“ Trust time it usually provides a sweet way out of many bitter challenges.” – Miguel de Cervantes.Īuthor Links: Website | Goodreads | LinkedInĪ collection of poetry that unearths the heartache and tragedies of child abuse. To answer that, I’d like to quote one of my favourite authors: What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book? If you care to look, poetry is everywhere. To speak broadly, I find inspiration in paintings, people, landscapes, music, literature, the follies and triumphs of society. It’s my preferred method of coping and analyzing the internal, an exercise of introspection. On a personal level, poetry is paramount for meditation and catharsis. I first discovered the term when reading about Winston Churchill, but it also has interesting roots in classical mythology and medieval folklore. But for brevity’s sake, I cut it down to fourteen.Īnd if I may offer a parenthesis to your favourite poem in the collection, the black dog is a metaphor for depression. The piece originally contained over fifty places where I’d slept. However, one that sticks out for me is Sleep.

Do you have a favorite poem from the book? My favorite poem from the collection is Black Dog. I believe that by reading the accounts of suffering, we get a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. And since its release, I’ve received a lot of similar emails and messages. That’s when I knew the full collection was worth publishing. She said she’d suffered similar experiences and found solace in knowing that she wasn’t alone. After that, I thought no more of it.Ī few months later, I was sitting in a café in Warsaw when I received a heartfelt email from a girl who’d read my work. I printed ten of them in a handmade chapbook and placed copies in my local bookstores. It wasn’t until I decided to start a small press that some of the poems saw the light of day. The manuscript came as a result of the final dissertation for my Master’s Degree. Initially, I never intended to publish White Knuckle. Why was this an important collection for you to publish? White Knuckle shares your experiences with grief, loss and abandonment through impassioned and raw poetry.

White Knuckle by Steven Bruce