NOVELS
THE HEART LADDER
"...an ending you will never expect in a million years!"
"A lovely lyric. A beautiful book."
"This book defies definition and was a delight."
As the war in Vietnam stutters to a close, a heavily pregnant Faith flees America for a new life in England. 2003 and her son, thirty-something slacker Dan, knows he's wasting his life in pubs, nightclubs, and his dead-end bookstore job - but nothing seems to stir his soul except listening to the music he loves and setting the world to rights with his colleague Fiona. That all changes, though, when a man with storied eyes and an old army jacket steps into the bookstore and introduces himself as the father Dan never had a chance to know. But is Jacob, a battered and broken war veteran, really who he claims to be? As he and Dan kindle their relationship, more and more comes under question; including Jacob's true purpose in seeking Dan out, the unanswered mysteries of his past, and the pivotal role he'll play in Dan and Fiona's uncertain future. Soon, Dan comes to understand that his life is very far from meaningless - and that the choices he's being forced to make might have deadly and irredeemable consequences.
The Heart Ladder is a powerhouse psychological thriller by debut author Sibby Spencer, praised for its taut characterisation, unique delivery, and a shocking twist ending that will leave readers breathless.
POETRY
This Song is About You
This song is about you
The one who broke me down,
Who trod upon my hair
and trampled on my crown
The bitter words you spat at me
Your poison twisted tongue,
The way you made me feel
As though I didn’t belong
If you saw me now
I bet you’d relish my flavour,
Maybe you’d even feel a little
Regret for your behaviour
Now you’d want a piece of me:
To bask in my glow,
For I am aligned now
And I am in my flow
Know this:
Those who love the deepest
Are the ones you see as weak,
Blessed are the sensitive
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are the vulnerable
I shower them with gold,
So they may learn as I did
How to live brave and bold.
Ancestor
Ancestor, will you speak to me across time?
You who are made from me
Tell me the truth about what dwells within
The spirit of the tree
Share your wisdom across the divide
Tell me what you see
Communicate your knowledge so we may try
To shape what we will be
Step through the veil of time
Of here, of now, of then
Because I know that it’s all the same
There is no such thing as when
I feel you as you were - and will be -
Living within me today
We share a code whose meaning was hidden
Until you showed me the way
So let us look beyond our three dimensions Overcome the fears we face
Transcend, ascend, awaken
For the good of all the human race.
To view more of my poetry, find me on Instagram or Facebook...
Earth Poem
We put our faith in science
And we discarded
The wisdom of the ancients
And we regarded
The midwife, the seer, the medicine woman as danger
As something that would threaten our new behaviour
Desire for more
Hunger for more progress, financial success,
And the distress
Has led us here
To this point of no return
And this point of not again
And here at this crossroads I lay my soul
Before you
Great Spirit of the land, the air, the planets
I implore you,
Plug me back in to the mother
We are not one or the other
We belong together
The power and the glory
The mountain and the feather
Man, animal, woman, rock, fire, water, air
I surrender to you - my fingers in the dirt
My eyes cast to the sky
My heart open like the flower of life
Listen, hear and remember
My soul’s deepest prayer
We are the flesh of Nature
The spirit made manifest
We can heal the wound together
And bring about rebirth
Join as one, our hands raised
Voices harmonised
We resonate our abundant Love
Across this sacred space,
Our beautiful home of
Earth 🌍
Climb
Up, you say,
You must keep reaching
It’s the only way
And yet
There is no telling
What lies on the other side
Of the ascent,
And when, through climbing,
All my energy is spent,
What of the others
Who fell by the wayside?
What of the sunsets I missed?
The magic of a sunrise?
What of those whose hands
I could’ve held
As we transcended together?
A slower but a richer life
A chance to stop and stare
And contemplate the weather,
The mountain at our backs,
We celebrate how far we’ve come,
We see our tracks
Far off in the distance
And know the journey here
To this moment
Has made all the difference.
Where We End...
Where people are now
Animals will always be,
Where we end
Life will follow,
In every grain of sand
There is a tree,
In every yesterday
A tomorrow.
A Wild Heart
My son has a wild heart
Each morning
When I send him into school
With the promise of a good day
Deep down I know
He yearns for his freedom.
To run barefoot in the forest
Yawping at the tree giants
To push his toes into wet mud
To return home thorn-scraped and
Caked in the dirt of a world
He feels he belongs to
And is denied.
My son has a wild heart,
The feel of the ocean
As it pricks his skin
Salt taste
Abandon, alive
He would swim out far
Against the tide.
My son has a wild heart,
A young explorer
He strides away
Doesn’t heed our calls
Keeps on going
I wonder, what I am afraid of,
Scared of him dying or scared of him living?
And I feel his desire when I try to clip his wings
His fight through the frustration,
Making a break for freedom
I know so well what he seeks
The wild song his heart sings
To be found in water, earth and tree
For that very same wildness
Lives within me.
