Tag: Barnes & Noble

so the spider hangs – New Book

February 9, 2021

My new book is now live!

It’s a short story concerning an Earth Angel, Love, Life & Death, Nature, the Universe, Imagination, Reality, Awakening and Existence.

It’s available here at …

LULU

Barnes & Noble

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

And other online stores.

~

The image with the prism rainbow is a reflection from my window and I think it looks pretty neat especially as it gives the shadow some light and fits pretty well with the story.

Thank you.

Edit.

I forgot to add some snippets from the book, so here they are 🙂

There is a silent calm travelling through his life, it permeates his being, his actions, his connections: he is a tree amongst the noises of humanity. Sometimes he thought of himself as wandering in soulless oblivion, then he thought of himself as wandering in search of she who understands. She who is equal to his silence; she who is the shadow to his tree, or he the shadow of hers.

~

Sitting one time in the silence and deathly stillness of an emerging sunrise he had a moment of acuity, for there on the horizon time was being born. He became aware of how mighty is silence and stillness and of how, even for a few seconds, this gap in time was magical and eternal. He lived in this moment and came to see the endless possibilities of thought.

~

The raven in the sunshine gleams in its blackness. Its bulky shadow gives flight to its consciousness and thus its intelligence. Its beak points while those eyes, looking beyond what mere humans can see, penetrate the arena and off into the fields of time and mystery where the knowledge of all things become known. The raven in the sunshine gleams deep in the pleasure of its secrets, and at once he sees the beauty of it all, but seeing is not having. He can hear the distant musicians. He can see the collection of art. He can see the butterfly dazzling the flower with its own beauty. He can see the clouds as they move in their silent caress of the universe. He can see the colours of humanity, and at once the pain of it all struck him with sharp needles of confusion.

~

Naked are the stars in winter as they caress the evening sky with their immense solitude, like so many leaves blinking when they fall and flutter in the breeze as moonlight kisses them. He lays upon the ground watching the rhythmic blinking where he drifts into an unconscious moment of trepidation. Dare he allow himself to sink into the flesh of life shining above him? Dare he allow his soul to touch those many deaths and births? Dare he begin to forget her so he can begin to know her? Dare he and if he dares, how does he begin?

After the Rain book reviews

October 21, 2017

My poetry book, After the Rain, has had its first two reviews! 🙂

After the Rain

Here is Diane Denton’s review from Goodreads.

~

I’ve been following Martin Shone’s blog, taken pleasure, been reassured and inspired by his poetry for many years. I keep his first two collections close by and often pick them up to randomly open and be guided by as I might my Little Zen Companion. I expected After the Rain to be as companionably soothing, sensory and enlightening. And so it is, once more inhaling and exhaling poetry in caressing arrangements of words, light as a feather while defying gravity, rising out of Martin’s intuitive observations and perceptive reflections, as well as his experience, imagination and belief that, as I wrote in my review of his Silence Happens, “beauty, peace and love are always available”.

Just a few pages into After the Rain, I had to stop and take a deep breath before reading further—for the best of reasons. I realized I was witnessing a favorite poet’s maturing, strengthening, and deepening. He was still offering the music of his soul for me to “sing along”, but, also, a new complexity of rhythms, sounds and understanding. Without losing any of his writing’s freshness and delicacy, his lyrical musings had become more inspired and inspiring, confident and courageous, distinct and layered: within its slender whole/there are worlds within worlds within worlds (Worlds Within Worlds, Page 118). Another of the poems (As a Leaf Falls, page 92) could well describe the effect of reading After the Rain: As it falls/and as it nears/a speck of shadow/can be seen/increasing in size/upon the earth/ and when it settles/shadowless/it frees light.

It frees light. Martin’s poetry frees light, like a leaf falling, like many leaves falling, floating, spiraling, influencing shadows as it offers different views of brilliance. It illuminates life’s branches reaching inside and out, up and down, strong and willowy and broken, and is another sound in nature, as delicate as the finest silk, a cacophony of such minuteness, that settles upon all things (Upon All Things, Page 39), begging us, as nature does, to return to tree’s soul/to nourish new life/buds of peace/to shine/to release/and to soak/for us to live and breathe.

Martin’s poetry often reminds me of that of the Victorian poetess Christina Rossetti, because of its inclination to let nature—weather, birds, insects, flowers, trees—direct its metaphors and meaning. There are so many poems in this collection that stood out as favorites for me, but the one that I return to more than any other is As Bluebells Distract My Mind (Page 57), too long to quote in full here, so I offer its last two lines:

How can I write anything to compare with this magic
therefore I regard the distractions around me and put down my pen.

After the Rain offers a sublime invitation to live and breathe through all the senses, contemplation, conscience, the heart’s joys and sorrow, spiritual reflection, and, especially, magical distraction, which is, after all, the poet’s best muse and his audience’s best reason for attending to what he creates.

~

Here is Mary Beddows’s review

Beautifully written, and very powerful. I was given this book as a gift, and thoroughly enjoyed delving into its wonderful contents. After a stressful day, I open it and find peace. I highly recommend giving it a try!

~

Diane is an author and artist. Two of her published works are A House Near Luccoli and To A Strange Somewhere Fled. Her latest work to be published very soon is Without the Veil Between. Anne Bronte: A Fine and Subtle Spirit.

After the Rain is available from Lulu, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. It contains over 100 poems of Love, Nature, Humanity, Romance and Passion.

After the Rain

Thank you all for reading 🙂