Wheelsong Books Review of 2023

2023 has been an amazing year for Wheelsong Books. I established the company in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic, basically for something to do. I set it up as a not-for-profit company to promote new and emerging voices in poetry, and also to raise much needed funds for Save the Children - a global relief charity. 

What did Wheelsong do in 2023? 

January saw the publication of the first book in the Symphoniya de Toska trilogy by American writer Marten Hoyle. Its January 19th publication coincided with the birthday of one of his favourite poets, Edgar Allen Poe. Marten's second publication was released on April 9th, the birthday of Charles Baudelaire, and the final instalment was published to coincide with the birthday of another of Marten's favourite dark writers, H. P. Lovecraft, on August 20th. How's that for symbolism?

In late February, together with my good friend Charlene Phare the Facebook group Invisible Poets was launched. The name was an ironic swipe at the fact that most poets go unnoticed and uncelebrated even though they may actually be quite brilliant (and in many cases better than those who are well-known, highly visible, published poets. The group quickly flourished, and now, at the time of writing this post, has reached 15,000 members. 

Also in February, Tunisian bard Rafik Romdhani released his third book, Vapour of the Mind through the Wheelsong Books label. As in previous books, Rafik excels in the use of rich imagery, metaphor and awesome insights into his life in North Africa. 

In March Wheelsong Books announced the call for poems for Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 2. The anthology was published in April with a stunning cover photograph (courtesy of Kerry Cole) and sold quite nicely, raising around £450 ($565) for Save the Children. As with all Wheelsong Books, it is still available on Amazon and other online outlets worldwide. In the same month I published a book called Nocturne, which featured a lot of poetry about the night, sleep and dreams, and darkness. 

In June, Matt Elmore's first poetry collection, the sublime Constellation Road was published and this was followed closely in July by Imelda Garcia's debut collection Beyond the Pyre for Wheelsong. Both books contain some stratospheric poetry, and both deserve a wide readership for their brilliance. 

September saw the publication of Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3, which featured a stunning image by photographer Lynda Clifton. Containing over 200 poems from more than 100 poets, Anthology 3 has already sold 400 copies and continues to be available. We have so far donated £750 ($940) to Save the Children for their relief initiatives from the sales of this book.

December saw the publication of Brandon Adam Haven's second poetry book, This Broken Home, which is a darkly gothic collection of somewhat disturbing poetry and horror flash fiction. If you intend to read this book alone, I strongly advise you to keep all your lights on. 

We also relaunched Live Poets Society, which now goes out live twice each week, on Friday at 8pm (UK time) and on Tuesday at 3pm (US Eastern time). Viewing numbers have been on the increase, which this shows a healthy interest in the spoken word and live performance poetry.

The Wheelsong Books blog was also launched in the summer, with regular posts about poetry from me, alongside Matt Elmore, Brandon Adam Haven and Charlene Phare, alongside guest posts. It has so far attracted almost 30,000 views and there are some amazing, thought provoking posts on all aspects of poetry and creative writing. 

That was 2023. Let's raise a glass to the coming year and do our best to keep poetry remains alive and kicking. Wheelsong Books has a long list of publications waiting in the wings, including two more anthologies!

Steve Wheeler

Poetic devices 2: Metaphors

Last week I introduced my new series on poetic writing devices and posted a piece on the use of similes in poetry. In this second post in the series we're going to explore the use of metaphor. 

Now perhaps you're thinking what is the difference between a simile and a metaphor? Well I can best illustrate the difference by employing both devices directly. I might say for example 'He has a brain like a computer!' - and that's a simile. Or, I may instead say 'His brain is a computer!' - which is a metaphor. The first device compares his brain to a computer. The second suggests it is a computer. This is the power of the metaphor. A metaphor states that one thing is another thing. Although the reader knows it isn't true, it nevertheless offers a powerful figure of speech to enrich a comparison. Metaphor goes one step beyond simile. It transforms comparison into symbolism. It is a rhetorical device. And there are metaphors everywhere just waiting for you to use them... (What could the image above denote?)

There are numerous examples of metaphor in poetry. In fact they are everywhere.

In Emily Dickinson's poem Hope we see her speaking of hope as a bird:

Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all

Hope doesn't really assume the form or characteristics of a bird of course. She doesn't even use the word 'bird' - but simply alludes to it as 'the thing with feathers'. The power of the metaphor is there for the writer to wield - and Dickinson uses the device very powerfully here to imply that hope lives like a perched bird inside her, and it sings an endless song. 

The arch proponent of the metaphor in poetry of course, has to be Dylan Thomas. In perhaps his most celebrated poem, Do not go gentle into that good night, Thomas uses night as a metaphor for dying. He's not talking about the setting of the sun here, nor is he wishing his father a good night. He's literally pleading with his to fight against death.  

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Another classic example of metaphor use in poetry is our very own Tunisian bard Rafik Romdhani. He is so prolific in the use of metaphors, that he has published an entire book of poetry called Dance of the Metaphors. Most recently, in a new collection called Vapour of the Mind, Rafik writes: 

Hours are flat tyres

on potholed asphalt roads

Dreams were first moans

before their explosions

We are figments of fiction

caught up within our own minds

This short poem is absolutely laced with metaphor. Hours become flat tyres. Dreams emerge as moans. Then explosions. He paints a dramatic and highly evocative picture of mundane every day life, with very few words. This is the power of the metaphor. Try it in your own poetry and see how far you can push it.

Steve Wheeler

Image from HippoPX used under a Creative Commons Licence

A review of Vapour of the Mind

When reading of Rafik Romdhani, I have heard such terms tossed around as the master of the metaphor, intense crafter of images,… even “genius” from a very in tune source last week. Such praise instantly raises a small specter of skepticism. There is a continual cloud of hyperbole that encompasses a large amount of poetry failing to live up to the thunder of its praise. 

However, this storm packs all the wallop of a literary hurricane and more… straight from the eye of swirling vapors, all at the center of one progressive poet’s mind… Rafik Romdhani.

I first came across Rafik in Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 1 which was the first of a series highlighting international next level poets to raise funds for Save The Children… ,which by the way is highly recommended…  he slammed a poem entitled “Face of the Moon”. … It’s resonating line echoed above all else I read for some time…

“… the hands of death will be more merciful at the bottom of this luminous chalice hanging from the invisible throne of God…”.

After that I was hooked on Rafik’s voice.

Two books on the Wheelsong label, Dance of the Metaphors (2021) and Rough Roads (2022), have preceded his newest release, titled Vapour of the Mind. This book illustrates Rafik’s transcendent journey deeper into the subconscious ocean of rich life that resides within his imagination… evoking the provocative content and lyricism that has become his trademark. As an English teacher in Tunisia, he has narrowed his voracious vocabulary into microscopic focus upon the realms of illusion and reality. 

Long form poems and shorter poems create a whirlwind of dizzying windows into the mind of a poet that sees the world as something more tangible than dreams. 

His shorter poems dazzle with lines like “… poetry hits minds at non-poetry times..” from What Poetry Does. 

Or even “Hearken life! How dare you shut before her your door and milk out the nascent Nile in her blossoming eye?” composing the whole of “Blossoming Eye”. 

With laser precision, he cuts to the quick of natures wounds and attempts, to suture all loss.

Varying themes rustle throughout the collection… ranging from the romantic, emotional, daily grinds, translating experiences into reason, to societal issues on a global level. “Paper Boats” paints a most visceral ending with “What will a Maths lesson do for a starving child flipping food pictures in his French copybook?”

One line alone plucked from one of his poems does not give it enough weight when taken into consideration with how it works within the intrinsic depth and texture of his word tapestries.

It is in the larger efforts that Rafik shines… his effervescent magic most apparent in poems like “The Glow Of Silence”. This piece made my eyes widen as they perceived the words, “I don’t write. I draw dances, then search the dancer till she is finally found. I throw bones to nightmares to keep their eyes to the ground..” There are many lessons to be learned between the lines of Rafik’s profound perceptions. 

He is a poets' poet. The intensity and character of his expression are so creative and original, the seemingly easy flight of his metaphors present a lesson in next level poetry. His execution is flawless, evident in so many lines of this book. It’s hard to choose examples! This execution is most present here within the lettered breath of Vapour Of The Mind: “Don’t be afraid of me, words! Do not feel strange, plodding poetry… for all the elements of nature are strangers.”

Rafik Romdhani is a beacon of light to intermediate poets of all persuasion looking to up their game. His vision has opened my eyes to ways of writing I have never considered as possible before… and I have been writing a long time. 

He sees what many others see but don’t understand… like this fruitful line from “Where is Meaning?”... “Meaning decides its beginning from our end, my friend”. 

This master crafting of translating ethereal perception speaks for itself in every poem Rafik sets his pen to. An amazing poet in every regard, Rafik Romdhani continues to wow me every time my widened eyes gaze upon one of his literary visions.

Matt Elmore