of autism can be a difficulty using speech to express thoughts, feelings, and experiences. However, there is often an eloquence in self-expression using the arts, including poetry. Clare’s sensitive and engaging poems provide an insight into her mind and her autism.”
Professor Tony Attwood, author of The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome.
What if you were given a life-altering diagnosis at 57? One that meant you aren’t who you thought you were? But one that explained everything?
These poems vibrate with intensity and curiosity about life, and because she came to this knowledge so late in life, many of Clare Smith’s poems focus not so much on what it means to be autistic, but on what it means to be human.
Throughout her life, as she struggled to fit into a world that to her was utterly strange, she poured her hopes, her joys and at times her despair into words.
She trained as a journalist, taught to cut out all emotion from her reporting, but her private writing is different – she created poetry that spoke to her deepest needs. There, exposed in her writing, is her yearning to belong, her astonishment at the physical world, her knowledge – decades before the doctors confirmed it – that she is different.
She’s spent a lifetime trying to make sense of her life – a journey that many of us, whether autistic or neurotypical, are on, and one in which we all face the same questions.

Out Of 2020

2020 was different for all of us. It may have been difficult but if we look at it through a different lens and see how we can grow then it becomes a new experience – a way “Out of 2020.”

It is only when things become a challenge that we learn to grow and evolve. The last few years have become the start of a new revolution towards an experience we all need to achieve our purpose.

Ottilie Rose, A Collection of Poems

This book is many things but firstly it is heartfelt. It is about a father, a human observing life in every way it presents, through his personal struggles and the struggles of the world. The many big questions posed are underlined by the hope that the world can be a better place for his young daughter for whom this book is titled and all the children of the world and the future. Many books will be written about this world, its challenges, and its complexities. Ottilie Rose attempts to wade through all that through poetry such that through the artistic exploration of the human condition we might discover something more beautiful about us.

Oteng's Poems: Files of Wisdom Dialogue

Oteng's Poems: Files of Wisdom Dialogue; a collection of poems penned in a vibrant notion of an intuitive poet in an intrinsic verse... Conspired to inspire every reader to find solace in all emotional moments and events - only poems can do.

These wise words of wisdom are a mirror to reflect and a chance to resonate to all the inner thoughts and feelings within, relating to general life ordeals and experiences as well as nature as a whole.

Only Eternity Is Forever

There are many ways when sitting quietly whereby our emotions may be stirred. By pictures, static or moving, by sound, recorded or natural, by smell and even touch. However, the medium by which our minds have most latitude to wander is the written word. This can be in many forms but the one which arguably makes the lasting impression is poetry.

Circumstances may change but the memories live on.

One Year on My Hundred

In the vibrancy of nature’s year, the author dances through fields of flowers in his wondrous relationship, ever-thinking to be married. Smiles and fast pace leave little time to pause and to just be. After the death of his father, he realises that the very things that make him so happy have become scars to his thoughts.

His mind’s comfort zone throughout is under the protective canopy of the trees. Every day, the changing skies affect his well-being, and by looking upwards, he wonders of the liberty of flying and what lies beyond. Maybe there is a heaven.

Set to the backdrop of Hazlemere and the Buckinghamshire landscape, the book allows the reader to realise the beauty of life; however, each person needs an angel, whether religious or not.

While in Barbados, he walks happily on beaches, yet the sands hold the sadness of the death.

Sewn through the pages are ribbons that are his show of emotion and pride.

This is a book where each poetic piece is complete in its own right but it needs to be read from page one to the end to appreciate how the common themes pass through.

One Journey Tells a Thousand Stories

This book is filled with poems that will speak to the individual’s soul. Words coming from experiences that many have been through. From a person’s darkest times to their brightest days, their lowest moments to their highest points – a book of truth that’s refreshing to the mind. A book that shows courage, strength and spirit from each story that is hidden between the lines of every poem that is read. From tales of love to the fights a person is forced to face, the wars inside a person’s mind to the friendships formed along each journey, a troubled past to the future that can and needs to be, a child in its first days on this earth to the time that child is ripped away.

A relatable collection that will take your mind to its most vulnerable points and open your eyes to feelings that many have felt but have never understood.