From Me To You

Daphne had always loved flowers, her garden and the countryside. She had a happy marriage and enjoyed bringing up her family of two boys and a girl. The family was never without a dog, who was one of the family. Daphne didn’t start writing poems until later in life, memories started flowing out of her. She would say, “One needs a long quiet time to develop talents, like drawing and writing.” Like those days she spent in the shelter during the War.

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.

Forbidden

Forbidden is a collection of poetry full of humor, wit, and meditation upon all topics from love, places, to philosophy and the classics.

In this collection, the slow-moving and deliberately sensual verse leads to vivid imagery touching both the heart and the soul.

Patel also includes a medley of delightful nuggets from past poets interwoven within her own poems of today to seamlessly form a collection that reads briskly as one moving heartfelt piece.

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.

Flowers and Flames

The author has devoted his life to expounding his belief that poetry seeks to divine the depths of spirituality and brings us towards an understanding of the experience of the soul. He believes that the practice as well as the study of poetry should be inculcated in the young as soon as possible. This has little to do with exams and the curriculum but much to do with living spontaneously. As he puts it:

‘The encouraging of poetry, as with the arts generally at an early age, bears fruit. I remember listening to my infant teacher reading a poem about snow falling in London to a silent and appreciative group. I have never forgotten it.’

Finding God In The Midst of Depression

Have you ever felt so low and had no one to turn to? Or felt like this was the end but were still so afraid?
Do not fear, because there is someone who is always listening... GOD. Whether you believe or not, trust in Him and He can help you.
The poems in this collection were inspired and written through me by God. My story tells of how I became a Christian, enjoyed the highs and survived some very dark times. All thanks to God.
Asking for help, He healed me whilst I was in the midst of depression. He can heal you too.

Falling Leaves

The driving force of this book is the author’s lifelong fascination with human nature. Forty years in the law brought him into contact with a broader cross-section of society than most people would normally experience, or even wish to, and it is their strengths and weaknesses, values and doubts that shaped these poems.

The majority of these poems were written well into the author's retirement. As we know, the ageing process involves a shift in values, priorities and challenges. He faces these head on: dementia, faith, physical decline, even falling in love. Nothing is spared.

A word of caution. Many of the poems are simple and straightforward. And why not? Poetry is for everyone. Some appear simple and straightforward but have a twist or secondary current below the surface. Look out for them. In others the author sets out his views and throws down a gauntlet. In doing so he commits the cardinal sin of the modern age: he asks us to think.

Fall in Love with Your Mind

Fall in Love with Your Mind is a collection of poetry about the wayward notion of creativity as a force to combat darkness on the journey towards self-discovery. It is divided into sections dictating the continuous and frustrating feeling of time slipping away all too quickly on the path from mindless self-destruction, to heartbreak and hopelessness, to learning and growing.
Read each section whenever you feel you can relate to it the most, or when you feel you need it the most. That’s the thing about words on a page – they’re always there. Even if you burn them, the most important ones always remain safe and sound in your mind. Falling in love with your mind is the key to brighter days.
Make a coffee, light a cigarette, do whatever warms your soul; read and be present. You are right here, and that is always enough.