We need to talk about estrangement

 'Love the Albatross' is in the world and I feel all kinds of emotions. 

Its subtitle is Estrangement Stories, estrangement being an increasingly common phenomenon. According to Psychology Today, one in ten people have cut off a parent or child, yet you'd never guess it from the code of silence surrounding it. And it's easy to understand why. The shame and social stigma is such that no one wants to out themselves and risk the often ill-informed judgment of those who have no experience of disowning or being disowned, yet feel qualified to offer an opinion.

I hate talking about it. And yet here I am with a whole collection of poems on the subject. And they're for anyone who's ever stood on this precipice, from whichever side of the Great Divide. Anyone who's ever felt they were the only one in this situation. Anyone who's ever looked at their child or loved family member and thought 'I'm so glad this will never happen to me'. Anyone who's ever loved someone more than they love themselves. 

'Love the Albatross’ is a meditation on inter-generational relationships, estrangement and silence, in which people communicate through messages in bottles, birds and dreams, fragmented memories assume mythological status, and the stories we tell ourselves to justify our actions escape their labyrinths and run wild.

In ‘Love the Albatross’ … estrangement, transformation and albatross are expertly woven together, with Harvey bearing witness to the nuance, complexity, and devastation inherent in this most ruinous of losses.  I found these poems authentic, liberating and transformative … Nothing is more evocative than the feeling that a writer has gone back in time with the reader, as witness and companion.

 Chaucer Cameron

Publication date is 30th August, and the collection can now be pre-ordered from the Indigo Dreams website. Signed copies are available from me - comment on this blog or contact me via social media or admin@theleapingword.com. 

Thank you.