The Fragments of Shadow & Sound: Prose & Poems

The Fragments of Shadow & Sound: Prose and Poems is a genre-defying debut collection that fuses lyricism, vulnerability, and visceral honesty in a powerful journey through identity, longing, disability, love, mental health, and becoming.

Told in five evolving sections- Faultlines, Reflections, Thresholds, Descents, and Ascents-this collection offers a poetic mosaic that captures the trembling fault lines of youth and the climb toward selfhood. From confessional verse and formal structures to free-flowing prose poems and haunting haiku, every piece contributes to a dynamic narrative arc of fracture and reconstruction.

This is poetry for those who've lived at the edges:

• For the romantics trying to make sense of broken connections
• For the neurodivergent, disabled, and overlooked who still reach to be heard
• For those drawn to midnight cityscapes, orchestral metaphor, and the echo of the unsaid

With influences of musicality and kintsugi-the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold- The Fragments of Shadow & Sound leans into the beauty of imperfection. These poems are stained with ink, moonlight, silence, static, and flame.

You'll find reflections on:

• Living with visual and hearing impairments
• Navigating autism and emotional communication
• Unrequited love, infatuation, grief, and the resilience of friendship
• Mental health, self-worth, and the poetic body

"May you find yourself in the fragments-

and discover that even broken things can sing."

Perfect for readers of Ocean Vuong, Sabrina Benaim, Blythe Baird, Sierra DeMulder, or Clint Smith, this is a collection that invites you to read aloud, underline deeply, and return to the poems when you need a voice to echo your own.

Author: Richard Michael Risi
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Richard Risi
Published: 08/01/2025
Pages: 174
Weight: 1.07lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9798218719555