Before supporting other people’s poetry, before Mixed Heritage Press became a home for diaspora voices, memoirs and cultural storytelling, I had my own poetic work to offer the world. Love – Don’t Fear was written in that quieter, more vulnerable phase of my creative life when poetry was not a service but a way of making sense of relationships, love, and the emotional risks of being human.

This poetry book is a collection of 25 poems centred on relationships in their many forms: romantic love, friendship, family, longing, loss, and emotional healing. Some of the poems had been published previously, while others were written specifically for this collection. Together they form a narrative arc that moves from heartbreak through reflection, towards recovery and restoration.

What runs through Love – Don’t Fear is not sentimentality, but courage. These poems do not ask the reader to chase perfection or romantic fantasy. Instead, they gently challenge the idea that we must wait for another person to complete us. Again and again, the poems return to a quieter truth: real love grows when we stop looking for someone else to fill the spaces inside us and start learning how to stand whole on our own.

Here’s one poem from the book, which you can find right here.

THE QUEEN

Again, she is called by the voice of his eyes.
Again, she infuriates him, daring to say, “I
won’t come!”

“She must think she is too good,” considers
the king.
“She must think she’s good enough to be
chased by me!”

He’s too busy with himself to care what’s
inside the queen.
He can’t hear her desperate, although silent,
scream…

Queen is bored with her own beauty and their
phoney love.
She no longer loves the king and no longer
hears from God.

The king cannot calm her fears – does not want
to wipe her tears.

He can’t save her, and she hates him, for he no
more gives her joy.
She’s exhausted in her rest – the king’s
words no longer work…

Once, they shared passion and romance.
Now, it’s just a business deal…
He wants to boast in her beauty; she wants to
be seen.
He wants her to satisfy him; she wants to be
queen.

Like one of the royal dancers, she puts on a
show each time.
Queen’s just like the future queens and
queens of the past –
Just another royalty: no identity, or… identity
freak.

She’s cleaning her house and fixing her hair,
and draws lines around her pretty eyes, filled
with emptiness.

Deep inside, she feels the burden of knowing
she failed,
and attempts to kill the pain with chocolate
and bread…

She keeps running from herself, yet she’s
everywhere.
She is running from the Light, convinced He
won’t shine on her.

Suddenly, where the king is concerned, this
queen is dismissed.
This is too much for her soul – fantasy has
ceased!

He leaves her no royal palace in which she
could hide.
Self-will fails. She’s too exhausted to reason
with lies.

She is empty. The queen she knew, now,
completely dies.

Finally!

She breaks down in tears filled with willingness.
Then she takes what was her crown, puts it in
His hands,
And she asks for His forgiveness, so she can
forgive herself.

Answers find her in the midst of pain…

Even though the king is gone, still
Queen is born again…

Poem by Monika Ribeiro