TESTIMONIALS
What Other Writers Are Saying About 'Where Words Are Yet To Be Spoken: Poems For Presence':
“Beautiful poems born of struggle that touch the soul with an invitation to live deeper.”
Tim Freke, Author – The Mystery Experience, and Jesus & The Lost Goddess (co-authored with Peter Gandy)
“A beautiful collection of poems that ring with the wonder of self-discovery. The inner seeing and mystical perception of life are conveyed with refreshing authenticity, depth and a unique voice and flow. C.W. Blackburn brings great sensitivity and richness to his attempt to give expression to that which exists before words. The collection is an exploration into Being that delights the heart and will certainly resonate with seekers and lovers of Truth.”
Shruti Bakshi, Author and Poet – HeartWords: Mystic Poems
“A highly engaging, absorbing volume with a great variety of subject matter and a diversity of expression and emotion. The poems are lyrical and rhythmic, like a series of songs, and the work is deeply felt and embraces universal truth effortlessly and without pretence or strain. There is an evocative sense of time and the past in these poems, and a wistful contemplation of eternity. Even the more internal and cerebral poems are linked to the physicality of places and the elements. Some of the most successful poems are the shortest and simplest. Roots catches beautifully the theme of eternity that underpins many of the poems. The Stranger, Whole and Sea-Horses create potent pictures and atmospheres. Fragments is enormously powerful and deeply melodic. However, the poem which distils all of Blackburn’s themes and concerns is the deceptively simple Doors – a really superb piece of work. These poems are unshowy and unpretentious, with no spurious attempt to make them modern or experimental. Throughout the collection, Blackburn takes us on an evolving journey of mental storms, full of release, self-doubt and self-realisation which, finally, despite everything, is life-affirming.”
John Foster, Playwright and Screenwriter – The Weevil in the Biscuit, Fukishima
“Unique and magical, C.W. Blackburn’s poems have a distinctive way of capturing the essence of his awakening journey. In his writing, the mind is taken outside of the normality of linear speech into the quantum world of words in a powerful and activating way. The more you submerge yourself in this expansive experience, the more it will open your heart."
Samantha SolBright Rodriguez, Author – Living as Pure Love: Returning To Our True Essence
“Thank you, C.W. Blackburn! I have spent the past couple of months journeying with your stunning words. You are truly a shaman who has traversed the underworld, returning with wisdom – and poetry – for the benefit of many beings. You have a great gift for sinking our hearts ‘into the margins of forever.’ Bowing in gratitude.”
Rashani Réa, Author – Beyond Brokenness, and Go Slowly, Breathe and Smile (co-authored with Thich Nhat Hanh)
What Other Writers Are Saying About 'Disorder: 23 Poems About Mental Health':
"These poems are not 'about' mental health conditions, but rather a direct and deeply personal expression of what it is like to be in "the headspaces that other lives get trapped in." Many of us, myself included, live our lives coloured by some combination of anxiety, trauma, depression or other kinds of psychological suffering. As C.W. Blackburn shares, living with such states can be an intensely lonely and overwhelming experience. Simply knowing that we are not alone - that other people's minds also do what ours does - can be profoundly relieving. I wholeheartedly recommend these poems both to those who are familiar with this territory and to those who aren't. Thank you, C.W. Blackburn, for your simple yet profoundly resonant poetry."
Fiona Robertson, Author – The Dark Night of the Soul: A Journey from Absence to Presence
"In Disorder, C.W. Blackburn manages to articulate states of mind that millions of people experience while being tricked into believing that they are utterly alone in their pain. The deceptive simplicity of the poetry speaks to parts of myself I often hide and is helping my ongoing healing process."
John Lake Hobbs, Poet, Illustrator, Bi-Polar Survivor – One Hundred Years of Thunder, Pieta Soul: At The Foot of the Cross
"C.W. Blackburn’s second volume of poetry is very different from his first, to the point where it could have been written by an entirely different poet. The new work is rooted in contemporary life and the vagaries of the psychological troubles which beset us. The poems are much leaner and tend to describe mental states and physical responses to varied forms of mental illness. This gives the poetry an immediacy and an urgency, with experiences which seem snatched from the messiness of ordinary life. The language is simple, direct and rhythmic, providing a powerfully impactive and evocative impression of the experience. A strongly visceral collection of poems and a disturbingly impressive achievement."
John Foster, Playwright & Screenwriter – The Weevil in the Biscuit, Fukishima
"There is an unexpected and reassuring sense of order in C.W. Blackburn's latest collection of poems – as if, somehow, shining the light of awareness on our experiences of mental and emotional distress allows us to see what we've kept hidden in the dark. At last, we can admit just how much we've been suffering. That seems to me a very healthy and sane way forward. Much of what C.W. Blackburn highlights for us here is more common and universal to human experience than most of us are brave enough to admit. I urge anyone who has experienced mental and emotional distress and anyone who has witnessed a loved one suffer and struggle, to read these 23 poems."
Mike Jenkins, Poet & Meditation Teacher – heartofpresence.co.uk