These poems were written over several years, starting with “Vanishing Point” (originally titled “The Phantom”) in 2018 as a joke to a friend. This, somehow, became the first real poem I kept. I never intended to write a book. Poetry has always been a means to an end: a way to make sense of things, to survive the worst hours, or just to unload what was stuck in my head.
I ended up organizing the collection around the arc of a single night. Each section represents a different stage of the night and a different emotional landscape: Midnight is about insomnia, grief, heartbreak, and doubt. Those first, darkest hours when everything feels heaviest. Witching Hour moves into fear, haunting, and the strange surreal thoughts that show up after midnight. Gloaming is for reflection and self-examination, the time before dawn when the mind tries to make sense of itself and the world. First Light is about the fragile hope and acceptance that comes with morning: a sense of moving forward, even if nothing feels resolved.
Some poems took years to finish, others came out in a single sitting and never changed. All of them are snapshots from different moments, written for different reasons, but tied together by the effort to make it through the night.