In 2019, Gommie began walking the coastline with nothing but a backpack, tent and collection of pens, in search of hope during increasingly hard times. i am ill with hope captures this – the ongoing journey, poems, illustrations, offering bitesize snapshots of hope to enjoy. You can read some poems and see some of the illustrations below.

i am ill with hope
By Gommie
Published by Salamander Street 

 POEM 

I woke up
With nothing
And I still
Felt
Love. 

I KNOW YOU ARE LONELY 

I know you are lonely.
And hurt.
Your heart has been broken
And you stand in front of the dry leaves
And say you match them.
You don’t.
You are the pink and the blue and the red
All living next to each other
With no one dominant colour.
You are what makes my pen move.
You hug puppies
The same way I wish I could write poetry.
You champion those without a voice.
You hide my face with your kindness.
 

I know you are lonely.
And hurt.
You are just like me.
I am the left foot of Philip Guston.
You are the right foot of Agnes Martin.
You are Judy Chicago’s purple plate.
Your thoughts wrap around words as snug as Christo
and Jeanne-Claude.
Believe me, equilibrium doesn’t exist without the U-Turns.
So I celebrate you.
In Procida.
Under Branch Hill Pond.
In the Louvre
Drawing pictures of tourists.
Stripped bare with Giacobetti
And using the humble perspective of time
As an interior decorator that
Hangs all good things to come.

I know you are lonely.
And hurt.
You are just like me.
But I also know you love dolphins
And believe that every romance is an essential journey.
You pick Renoir’s flowers
And I know you would never, never, take any of the
moments that hurt back.
No matter how much you miss them,
You’re still here. 

So sleep with the ravens.
Be lost in illumination.
Art is our phenomenon.
And remember it is falling down these disguised pits
That makes life
So
Damn
Magnificent.

You uplift me.
You make me want to build a ship,
Sit on a long table with you and
Eat pancakes on your birthday.
Understand Italian Baroque more.
Walk down the catwalk with Kimono.
Go on a tree adventure with Hockney.
Let him whip me.
I know exactly what it is you make me want to be.
You make me want to be. 

I know you are lonely.
And hurt.
You are just like me. 

POEM 

If I do
The right thing
Today maybe
Tomorrow my life
Will
Be better. 

i am ill with hope  by Gommie is published by Salamander Street, priced £12.99.