Buy My Poetry Books

My poetry has been published in three collections and a couple of micro-pamphlets. These can be purchased through the usual channels (local bookshops, Amazon, etc.) and directly from their respective publishers.

I also have copies for sale direct, and am happy to sign them if you like. Details of both books are provided below, along with a button for payment through PayPal for UK delivery. (Paypal payments are not for everyone, so if you’d prefer, just email me and we can arrange an alternative method of payment). I can also send copies outside the UK, and for that, please email me (phil.e.vernon@gmail.com) or DM me on twitter @philvernon2.

GUERRILLA COUNTRY

Guerrilla Country is published by Flight of the Dragonfly Press in April 2024. It can be purchased from their website. These poems explore peace and conflict from different perspectives, reflecting on events in almost 40 different contexts, past and present, from Texas to Rwanda, via Afghanistan, Amritsar, Belfast, Ukraine, Runnymede and Peterloo. The book is dedicated to the current and previous staff and collaborators of the peacebuilding charity International Alert, who have been building peace in locations across the world since 1986. The cover photograph was taken by Jonathan Banks at the Peace and Culture Festival organised by International Alert in Liberia in 2008.

Comments on the book from other poets

Raine Geoghegan

These are stirring poems with strong themes of war, hardship, freedom and renewal. Vernon writes from the perspective of both witness and peacebuilder. He illustrates the many complexities of war and conflict and through this lens the reader begins to glimpse both the harshness of war but also the beauty of peace. His observations are clear, concise and they take us on a road which he has clearly travelled. The poet and the peacebuilder are present in each poem. From the powerful imagery in The AK47 – my perfect design, ‘I run towards the gunfire, but/ I have no gun to love and hold’, to the poignant words in Aminata’s song, ‘My brothers, we challenge you now/ to gather your cousins and friends/ know how to stand your ground/ and when and how to bend.’ This is a brilliant collection. Go buy a copy.

Jack Caradoc

Guerilla Country is a far-reaching book in scope and complexity. A record, a journal of humanity in conflict. Vernon’s poetically sharp eye presents the terrible actualities both historically and in the political present, inviting us to consider often horror in our world but also the vital need for hope in the face of it. The light of poetry illuminating the darkest places as it should. Powerful words.

Susan Wicks

Guerrilla Country is a courageous book, with poems inspired by a wide geography of contemporary and historical battles – all the braver for its structure, which juxtaposes distant unnamed scenarios of conflict with some of the landscapes of deprivation that must have made them inevitable. We glimpse the forms and colours of medieval pageantry, and its aftermath. We see the patterns Kitchener left in the sand at Khartoum. And we hear Aminata’s song of stolen herds and hunger in a home with ‘no okra sauce’. Follow the clues to find yourself in a place of huge empathy, where war may be the shared language but measured thought and humanity still prevail.  

Jess Mookherjee

The reader of Phil Vernon’s carefully wrought poems of witness in Guerrilla Country will meet displaced people and danger, and will run into gunfire. And yet nature persists, and through the passage of time and verse we also meet a kind of peace.

FORESHADOWING

Foreshadowing is a ‘Stickleback’ micro-pamphlet newly published by Hedgehog Poetry Press. It contains a four-part poem, spread over four pages, that explores Martin Luther’s life in his own (imagined – and at times hateful and offensive) words, ending with an image of people clearing the rubble in the ruins of cities at the end of the Second World War. I have a few of these to sell for £1.50 each including UK postage. But I will also include a free copy with purchases of any of the books listed below, until stocks run out.

WATCHING THE MOON LANDING

Watching the Moon Landing is published in Jan 2022 by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Among the poems it contains that have already seen the light of day, Re-reading La Peste in the time of COVID-19, and May. This book is available from the publisher, Amazon, etc., but I can send you a copy (signed, if you like) for £7.50 including postage to UK addresses – prices for non-UK delivery available on demand if you contact me by email (see email address above) or twitter. You can see and hear me reading from and being interviewed about it here.

POETRY AFTER AUSCHWITZ

My poetry collection Poetry After Auschwitz was published in 2020. Containing several poems already published on this site, such as the title poem, Poetry After Auschwitz, The Girl in the Swimming Pool, and Mysterious Garden, it includes around 90 pages of poems written between 2014 and 2018. I’ve written about it elsewhere on this website. There’s an interview with me about it here, a link to the actor Paksie Vernon reading one of the poems here, and a video of the launch event here. Also a You Tube video here.

The book is no longer available from the publisher, but I do still have a handful of copies for £8.50 each including postage to UK addresses. You can buy a copy using the button below, or else contact me through the address above or DM me on twitter @philvernon2. Also contact me for international shipping.