My poetry collection, 'Writing The Truth', published by Selcouth Station Press was published back in July, 2022. I wanted to do a post about what it means to me, and what the stories within are about.
'Writing The Truth' was born out of a university assignment for a Poetry module. The title is a reference to a discussion with my then-tutor and illustrator of the cover, Ruth Stacey. In this assignment, I wanted to be raw. I wanted to tackle my upbringing, my trauma.
For the longest time, especially hailing from a Hispanic background, a lot of the traumas were dismissed as normal bumps: just the way families are, boys will be boys, and all the clichés that I was fed growing up.
It took a lot of additional trauma to trigger a need for healing. And this collection deals with all of it; it's no coincidence that there are trigger warnings in the book, that the reviewers, people that I admire, can see clear truth through that raw nature.
A mother's double-edged love, toxic masculinity, repressed sexuality, daddy issues, heartbreak, heartache, love, loss, grief, all that made me... me had to come out for me to grow. Through therapy, not just a book.
As I learned about these things throughout my life, I became adept at voicing my concerns, my fears and my traumas; and through poetry, I found a platform that would not only serve to hone my pain into art, but hopefully, inspire those in pain to be free of it.
'Writing The Truth' is an incredibly personal book for me, and regardless of people's concerns about 'airing these things out publicly', I still wanted to do it. Why? Good question. For the longest time, I thought... I really don't know.
There's no victory to be found in a painful, vanity project; because 'Writing The Truth' is not it. It's a stepping stone for people dealing with pain, life and love, grief and loss the way I did. The way I still do. 'Writing The Truth' is not about literary success.
It is about baring it all, about hoping that by having the author go through the gauntlet, it inspires others to bare it too, in their own, pained, scarred way. 'Writing The Truth' is a collection of poems that acts like a conversation.
An inebriated friend who tells you that they sympathise with your pain because they have felt it too; and that in sharing the awful weight that cocooned their heart, they hope you learn to live, to love and to be yourself, unashamedly.
While Selcouth Station Press has since been disbanded, physical copies are indeed rare, but the EBook, can be found here.