DislexicPoet Notebook
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The Process of an Indie Author
Today my living room floor disappeared beneath poetry. Twenty-three poems, pages spread across tables and floors, clipped into piles, moved around, shuffled, and questioned. Some belonged together immediately. Others fought me every step of the way. This is the part of writing people rarely see. Most readers see the finished book. They see the cover,…
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I Won’t Look Back
Writing About Love, Shame and Realising Too Late Some poems are written carefully. Others arrive like emotional wreckage. I Won’t Look Back was one of those poems. It was one of the first long-form poems I ever wrote, before I fully understood my own style as a poet. Looking back now, I can see the…
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I Fell Into Myself
Not to Be Saved — But to Be Seen I Fell Into Myself was never written to romanticise pain. It was written to give what happens inside the body language and value. The shaking hands. The spiralling thoughts. The nervous system stuck in survival mode long after the danger has passed. The exhaustion that sits…
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Take a Piece of Me
The Cost of Being the Strong One There’s a certain kind of person people run to when life falls apart. The calm one. The dependable one. The person who listens at 2am while quietly bleeding themselves dry in the background. Take a Piece of Me was written from that place. Not from bitterness — but…
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Poetry in a Northern Kitchen
People often imagine writers in quiet cafés, expensive offices, perfectly lit desks with leather journals and fancy coffee beside them. But most of my poetry is not written like that. It is written between shopping lists, bills, direct debits, cold cups of tea, and the exhaustion of everyday life. It is written in ordinary spaces.…
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Writing as Taking Control Back
By Natasha C Akinfolarin #DislexicPoet I have been thinking a lot lately about why people write. Not technically. Not academically. Not because we enjoy words. But deeper than that. Why do some of us need to write? And I think for many people, especially people who have lived through trauma, addiction, heartbreak, abuse, mental health…
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The Lie
From an Idea to a Paperback, Audiobook and Kindle Book. The Reality of Being an Indie Writer By Natasha C Akinfolarin #DislexicPoet There were moments during the making of The Lie when I genuinely wondered if I was ever going to finish it. Not because I stopped believing in the poems, But because being an…
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Staying Clean and Sober Is a Fight Nobody Sees
People think getting clean and sober is the hardest part. And don’t get me wrong — Getting off substances was brutal. Messy. Lonely. Painful. But staying clean afterwards? That’s its own kind of battle. Because life doesn’t suddenly become soft Just because you stopped drinking, Stopped using, Stopped trying to numb yourself. Life still hits.…
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Shedding Old Skin
Transformation, Recovery & Becoming Someone New. Some transformations are not soft. They are painful, isolating, uncomfortable things that force you to become someone stronger than the person you once were. Coming off drugs and drink is not just about getting clean. It is about transformation. It is about shedding old skin. Not just habits, but…
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The Land of the Lost
When Numbness Starts Feeling Safer Than Living By Natasha C Akinfolarin #DislexicPoet Some poems come from emotion. Some come from memory. And some come from surviving a version of yourself you never thought you would become. The Land of the Lost is not really about drink or drugs alone. It’s about emotional disappearance. The slow…