Light Will Return

Wheelsong Books Ltd is excited to publish our final poetry collection for 2025. It is the debut collection from Oxfordshire poet Iain Strachan, and is intriguingly titled Light Will Return. 

Light Will Return contains diverse and thoughtful poetry that explores the nexus of spirituality, science, identity and technology. Moving smoothly between theology and mathematics, artificial intelligence, psalms and sonnets, Iain Strachan’s collection poses searching questions about personal meaning, faith and what it means to be human in an increasingly mediated world.

Alongside poems that engage with physics, algorithms, and digital culture sit deeply personal reflections about family, memory, love and loss. Childhood, parenthood, doubt, gratitude, and identity are explored with frank honesty and quiet curiosity, grounding the intellectual reach of the collection within ontology—the lived experience.

Playful, questioning and quietly emotional, Light Will Return invites us all to reflect on how faith and reason, science and mystery, and especially our past and future can shape our individual identities. Light Will Return is a delightful collection of poetry that is both intellectual and visceral—and is an offering which we can explore patiently for illumination. 

About the Author:

Iain Strachan lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and daughter. He is a retired computer scientist with a PhD in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He made a career out of AI for engineering and medical applications and now has a career keeping it out of poetry groups! He has been writing poetry on and off since 1993, and more regularly since joining Invisible Poets in 2022. His work, including the title poem for this book, has been broadcast on BBC Radio Oxford, and he has published several poems in the Wheelsong Poetry Anthologies. He is also a volunteer with the Samaritans, and an active member of Abingdon Local Quaker Meeting. 

Iain says: "I am interested in the connections between science, mathematics and spirituality, and combine these in my poems. I believe writing poetry allows us to discover things about ourselves; often lines or phrases seem to write themselves, and only on later examination do I realise what part of my life, my memories, or my spirituality they come from. A completed poem is like a mirror in which you can examine yourself. I call it 'The Lens of Me.' "

"My years as a Samaritans listening volunteer have also given me a passion for raising awareness of mental health, and many of my darker poems are driven by that desire and feelings of empathy for those who suffer."

"The two greatest things for me about writing poetry are the act of creating something myself, and then when someone says that my words spoke to them. It is my hope that some of my words will speak to you and bring some light for you."

You can discover more details about this book and how to obtain your copies at the Wheelsong Books website.

Steve Wheeler