Ixora Press

Introduction to Reflections on Love, Life & Loss

When I began writing the poems in this book, it wasn’t for the purpose of publishing. It was so that I could make room in my head so that the other projects I’ve been working on since I was 18 could have a chance. I started putting Reflections of Love, Life and Loss on paper in June 2019 along with another collection, Earth Songs, which I have yet to present to the world. 

         Throughout my life, I have used poetry as a form of self-therapy during times of emotional turbulence, of pain and frustration at not understanding my place or if I even had a place in this world. It was a way to work through my recurring bouts of existential angst, the likes of which would give even Hamlet a run for his money. I owe my Muses, fickle as they are, a mountain of gratitude.

            Love is the first section in this collection because, why not? It pervades all aspects of the human condition so naturally I felt that this section should begin with a confession. The poems I selected to place into the section titled Life, are a combination of poems that allude to fear, foreboding, disappointment, hope, guilt and the promise of something better. The 500 is especially interesting to me since I have no idea what it is meant to be. Perhaps it’s a promise that all is not lost even if it seems to be that way. I don’t question the words I just write them. It’s only after reading and re-reading them can I see what messages lay within and assign an appropriate title. Perhaps you the reader can see something in it that I cannot. 

            The final section Loss, like Love, speaks for itself. Who hasn’t known it? Who hasn’t felt its grip around your throat and its cold hand squeezing your insides as the magnitude of who or what was lost settles over you? It was the section that I wrote during the first couple of months of the pandemic when there was so much loss everywhere. Images of pain, sorrow and desperation have permanently etched themselves into my mind. It is important to also note that when we think of loss in the context of our lives and relationships, we often neglect to consider that the loss of hope and faith in oneself is just as painful as the loss of a loved one and can often go unnoticed until it is too late and for that purpose Surrender was written.

            I hope that whoever you are, wherever you are in your life’s journey, should you be holding this book at this very moment, may you find the words that you need to be at peace.