Imani Shola

Heart Shards and Lip Balm Imani Shola

An award-winning young poet and woman of colour wrote this collection with you on her mind.

This world through the eyes of a heart that has loved too easily, or too wrongly, and has often regretted its own softness. Yours is not alone.

Melanin, romance, softness, loss. Femininity, kindness, attraction, betrayal. Upbringing, let-downing; processing, healing in words, so that you do, too, as you read.

Written by former Commended UK Young Poet of the Year, Imani Shola, Heart Shards and Lip Balm is the gentlest collection of self-care poems and affirmative notes-to-reader that bloom and wilt with the vulnerability and vigour of youth. They are raw, honest, loving, wise. They offer answers to your questions, and address you directly. And therein lies your healing.

If you are mourning your recent loss, or trying to find yourself, or comparing yourself to them, or recovering from your hurt, if he is confusing your heart, baby girl, then you will find love in each line, wisdom in each stanza, and direction in each rhyme in Lip Balm.

Carry and re-apply Lip Balm like lip balm. Poetry and affirmation are balms for the soul; Imani's words are a salve for the self.