I came to be free

I came to be free

Poems on grief, love, and renewal · PJ Starling

Finding a passage…

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The poems

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Read the poem

Where light never goes

I came to be free · page 1

Motherless baby
Fatherless son
A spark in the void
Where once there was none

I needed a King
I needed a Queen
To call off the war
Inside of my being

I needed a truce
To this horrible war
For the battles that raged
Outside my front door

I am weary and worn
From the war that’s within
From the countless long battles
I could so rarely win

I’ve toiled on for eons
And eons again
Being cut down and born
Being born and then dead

Why would I choose
A life of neglect?
Of hoping and wishing
Parallel lines intersect

A life with no hope
A life of such lack
A life I was given
But I could never give back

Motherless baby
Fatherless son
A love came to be
Where once there was none

A love came to be
From a life of neglect
From the dark came a spark
From the twigs … came a nest!

So love in the Universe
Is thus not conserved!
From pure darkness came light
From the egg … came a bird!

A bird that descended
From great lizards that ended
When huge meteors had rained
And great floods swept away

The lizards that crawled
Walking out of the sea
And fought to persist
With brain and with fist

For eons and eons
Of life eating life
An orgy of death
And unending strife

Each eon a layer
Of carnage and dread
That was cut down by time
And raised from the dead

This great churning of life
That is seething in blood
From the eons of rage
And then drowned in the floods

From each layer of rock
Made from lizards of old
That were cut down by time
And reduced into bones

In the rock, over eons
A clear crystal grows
From the bowels of darkness
Where light never goes

I was desperate for light
In the cold and the dark
A hunger so painful
The pain made a spark

A hunger so deep
A hunger so wide
I bed down for winter
It was too cold outside

From inside that seething
Mass of destruction
Came crystals so ordered
Light felt no obstruction

A crystal from chaos
A crystal from rage
Could channel the light
Like a bow in the rain

Cover of I came to be free by PJ Starling: broken silver chains on a black field.

The book

Using original metaphor and lyrical language, PJ Starling examines the deepest sorrows and the greatest triumphs of the human experience — the struggle to forgive oneself for past wrongs, the search for hope amidst the chaos of the modern world, and the desire for true intimacy.

Nine poems. 42 pages. These heartfelt verses invite readers into a space where they are seen and free to feel without judgment.

Buying direct from FriesenPress supports a Canadian author most. ISBN 978-1-03-837224-6 (paperback) · 978-1-03-837225-3 (hardcover) · 978-1-03-837226-0 (eBook)

PJ Starling — a bald, bearded man in a grey hooded sweatshirt, looking straight at the camera against a dark background.

About PJ Starling

PJ Starling lives in Vancouver, BC, with his nine-year-old son. I came to be free is his second book of poetry. His poem “Where light never goes” was featured by The Art of Autism, an organization that showcases the creative abilities of neurodivergent individuals.

For him, writing poetry is a form of therapy that has helped him through periods of change in his life. He hopes his poems will do the same for his readers.

Contact PJ Starling: readings@starlingpoetry.xyz

Author photograph by Marshal Chupa

Invite me to read

Libraries, bookstores, reading series, classes, book clubs. I'd like to come.

  • Vancouver and the Lower Mainland — in person, gladly.
  • Anywhere at all — online, by video. Book clubs and classes welcome.
  • Elsewhere in BC or Canada — if travel is covered.

There's no fee to have me. An honorarium is welcome if you have one, and entirely optional if you don't.

I don't pay to appear. Any “invitation” that asks me for a placement, promotion, or booking fee is a scam — there's a lot of it about, impersonating real festivals. Genuine hosts never charge the poet.

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