McAllister's Mates One
This is a new series of reviews of some of the wonderful articles, poems, and stories I’ve discovered on Substack and more importantly the beautiful souls behind the works.
Please take a few moments to read the works of these authors and if you find their work as life-affirming and life changing as I do, then please let them know. We need to support and cherish these voices.
This poem illustrates C J's qualities as a writer exceptionally well. He sifts the sensory overload of a busy train station, choosing a few nondescript everyday items to raise to idols. He shows a deep understanding of how the incidental details of our manic environments may escape our conscious notice, but sink deeply into our emotional cores.
A small stain on a shirt or an odd noise from a train track becomes talismans that trap the fires of a memory. C J selects his symbols with great care, avoiding the obvious and homing in on the ubiquitous, but often neglected details. This gives the poetry both refreshing “a ha” moments of surprise, and comfortable familiarity. “Yes. I have been at this exact moment in my life”.
Delicate, understated prose weaves through the descriptions that lays the wanderer's deepest feelings bare while conveying the restraint we so desperately cling to in these moments, especially in places where we're under the public gaze, like train stations.
The dance of mundane items and monumental feelings makes this poem and many of his others beautifully, crushingly REAL. How often has an odd scent dragged you back to a moment of delight or dread? Where less subtle writers might choose a generic perfume or flowers for such a moment, C J wisely hits on the unique and specific. The smell of the used dishwashing basin when THAT person said THAT thing.
I encourage you to take a wander around the portfolio of C J O'Hare. Sharp, succinct writing that's just perfect for those times where you just NEED a minute to yourself.. Careful though, these compact, meticulous poems and micro stories are little bicycles fitted with Ferrari engines!
Benno is not only a great poet, but also a gifted musician and sound engineer with an ability to enhance and draw out the hidden secrets of both his own and other’s work through beautiful music and expressive reading. Often in these projects poetry is read over nondescript or inoffensive ambient music as a background. Not here.
Benno utilises his wealth of instinctive empathy and vast musical experience to create true multimedia art pieces from poems. Like my favourite musical acts (David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Porcupine Tree, and IAMX), he neither locks himself to a genre nor chases trends. Like those artists he uses an enormous palette of instruments, knowledge, and techniques, coupled with an expressive and versatile reading voice to serve, develop, and enhance the IDEA.
The music twists and turns with the poetry - joyful, soothing, abrasive, and melancholy as the piece needs to be in the moment. The music often changes genre in one piece with skillful transitions that feel natural without being jarring, always complementing the energy and mood of the words themselves.
The only match to his technical wizardry is his enormous heart. A true pioneer and cornerstone of the community that is substack. He has generously lent his huge resources of skill and talent to a lot of poets here, resulting in some amazing collaborations. This is one of my favourites, the already sublime poetry of
absolutely takes off here with incredible soundwork. Be sure to check out his many other pieces.
The ever more urgent area of personal development has suffered in recent years. It has been distorted and co-opted by one side of the political aisle, demonised by the other. Many of the current authors are also failing the craft… crass grifters, uniformed amateurs, writers bogged down in scientific jargon or purple prose affirmations.
Max Windoom is a welcome remedy to the noise, bringing a sense of balance. The dynamic balance of a tightrope walker mastering kinetic pressures from all sides.. not the balance of Sunday afternoon smoothies and yoga.
This is his second piece in a series on the fascinating world of neuroplasticity. If you're unfamiliar with this subject then his first is an ideal introduction. This time round we get to press buttons! Here Max explores practical methods of rewiring the brain, or even resculpting the self. His extensive research of and dedication to these practices shine through the article.
Max is also a gentle and caring mentor. While he is a major champion of talking committed powerful action, he offers a hand of gentle encouragement as we journey on the long and winding round of change. His words are powerfully compelling and strongly supportive. Just reading his words brings a sense of calm and clarity, but of course to truly accelerate your life put his advice into action!
If you're interested in expanding your world or exploring your soul. (Isn't everyone?) Then please read this incredibly important material and be sure to share it with your friends and loved ones.
First in the series available here - https://maxwindom.substack.com/p/transcend-yourself-1-understanding
Derek is a wonderfully skilled science fiction author who blends incredibly detailed visions of futuristic worlds, thrilling (and terrifying) adventures, and fascinating complex characters that move freely and elegantly between humour, melancholy, passion, and madness.
Derek’s background as a historian has given him a keen insight into society's repeating rhythms and the drives (both base and intellectual) that control them. While his stories certainly contain fantastical worlds on the limits of imagination, the threads of world history and the logical (if terrifying) possibilities of our current direction are laid bare in the narrative.
Like the best science fiction authors he puts the human mind with all its beauty, strangeness, and horrors at the core of his writing. What is technology after all but a funhouse mirror that reflects our soul back at us, swollen and exaggerated perhaps, but a mirror that we crafted with our own hands in our own image.
The characters of this story may walk on different planets in cybernetic body-shells but they were once us and our obsessions with wearable technologies, cosmetic surgeries, and passing more and more of our sovereignty to AI technologies make this future all too plausible. From the extremely effective opening that doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as build one behind you by asking you to consider your own possible role in this world, to the feisty dialogue (a trademark of Derek’s writing).
”Angel’s Descent” has a deep warmth and soft melancholy underneath layers of extraordinary world-building, humour, and science fiction thrills - read it now!
I hope you enjoy these beautiful works as much as I enjoyed reading them and writing about them here. Substack has proven to be a treasure trove and I already have a few more gifted writers lined up for my next review newsletter.
See you soon.
G
Appreciate the kind words my friend
Wow - such a great honour to be considered in your first review Graeme. I was eagerly awaiting this review series, and to be featured in your first article is a very humbling experience - definitely one of the highlights of my Substack journey so far - thank you my friend!