In February 2025, I self-publish my debut collection of poetry, ‘Intimacy in the Expanse’.
And what a journey it has been to get to this point!
I’ve adored the written word for as long as I can remember. Early childhood memories of walking to the library in the winter dark (what adventure!) with my mum in the ‘80s. Devouring volumes of Famous Five, Secret Seven, and Jennings books in the early ‘90s. The sheer joy of discovering Homer’s epic tales of Odysseus at GCSE. Being introduced to the great Seamus Heaney at A-level. Consuming the works of Bukowski and Fante whilst working a dead end retail job in London.
Words, writing, literature, and poetry have always fed my soul. And poetry especially, has been such a source of sanctuary for me. An art form to make meaning out of madness; a tool to navigate my innermost thoughts and experiences: an alchemy to weave meaning into memory.
To see my thoughts dancing across a page has always been enough for me. But more recently – despite the aching vulnerability – the compulsion to share the truth of a lived experience.
As you enter the life stage of early middle age, you are at the very apex of serving others: work, career, family, obligation: any semblance of ‘you’ falls right to the bottom of the pecking order.
And perhaps this is why the process of, and path to, self-publishing has been such an enriching experience: something for me, and me alone.
I have derived so much nourishment, meaning and purpose from bringing this humble collection of poetry into the world as a printed booklet. That in itself is its own reward.
But stranger still, a physical manifestation gives my words an actual life; they will now take on a new meaning as they go out into the world to be received by new eyes and different minds; different perceptions, different connections.
Fragments of feeling, a scrapbook of the soul, the diary of a nobody: these poems are literal pieces of me. To share such intimacy with the world is both terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure.
But I look forward to sharing my poems with anyone interested enough to read them.
And I thank the written word for everything it has given me.
A Seasoned Soul. 