an intimate journey of selfreflectionsensitive sincere and skillfulSherry Quan Lee author of Chinese BlackbirdAbout the AuthorNick Purdon was born in 1976 in East London in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa After a few moves around the country his family settled in the Western Cape city of Cape Town in 1981 where he has lived since Nick began writing poetry seriously at the age of 27 though he had been writing onandoff since his teenage yearsAbout the ChapbookThe RoadShaped Heart is the poetic journey of a man winding his way through a landscape of darkness anguish addiction loss and grief carrying with him a lantern of hope courage idealism and love to illuminate a pathway to selfforgiveness acceptance and spiritual growth While often haunting and melancholy the poems are also rich in vivid colour and imagery with an everpresent sense of fire lilies relentlessly springing forth from a razed and scorched soulAcclaim for The RoadShaped HeartThe RoadShaped Heart by Nick Purdon will squeeze the heart of each reader to elicit emotions held tight Each reader will find his or her own life pain and loss within the words spread before them like a feast to be swallowed until the soul has been touchedBarbara Sinor PhD author Tales of Addiction and Inspiration for RecoveryLearn more at wwwNickPurdoncomFrom the World Voices Series at Modern History Press wwwModernHistoryPresscom