Poems from a wiser mind by Jonathan Roth

There comes a time in life, if you’re lucky, when you stop needing everything to add up, and you just start paying attention. You notice small things, the kettle’s song before it boils, a willy wagtail bird in the frost, or how a bit of quiet can speak louder than most people.

There’s truth in here, plenty of it. Some of it wry, some a bit bruised, some angry, most of it clear eyed in the way things get when you’ve lived a bit and learned to keep your ears open and your mouth shut.

This is a book for those quiet moments, for sitting still, for hearing what you already know but had forgotten how to say. In these pages, you’ll find reflections on growing older, letting go, looking back, and holding on to what matters.

• Master of My Own Confusion

• My Heart Doesn’t Agree

• Claire

• My Enemy Until Death Do Us Part

• Gods Picking Off Our Shelf Now

Each offers a different angle on that quiet reckoning that comes from a life lived with open eyes.

Read them however you like, fast or slow, out loud or quietly. They come from a wiser mind, and if they don’t make you wiser, they’ll at least keep you good company.