Grey Wolf

Poetry

Photography and Prosems


Grey Wolf began writing poetry at the age of 17, initially using the fantasy style of epic poetry as a gateway into the form, but also experimenting with train of thought verse.


Throughout the next half dozen years, he developed a more gritty style, and addressed subjects both political and existential. These poems were written on sheets of paper, and later written up into hardbacked notebooks with names such as "". Some of them were included in to Christmas cards, and a couple of paper "chapbooks" were created, and photocopied for friends and family.


A few of these poems had been typed up on a Brother electric typewriter, but it was not until the mid 1990s with early Windows computers that they began to be digitally typed up, and saved onto floppy disc. New ones in this period also began to be created entirely in word-processing applications, though it was a long time until that was the sole method of production.


By the late 1990s, and into the 2000s, most poetry was written digitally, but not generally shared anymore. It was only in the 2010s that Grey Wolf compiled two volumes of poetry and short stories and had them privately printed, with a box of copies arriving in the post that he distributed as printed works to family and friends.


This was also the time that self-publishing was finally making a breakthrough into the mainstream, and Grey Wolf adopted this in 2013, with the first edition of his book of poems, and accompanying photographs, Phoenix.






Phoenix

Poetry and Photographs

by Grey Wolf


Phoenix was the first self-published book, released by Grey Wolf in the early Summer of 2013 using CreateSpace, the then-name for Amazon's paperback print-on-demand service.


It was a mixture of poetry and photographs, produced in black and white at US trade paperback size with one of the more purple-looking ones upon the front page, and retailed for around £3.


A larger A4-sized book, titled "Phoenix of the Valley" was produced in full colour, using about 50% of the contents of the original Phoenix, and 50% additional content.


Phoenix remained in print in the original edition for 8 years, until in 2021 a 2nd edition was published by Purple Unicorn Media, spreading the original photograph across the front and back covers, and with the interior photographs in full colour.


Phoenix is available to buy in paperback:-


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Poeticus

Poetry and Thoughts

by Grey Wolf


In later 2013, Grey Wolf typed up a selection of poetry from the early 1990s and published it through Lulu as a slim volume entitled Poeticus. The front cover was from a cemetery in Lancashire where he had been on holiday with his parents that Summer, the last holiday he would have with his mother before she died.


In 2021 a 2nd edition of Poeticus was published by Purple Unicorn Media, based on the original release but with additional content drawn from Grey Wolf's writings and blog posts from the 2000s. This second edition used the original picture from the first edition, but as a wrap-around for the front and back.


Poeticus is available to buy in paperback and Kindle.


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Farflame

Poetry and Prose

by Grey Wolf


The years 2014-2015 were difficult for Grey Wolf, seeing the death of his mother, and the charity where he worked close its town-centre premises, effectively ending his eight-year association with it.


Life's trials and tribulations, and one's resistance to them, form the basis of the poems to be found within Farflame. The cover, being based on a Welsh mediaeval dragon, was commissioned from Swansea valley artist Hilary Bryanston.


Farflame was rounded off with short narrative prose from the Markon stories, and with poetry from Admiral Kandinsky and his nephew from Grey Wolf's science fiction novel "Beholder".


A second edition of Farflame was published by Purple Unicorn Media in 2021, and can be found in the following versions:-



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Dancers of The Mind

Final Poetry Retrospective

by Grey Wolf


Dancers Of The Mind will be Grey Wolf's final poetry retrospective and as such largely consists of poems harvested from his notebooks that had never been digitally typed up before.


These are added to by some poems which featured in the defunct special collection "Phoenix of The Valley", but nowhere else, and a few newer writings to add an end-cap onto the book.


Dancers of The Mind features a cover illustration of a unicorn by Hilary Bryanston.


Dancers of the Mind is available in paperback, published 2024:-



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