The Briefest of Notes

By James R. H. Crellin

The Briefest Of Notes is intensely personal, unfiltered and emotive. Written over 8 years firstly only as coping strategy, challenges to the self and reflections upon personal life, but not intended for publishing. That is what makes them unique: all comes straight from the heart and thus without thought of outside judgement. Instead of writing or musing upon what it means to grow up reflexively, James simply wrote with his own pace and perceptions. However, whilst intimate and introspective, reflections upon the wider world occur throughout.

Subject matter ranges from love and heartbreak to mental health struggles, whilst an imbuement of nature and its importance to writing gives the collection an almost romantic era feel for a shorter content age. Simple drawings are added from the poet’s own hand, thus retaining a sense of personal connection and candidness. The poet is very aware of the poetic and artistic culture he is both inheriting and contributing toward: David Bowie, Jeff Buckley and Federico Garcia Lorca are all honoured and have some impact. The influences of Byron, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, T.S Eliot and Edwin Arlington Robinson are also there to see.

Chapters and poems muse on various locations: from isolation in New Zealand to the bustle of Bristol and Birmingham, as well as calmness of the Malvern Hills or The Isle Of Man. Villa Park, home of Aston Villa F.C. also features. This is not only a development of a poetic voice from first writing to publication, but also the development of a young man open about his struggles, passions, mistakes, relationships and emotions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Aug 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781800466470

James R. H. Crellin

James Crellin is an actor and poet from Worcester, trained in acting at both LAMDA and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has also dabbled as a director, freelance writer and advertising copywriter. He began writing this collection at school in Malvern and during time in Bristol University, New Zealand and Birmingham. 

Book preview

For My

Kindest K

(Written 2012)

Spinning Into It All

And so back to Uppingham:

Shall we recall those first few days,

Scattered with the longing stares

That even then we did impart?

Shall we recall the tuneful tenderness

Of such a melodic start?

Or that of the Haymarket chorus?

That tentative time around,

Which did spawn and flourish

Our foliage on fertile ground.

Then to the backs

At Trinity and St. John’s,

Centred at an embracing bench

As our third verse rattled on.

Rattled on, elegant as Elgar’s finest

Kissing bows on strings,

But not in the way that Worcester

Cured all our smarting stings.

So those, among sustained whispers,

Flowed silently in the night;

Binding my days into a single spell,

Until letters cease and you come into sight.

My Pen May Glean

I always said that I could never direct

The words to form the truest pledge.

And so even more, in this my needing hour,

The expressions banish me to recluse

And so I can only offer this sorry excuse:

In the quiet calm of the moon,

Eye to eye, passion flown utterly,

Emotion started the ending we didn’t see;

Our lips didn’t care for omens

And no proverbs did they decree.

Our tongues had no time to speak

And no voice can mine offer still,

Save the promise that I always will

Dedicate to your decorum

Any gallantry my pen may glean.

But what hysteria does my humility show?

These words are no hopeful horoscope,

But the blood of bilious ink

That writhes from the quill:

Resemble what you mean they never will.

For My Kindest K

Words cannot suffice.

Such petty syllables that knell and ring

As such a hollow form

Of such a hallowed night.

Kiss me.

Your breath in my lungs

As I hold you tight:

Never let me go, hold me with all your might!

Unsheathe your eyes that pierce my soul

And let our fancies never flee,

As in our bedridden passion

We lose ourselves, in each other, utterly.

The bedsheets tangled at our feet.

Time should pay honour and stand