Themes

First meetings, new flames, the nerves and giddiness of something starting.

The body, lust and heat: poems of touch and wanting.

Departed loves, unanswered calls, the one that got away.

Forbidden kisses, love triangles, wandering eyes and what they cost.

Choosing each other: the proposal, the vows, and the life built together.

Distance and absence: phone calls, the cold side of the bed, waiting to be together.

Pregnancy, birth and the early years with your daughter.

Dad, Poppa and family: what they gave, and the patterns handed down.

Nyx, Apollo and the dogs: their lives, their mischief, and losing them.

Losing people and animals, and carrying them afterwards.

Clocks, ageing, how fast it all goes, and what’s left at the end.

The pull of the bottle, the fight against it, and the life after.

Masks, self-knowledge, and the versions of ourselves we keep.

Apathy, anxiety, feeling stuck, and the heaviness that comes and goes.

Work, society, faith, and what any of it is for.

Resets, recovery, and loving a little bolder after a fall.

The page, the muse, and why you write at all.

Piano, songs and singing: music that says what words can’t.

Story poems: riders, dragons, witches, fish and fools.

Acrostics, villanelles, shaped poems and riddles.

Poems written to an artwork or to someone else’s poem.

Summers and rain, Cornwall, Sunday roasts: the country you left.

Sirens, coffee shops, high-rises and the comfort of noise.

Tides, boats, shores and rivers.

Rain, snow, storms, and the turn of the year.

Insomnia, 5am, dreams, and the early hour.

Friends, mentors, and the people who shaped you.

The places you sit and write, watch and wait.