Land of Ice is a book of poems, written over a ten year period. Some of the poems were written in hospital. Their themes range from existential questioning, the media, simple beauty and the effects of my illness on my life. All these poems were written with a great sense of enjoyment and love. I called the work Land of ice as it's a quote from one of the poems held within. I also called it Land of ice because of the coldness and lack of warmth this world has to offer, sometimes. But then I feel this work can be funny, dark, light and emotional. I tried to incorporate every bit of emotion and thought that | felt was worthy of poetics. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Thanks it's been emotional....


My name is A.Sole, I was born in Berlin on January seventh 1978. I have moved around constantly my whole life and have lived in as many as twenty different places. I have lived in Sheffield where I studied English at university, London, Chester, Shrewsbury to name but a few. I now live in Nottingham where I do the odd poetry gig, reading this stuff out. I love to paint and display my work in a cafe in Nottingham. I love the movies and have written a film called the naked ghost. I hope one day to write and direct my own film.
I have suffered with hearing voices since the age of twenty one. I also see visions and have been attacked by invisible forces such as snakes and spiders I have felt them crawling all over my body with no real explanation from the doctor just that I am ill. The voices in my head range from friends, to famous people to God or the universe as I call him, to strangers. Most of the time the voices are quite chatty and conversational other times they are very insulting and very repetitive. I've been sectioned under the mental health act four times for my own safety. I have learned to live with the voices and live quite a rich and full life.
This book of poems has taken me ten years to write, writing a poem every so often. There is a huge range of themes contained within this volume.