Rage drinks black coffee at the kitchen table. Fear leaves a handwritten list by the door. Shame never plays fair, and Sorrow has stopped going by Sadness.
In her debut collection, Verity Grey opens the door to a house crowded with uninvited feelings and writes her way, cup by cup, from the dark to the light. Told in three movements, Black Coffee begins where it hurts, in the bitterness of abuse, grief, anxiety, and self-doubt. Espresso is where it sharpens: the moment of seeing clearly, naming what happened, and choosing to fight back. Café au Lait is where it heals, through hope, tenderness, and a love larger than pain.
Paired with intimate photographs and handwritten pages, these poems are honest, unflinching, and quietly spiritual. They invite readers to open to any page and find words for what they could not say.
Black Coffee is for the hurt and the hurting, and for anyone who has wondered whether the pain gets the last word.
It doesn't. Love does.
