After A Sorta Fairytale was published, I was inundated with requests to talk more about my prose lyrics. One part of me felt that the text should speak for itself and that to 'explain' would be like naming the colours of a painting while forgetting to look at the picture. This was why I only explained some of the words and meanings contained within the book. Another part of me wanted to acknowledge the genuine interest people were showing and so I replied, haphazardly it seemed, to those who would have asked.
For this publication I have decided to continue the theme but this time in full. I have, in response, provided some background to the pieces in the hope that the understanding of the words and meanings may have some uniformity. This, of course, will go part of the way to explain them, for it is also my hope that everyone who reads them may hold their own interpretation. I have written about them by searching for the genesis of the words in diaries and notebooks I have kept and so the background has, as a result, the flavour of a personal journal. It is, in a way, my book of days. It's only when you finish the book, the stories and what they are saying, that you know. I write a piece. I work on it for a while and then leave it. I might not go back to these words for three, maybe six months. When I do go back, that's where I try and see what the emotional feeling was, what was in the words. An example would be the first lines I wrote for this book. 'And the winds are like a kiss, and the years are nemesis. And the moments fall in mist, and all is dust, remember this.'
There is also reflection contained within this publication as I revisit just a few pieces, a process that presents (so I have been told) a fascinating portrait of a writer in a constant state of evolution. I have re-written some elements whilst keeping the essence of verse, making these something of a Director's Cut but in word, not vision. For some time I have felt that I wanted to revisit some of my works and that they could benefit from having new life breathed into them and now these selections have another layer of work woven into their fabric.
Nemesis has an arrangement of journeys, in the rain, through the length of a lifetime, amongst history, between emotions, and journeys across great oceans. So although it's not a 'themed' collection of words, as such, there is an underlying connection between the pieces. These notes are only part of the equation. This book is for Tom, whose kind words and wisdom I still believe in many years later and who is still missed by many, including me.
Extra note. For this edition I have delved into the past, looked through my Kindlight chapbooks and included some of my favourite pieces together with new liner notes.