Today Has Been Delayed

The book is illustrated by eight beautiful wood engravings, lovingly created by the incredibly talented artist Harry Brockway, who was well known as one of the best wood engravers in the industry. The engravings are illustrations of eight of the poems in the book, and Harry was given carte blanche to choose which poems he wanted to create engravings for.

A few months after Pam’s death, one of our daughters, Katrin, had been to a funeral.

Katrin called me after the funeral to tell me about a poem that had been read at the funeral. It had made a huge impact on her, and she told me that I needed to find it and read it for myself. It was in a book called “The Smoke Jumper” by Nicholas Evans.

I looked in Pam’s bookcase, and by pure coincidence the book was there. Pam had owned it and would have, at some point, read that poem.

Maybe fate played its hand at that moment. I had never written a poem before. However, in the days and weeks that followed me reading this one poem, little flashes of poetry started to come to me. I started to write the poems down as they were important to me; the poetry was meaningful. Over time, slowly, one poem became two, two poems became four, four became eight, and so it went on.

Each poem that I wrote, each one that came to me, was about something different – love, grief, bereavement, misery, coping with loss, suicidal thoughts. But there were broad themes, and by the time I had finished, there were 85 poems, and I was able to categorise them into different chapters.

I had never planned to write this book; it just happened. It was my lifeline, my catharsis, and most importantly, it was my way of talking to Pam in the lonely weeks, months and years after she had gone. Utter depression ignited my creativity.

Even after putting pen to paper, I had never planned to publish my works. By doing so now, I hope that it will be helpful to other people who have gone through the same rollercoaster ride of emotions that I have. It is, for me, incredibly personal, and is my memorial to my wife of more than forty years.

Piotr’s beautifully written and illustrated book of poetry, “Today Has Been Delayed” is available to purchase exclusively online.