Spectral




Poetry

I’ve waxed lyrical about this in a few places so I’ll give you the short version here and the links so you can explore the rambling for yourself. In March 2022 Burning Eye Books published Spectral, my first full poetry collection, comprising 7 sections, 64 poems, 19 original illustrations, 27 original symbols (a content warning system), and 72 QR codes to take people to behind-the-scenes expansions on the pieces and the sections they sit in. I usually summarise the book by calling it a “concept album, but for poetry”, the seven sections being different colours matching different moods or modes – Red for Passion, Orange for Anger, Yellow for Joy, Green for Nature/ The Sea, Blue for Melancholy, Indigo for Philosophy/ Mysticism, and Violet for Whimsy.

Inside a very dark green border is a series of jagged circles of different colours. The whole implies a mandala, or a rather geometrically exact flower against a patterned, greenish background. The outer 'petals' are yellow shading through orange to red, with triangular points at either end of this spectrum, outlined in black to give an impression of depth through shadow. The inner stamens are shades of very light aqua and teal in the centre, in a series of quite subtle, tiny waves, moving outward to a textured purple. At the top of the image is the word 'SPECTRAL' and at the bottom the name 'Fay Roberts'
cover art by Sa’adiah Khan

At the moment it’s a physical book and an ebook, and the audiobook is recorded, it just needs to be properly edited. You can buy it from a number of outlets, including the Allographic online shop for the physical book, and Lulu.com for the ebook.

A word cloud where the largest words include collection, emotions, poem, experience, colours, like, reader, personal, crafter, work, beautifully, permission, spectrum, rainbow, innovative. feels, reader, and book
A word cloud from the reviews of the book