I am a Methodist and I count myself very fortunate to be so encouraged and uplifted by our wonderful ministers. I am also both lucky and deeply grateful that I am still able to comfortably travel on buses, trains, and in cars, to fly on planes, and to walk with the aid of my crutches.
Old, Who Me! God bless you all.
I turned to poetry when prose seemed too slow and laborious a way for my impatient, unskilled teenage self to deal with. I was slowly heading for habitual self-harm, and writing poetry saved me! I discovered a way of expressing myself with no need to share it and be judged by others. I could get any difficult and/or destructive feelings out of my head, where they might fester, onto the page and put it aside and forget about it if I wished. I feel that it protected my mental health; it always did, and it continues to do so. I could not, however, have predicted the wider unintended consequences. I became better at written expression in all aspects of my professional and personal life. I believe I am also more verbally articulate as a result too, and it has allowed me to focus and reflect on many things beyond the practice of written and verbal expression. It has magnified my enjoyment of nature and of life generally.
Theological and philosophical discourses are often complex and unpopular among the public. Poetry is elegant, simple, humorous, and substantive. Human intellect questions and challenges ideas, and the outcome may not be conclusive or satisfactory. Human emotions, however, do not require evidence and are not prone to doubt and disputes. It is probably easier to touch someone’s heart than convince their intellect. The poems in this book are meant to convey a message at the heart of the Christian Gospel. It declares that God is within man’s heart. This will be achieved by stirring or awakening the personal emotions of the readers. It is like touching strings on a musical instrument to produce the right note. When the first note is played, the rest of the melody will follow, and man and God will dance together to the Promised Land.
These poems are not just words on a page; they are footprints in soil and feathers in flight.
In Roots and Wings, The Literacy Guy, Dr Zidane X. Salmon, traces the tender, turbulent journey of a little Black boy from the vibrant shores of the Caribbean to the complex terrain of the United Kingdom. This striking debut collection is both a love letter to home and a brave reckoning with displacement, identity, and transformation.
Each poem is rich with rhythm, memory, and cultural pride grounded in the soil of ancestry yet reaching boldly toward possibility. Through vivid imagery and unapologetic truth-telling, Salmon explores what it means to belong, to resist, and to rise as a young Black man navigating two worlds.
From the sting of racism to the balm of community, from inherited wisdom to the longing for freedom, The Roots and Wings is a testament to resilience and becoming. These verses will speak to anyone who has ever straddled borders, geographical, emotional, or spiritual and wondered if they were enough.
This is more than poetry. This is a flight from root to sky.
In Candilaso: A Poetic Sweet, the poems explore the beauty nature provides: purple fog under El Escorial outside Madrid, Spain, from turmoil to thankfulness to God for recovering from sickness, gleaming blue eyes by strong light reflection and vase artistry silhouetted by a woman reaching out for affection as she sings a German Lied. These are just a small sample of what you will delve into when reading this book.
This book is a continuation of the style found in Casey Krysztofik’s previous book, Tanka Cavalcade: Referring not to toy construction trucks, except now free from self-restricted poetry form. It includes an epigraph poem about lessons being ignored by some from history.
From the Ashes of an Unknown Burning Soulless
In “Bones and Bitter Figs”, Miguel Santiago invites you on an unflinching journey through the fractured landscapes of our shared humanity. This evocative collection delves into the marrow of memory, unearthing sacred decay and generational wounds that bind us all.
From the carnival of self-delusion where blessed professionals dance with painted masks to the apocalyptic spectacles where even madness finds its truth, Santiago’s poetry reflects the places we’ve bled, broken, and sought redemption.
“Sometimes when we wander lost, we find ourselves in all the places we never thought to look.”
Traverse the liminal spaces between darkness and light, where consciousness unravels and societal decay seeps into the foundations of our world. Through visceral imagery and raw emotion, these poems grapple with personal dissolution, moral collapse, and the ghosts we carry within us.
Encounter the haunting echoes of smokeless cities, silent screams behind closed doors, and phantoms lingering at the edges of perception. Yet, within the ruins, there’s a relentless pursuit of meaning, connection, and the possibility of renewal.
“These poems are not just lamentations—they prove that even in our most profound darkness, we still seek meaning, connection, and dare to speak our truth.”
“Bones and Bitter Figs” is a profound exploration of the human condition—a tapestry woven with stark honesty and undeniable resilience. Miguel Santiago’s debut collection is a powerful reminder that in our breaking, we find our beauty; in our scars, stories of survival; and in our alleged existence, the most profound connections.
May these words find meaning for you.
Calling this new poetry may seem unusual, given that this self-curated collection spans five decades of writing. Covering a wide range of subjects, from timeless emotions to political and social issues, these poems are presented with a distinctive voice that reflects years of poetic exploration.
This marks the poet’s first standalone collection, bringing together works that, until now, have only appeared in small selections. Between 2010 and 2012, no more than three of these poems were published in poetry anthologies and on the Poetry Library website.
Now, for the first time, these poems are gathered in a single volume, offering readers a journey through a lifetime of verse.
Love, loss, finding oneself and healing – all these things can be found in the pages of Space & Time.
The author touches on each aspect that may have occurred in her own life or in the lives of those around her.
There are trigger warnings, places to find help, and messages of hope.
“Speak them out; these words have a voice.”
And if they speak to you, keep speaking back to them, to the spiritual being who starts speaking of love within you!
But here is a mystery… Why is “the more spiritual” not also “the more literal”? Instead, being literal is often seen as “legalistic and just barely possible”. Yet, the more spiritual a command seems, such as “You shall love the Lord your God”, the more idealistic and vaguely impossible it feels. The more is less, and the less is more. Is this, then, a law of God? How do we explain it? The Divine must surely be—though it is not for me to speak personally for God! Except that He commands us to proclaim what we hear!
And so God inspires me, prays in me, and changes me. And so I pray…
Dear God and Father of our Lord Jesus, and through him, the dearest of fathers—for that is what you are to us!
Please reveal to each of us, as your children and part of your family, that we are learning of your merciful goodness. Show us how deeply you loved us in giving us your own life-changing, merciful hope through forgiveness, offered to all humanity through your own son’s sacrifice!
You achieve goodness in us and give us hope by leading us to trust and glory in your merciful love!
You ask us to reply that if we wish to live like the Lord Jesus and be alive in him, you can enable us to die to sin and come alive to you, our carer, his Good God.
Now, being always able to pray, to love and be honest in your Holy Spirit, when we ask, you may then grant us your holiness and the help we need to desire, seek, and dedicate ourselves to your pure goodness. It was just as our Saviour prayed.
“Into your fatherly hands I give my all,” because he knows your pure goodness is his wholeness.
Praise you, Holy Spirit, who provides pardon and guides all God’s children. Please breathe into me and through me your loving integrity today and for all eternity. Inspire and encourage us to accept your real peace as your gift, knowing our friendship in you is a true joy. Let us care simply that we are who we are meant to be in you! So that through yourselves, if needed, we would willingly sacrifice to be together in your love!
And so I pray to love, to be honest, to pray again and again, and to rest in your good, gracious, and generous love!
In Detour, there is an accident; a road train lies on its side blocking the highway. No one is killed, fortunately. The ambulances are standing around with nothing to do. Traffic is diverted off onto side roads. Journeys are interrupted. Everyone is late.
So begins a series of observations and affections in this new collection about how we will be made to turn off the main road and what it’s like to eventually get out of our cars and walk.
When I reached 78 I began to write about how it feels getting older and how I am trying to cope. I shared my rhymes and they were well received and so I was encouraged to keep writing and I did!
I’ve had so much fun writing them and sharing them with groups of pensioners locally. I’ve met so many lovely people and we always have plenty of laughter and chat because they feel just the same!
I hope that you enjoy them too!
We all remember the lockdown. Adjusting to life without our usual freedoms took time, and even the animals seemed confused about where the boundaries lay. The empty streets and unsettling silence created an almost eerie atmosphere.
As always, it was women who bore the burden of keeping food on the table, soothing tempers, and managing the frustrations that seemed to arise from nowhere. In a time of frayed nerves and unexpected struggles, the lessons learned were hard but unforgettable.
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