Depths of Shelter

Depths of Shelter gathers contemporary poems tracing the movement between forsaking and belonging. From dark, mist shrouded moors and derelict ruins to hidden cloister gardens, vaulted cellars and caves of stone, the texts lead through quiet spaces - landscapes of abandonment and refuge - not to escape the world, but to feel it more deeply. They explore how loneliness and fear, estrangement and temptation, guilt and grief can slowly turn into trust, shelter and a feeling of being held. In calm, precise language and modern, accessible, image driven free verse, the poems show how stones, walls and wild places can become silent witnesses and sanctuaries for a wounded inner life, where the reader is no longer required to perform, but may simply breathe and be.

Autorentext

Born and raised in Belgium, the author - Count of Sealand - moved to Germany after completing his studies in German and Dutch language and literature, together with his qualification as a secondary school teacher, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven). While finding in teaching a vocation he continues to pursue with passion, he has also devoted himself to psychology and psychotherapeutic studies. In his free time, he finds inspiration in literature and photography-those quiet spaces of reflection and imagination that also shape the tone of his writing. Today, he lives in a green refuge in the Ruhr region. Since the early 1980s, poetry and prose have been his constant companions. Under the names Raoul Qayjo, Hertog van Valkenburg, Graaf van Montfoort, and Tristan Kafka, Herzog von Wolf zu Wolfsthal, Graf von Arnsberg & Eberstein, he has published numerous lyrical and prose works in Dutch and German. More recently, under the pseudonym Trystan Caffcagh, Viscount of Frendraught, Baron of Thurnham & Thurnham Castle, Lord of Stowting Castle, Laird of Dunans Castle, he has also embarked on lyrical explorations in English for the first time.