I am delighted to announce that I have a new book of poetry that will be released on the 1st September 2023. This book was written over a period of 4 years, during which time our world changed A LOT! For long periods of time I found it almost impossible to write anything, but every now and then I would get a week or a day where I felt I had something to say. And eventually ORBIT appeared!
It’s really a miracle it happened at all, but now it is almost here, I couldn’t be more proud of it. I still haven’t fully regained my inspiration to write. I thought for a good chuck of the last couple of years that I might not have anything left to say. And maybe this is all I have left to say. Maybe this is the last book, I don’t know. But regardless of whether it is or isn’t, I am happy this book is here for one more go round.
I hope you enjoy this visual representation of the opening poem in the book.
ORBIT will be released on September 1st 2023 in Hardback, Paperback and Kindle Editions.
With only a few days to go until the release of my book Life Begins At Forty: 40 Selected Poems, published on February 22nd 2022, I wanted to give you all an exclusive preview of the book. The selection below includes the first 10 pages of the book, and includes the first three poems, the previously unpublished poem THE BEACH, and MURMUR and WHITBY originally featured in my first book STILL GROWING back in 2007. Preview and download the first 10 pages of the book below, and to read the rest, head over to Amazon.com now and pre-order the Kindle version or on February 22nd, order the paperback! Hope you enjoy the sneak peek!
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.
Video for the Poem Unspoken taken from Life Begins At Forty: 40 Selected Poems
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.
Here is the next video in the series of videos I have been producing for the Blue In Green collection. This one is for the poem Paris, Again. Multimedia work has always interested me and doing this series of videos has allowed me to explore some ideas on how to present poetry to people in a different way. There is more to come. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting my work by picking up a copy of the book at Amazon (the link to the book are below the video) If you are one of those lovely people who have already picked up a copy of Blue In Green and you have enjoyed it, could I ask you to visit the book’s page on Amazon and leave a review. It really helps get the book noticed. Thank you. I hope you enjoy the video.
Blue In Green was released on Monday, and along with it, a new video for the poem Eclipse taken from the collection. This is the second in a series of videos I plan to create for the book. I am interested in exploring different mediums to present the poems. If you enjoy I hope you will consider purchasing the book. It is available in both paperback and e-book formats. Thank you so much for watching. Purchase Blue In Green
After six long years, today, Blue In Green is finally available in both physical softcover and e-book versions. Please note that due to Catherine’s incredible full-color illustrations, the e-book version will be a print-replica and will require a kindle fire tablet or the kindle app on other devices to read.
This book has been a real labor of love for me and I really hope you can support its little adventure in the world. Your support means the world to me. Thank you!
I have just submitted the final manuscript for Blue In Green. In the next couple of days the book will “go live” on Amazon all over the world and be available for purchase. It seems fitting that this should happen today, as today marks the sixth anniversary I wrote the lines you see in the photo. They were the first lines I wrote for Blue In Green and are taken from a poem called Morning Reverie. This has been such an amazing book to work on and I have many people to thank for getting it to where it is today. My father-in-law, Michael T Carr, for lending his editing skills to the book; my wonderful talented friend, Catherine Pendegrass for the incredible artwork that appears in the book, and of course my wife, Heather Mellor, who has supported this project from the very beginning and helped me polish the final draft in these last few weeks.
Now we wait, but not too much longer. The book will be available in both paperback and e-book. I am so excited to share it with you all!
I am so happy to share my entry to the Poetry Archive Now! WorldView 2020 competition with you all! The poem, titled Windows was accepted and uploaded to the Poetry Archive’s YouTube channel this morning! You can watch and listen to it here https://youtu.be/RsfaPQ_UxOo
If you do like the poem, please give it a thumbs up on the YouTube page, and if you do wish to, please consider leaving a comment on the video as well and share it with all your friends and encourage them to do the same. It will all really help gather views and interest in the poem and it would mean the world to me if you could.
The competition runs until September when it will be closed and a panel of poets will view all the submitted videos with the goal of shortlisting 50 for the final publication to the Poetry Archive’s website and a small monetary prize for those chosen.
I also encourage you all to check out the Poetry Archive’s website, which houses lots of poetry resources and audio performances of well-known poets from around the world. It has provided me with hours of interest over the years and is a wonderful resource.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and please like, comment, and spread the word. Thank you as always for your support!
Shouldn’t I have more time on my hands right now? Is it just me or are you all finding that you are busier than ever? I am running a little behind on updates, but as they say (whoever they are) better late than never.
Hopefully you all caught the update last week that my poem Windows was accepted into the Poetry Archive Now! WorldView 2020 competition. If not, or if you wish to give it another viewing, you can find it if you scroll down. I am so elated that it has been accepted and now wait for the shortlisting in September. It has gained 149 views in 6 days which is pretty awesome. So thank you to all who have watched it so far. I hope you keep watching, sharing it with your friends and all the other good stuff.
This post however, is about another video I made for the poem Emptiness taken from my new book of poems Blue In Green. The book is due for release on Amazon this month. I have been busy putting the final touches to it and will have some more news on that very soon. Until then, enjoy some spoken word poetry as a preview to what you can expect from the book. And if you like what you hear, please give it a thumbs up, leave a comment consider subscribing to this blog and my YouTube channel where you can find more videos of my spoken word poetry. It all helps. Thank you. Phil
I am excited to share with you all my new video for my poem She Waits. The poem originally appeared in Other Silent Days in 2016 and then again in last years selected poems Drawing Outside of the Lines: Poems 2007-2017.
This recording was originally made in 2016 and I put together the video more recently. To view the video on my YouTube channel follow this link She Waits
While you are there, why not drop a like on the video which will help get it more exposure, and subscribe so you don’t miss a video that I post. I plan to be posting more in the future and I have some exciting video projects coming up.
Thank you as always for your support. Take care and have a great weekend!
phillipmellor 