This book contains mature themes and strong violence. If you are below 15 years of age, we recommend you do not continue reading.
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Death is the next greatest adventure
Except for the ones still living
For the ones still roaming
Death is a slap to the face
It's the glass hidden underneath the soil
That our related lost souls are buried in
Death is something I wish not to linger on
But he’s chasing me with a vacant grave
And I…
Bought the soil
And engraved the date my heart died
Into the skin of the earth
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Addie is a 17-year-old poet and singer songwriter who has performed on multiple occasions at Bankstown Poetry Slam for both spoken word poetry and as an opening musical artist. Healing In The Absence is Addie's first official poetry collection but not the first time her poetry has been published. Her poem The Other City was published in the WestWords Creative Writing competition in 2023. Addie is currently a high school graduate and on her way to achieving her career dreams in primary school teaching while living out her passion for poetry by being one of the few co-founders of the upcoming Fairfield Poetry Slam.
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Over the course of 2023, a select group of young writers was invited to take part in a year-long writing program at Story Factory. Their goal was to produce a collection of poetry. This is one of the collections produced in these workshops.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
This project has been supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
We would like to thank Midland Typesetters for generously typesetting these manuscripts. Thanks also to the poets who visited the workshops and shared their knowledge and passion: BEA, Eileen Chong, Jazz Money and Omar Sakr.