Check out the brand new video and new recording for the poem Unspoken. Originally written for my 2014 book Lights From The Lowlands, but finds a home in the pages of my new book of selected poems Life Begins At Forty, which will be released on February 22, 2022.

The poem is a tale of loneliness and lost love, and sees the narrator trapped remembering the sacrifices both lovers made to be together yet unable to move on after the other has left.

It strikes me, reading the work back, just how vulnerable we are in love. How we open up to another person, leaving ourselves exposed to hurt and suffering if our love is not reciprocated. In that act we risk pain and loss; we can lose our way and our voice, but what a thrill to live in such a magnificent storm!

I have always said, tI write in the hope that someone else might relate to the words I place on the page and can feel some community. I hope you are not in the situation of our narrator here, but if you are, that you know you are not alone, and that even the most turbulent storms pass.

UNSPOKEN

We came so far,
crossed borders to brave the bridleway of her hair;
angel yarn, spun with skill upon the loom of heaven.
Light-thread weaved through black coffee skies,
to tie the moon,
to tether its phantom to this heart of stars.

The world moved on,
but I remained at her breast, listening to the drum;
the resonance of remembrance
braced against the long low growls of thunder
that linger upon the cracked lips of love.

So tonight, if I am speechless, it is only because
she has captured the wild wolf of my voice
and let it loose upon the moors to howl.

***

On Life Begins At Forty:

When Phillip Mellor published his debut collection of poetry, Still Growing back in 2007, he fulfilled a dream he had held since he was sixteen years old, and introduced the world to his unique brand of verse. Little did he know that fifteen years later, on the cusp of turning forty years old, he would have published a further nine books, two e-book shorts, and would be releasing Life Begins At Forty, a personally selected collection of 40 of his best poems, including previously unreleased versions of The Beach, and Winter.

Phillip Mellor has built a reputation of being a poet with a strong unique voice. His poems are both deeply personal, and unequivocally universal. They celebrate both the natural world around us and the inner world of our hearts. He has been described as a modern day troubadour, whose poems are lyrical and full of heart. If you are new to his work, this book is the perfect place for you to start your exploration.

Life Begins At Forty will be released on February 22, 2022, and will be available in Paperback and Kindle e-book editions.